世界上唯一已知的粉紅色蝠鲼在大堡礁拍攝的美麗新照片

世界上唯一已知的粉紅色蝠鲼在大堡礁拍攝的美麗新照片

Around Lady Elliot Island, a 45-hectare island in Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, swims a sight like no other in the world: a manta ray with a bright pink belly. The animal was first seen in 2015 and received the name Inspector Clouseau, after the bumbling detective in the Pink Panther movies.

在澳大利亞大堡礁海洋公園占地45公頃的艾略特夫人島(Lady Elliot Island)周圍，游來(lái)游去的是世界上獨(dú)一無(wú)二的景象:一條腹部呈亮粉色的蝠鲼。這種動(dòng)物在2015年首次被發(fā)現(xiàn)，并以《粉紅豹》電影中笨手笨腳的偵探克魯索的名字命名為。

New images of Inspector Clouseau, the only known manta ray with this particular coloration, were recently taken by underwater wildlife photographer Kristian Laine.

克魯索巡視員是唯一已知的有這種特殊顏色的蝠鲼，它的新照片最近由水下野生動(dòng)物攝影師克里斯蒂安·雷恩拍攝。

Alfredo Carpineti

The rosy-hued ray came to the attention of the University of Queensland's Project Manta, who wondered about the reason behind the curious color. The researchers performed a small tissue biopsy in 2016, nixing infection or sickness as the cause. In a Facebook post, the team stated that the pink hue is likely due to “an unusual and unique expression of the skins [sic] melanin!”

這條粉紅色的鰩魚(yú)引起了昆士蘭大學(xué)Manta項(xiàng)目的注意，他們想知道這種奇怪顏色背后的原因。研究人員于2016年進(jìn)行了一次小組織活檢，發(fā)現(xiàn)是感染或疾病引起的。研究小組在Facebook上發(fā)帖稱，這種粉紅色可能是由于“皮膚黑色素的一種不同尋常的獨(dú)特表達(dá)!”

It's possible the ray has a genetic mutation called erythrism related to the overproduction of red pigments and the underproduction of dark pigments, caused by a recessive gene – much like that for albinism, melanism, and leucism. Erythrism has been seen in a variety of animals, from leopards to snakes, and though it is incredibly rare, it is most often observed in grasshoppers.

這條射線可能有一種叫做赤體病的基因突變，它與一種隱性基因引起的紅色素生產(chǎn)過(guò)剩和深色色素生產(chǎn)不足有關(guān)，就像白化病、黑變病和亮色病一樣。從豹子到蛇，各種動(dòng)物都有這種現(xiàn)象，雖然極為罕見(jiàn)，但蚱蜢是最常見(jiàn)的。

It may be a rarely observed phenomenon because animals with this unusual coloring are easy prey and don't make it to adulthood, but this male ray seems to be doing just fine. Possibly because manta rays are born big, and get bigger very quickly. Adult manta rays weight more than a ton.

這可能是一個(gè)罕見(jiàn)的現(xiàn)象，因?yàn)檫@種不尋常的顏色的動(dòng)物很容易成為獵物，不能活到成年，但這條雄性魚(yú)身上的射線似乎很好?？赡苁且?yàn)轵瘀饕怀錾秃艽螅议L(zhǎng)得很快。成年蝠鲼的體重超過(guò)一噸。

Manta rays are distributed around the world in tropical and subtropical waters, but not all species are equally distributed. Project Manta aims to better understand manta ray populations in Australia and the surrounding regions. Studying the movements of these animals requires tracking and recognizing them. Luckily, every single manta ray has a unique spotting pattern on their underside, a sort of belly fingerprint, and scientists use these to identify individuals.

蝠鲼分布在世界各地的熱帶和亞熱帶水域，但并不是所有物種都分布均勻。Manta項(xiàng)目旨在更好地了解澳大利亞及其周邊地區(qū)的蝠鲼種群。研究這些動(dòng)物的運(yùn)動(dòng)需要跟蹤和識(shí)別它們。幸運(yùn)的是，每一條蝠鲼的腹部都有一個(gè)獨(dú)特的斑點(diǎn)圖案，這是一種腹部指紋，科學(xué)家們用它們來(lái)識(shí)別個(gè)體。

Project Manta asks citizen scientists to submit photos of rays from around Australia, so if you have any, consider sending them to these researchers to help us understand these beautiful creatures of the deep even better.

“曼塔計(jì)劃”要求公民科學(xué)家提交來(lái)自澳大利亞各地的鰩魚(yú)照片，所以如果你有的話，考慮把它們發(fā)給這些研究人員，幫助我們更好地了解這些美麗的深海生物。