新發(fā)現(xiàn)的古代食肉動物，以漢索洛的千年獵鷹命名

新發(fā)現(xiàn)的古代食肉動物，以漢索洛的千年獵鷹命名

Hundreds of fossils of a primordial sea creature with rake-like claws and a head resembling a famous fictional spaceship have been unearthed in Canada, providing a wealth of information about an important predator from a key time in the evolution of life on Earth.

日前，加拿大出土了數(shù)百具原始海洋生物化石，它們的爪子呈耙子狀，頭部酷似一艘著名的科幻宇宙飛船。這些化石為我們提供了有關(guān)地球生命進(jìn)化關(guān)鍵時期一種重要捕食者的大量信息。

Scientists on Tuesday said the creature, called Cambroraster falcatus, was a distant relative of today’s arthropods — the diverse group of animals including insects, spiders and crabs — and lived during the Cambrian Period 506 million years ago, when all animal life lived in the oceans.

本周二，科學(xué)家們表示，這種名為鐮形Cambroraster的生物與今天的節(jié)肢動物(包括昆蟲、蜘蛛和螃蟹等多種動物)是遠(yuǎn)親，生活在5.06億年前的寒武紀(jì)時期，當(dāng)時所有的動物都生活在海洋中。

“Most animals in the Cambrian Period were small, typically a few centimeters long at most. By comparison, Cambroraster was a giant, at up to a foot long (30 cm),” said paleontologist Joe Moysiuk of the Royal Ontario Museum and University of Toronto, lead author of the research published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

“寒武紀(jì)的大多數(shù)動物都很小，通常最多只有幾厘米長。相比之下，Cambroraster就是一個巨人，長達(dá)一英尺(30厘米)。”該報(bào)告的主要作者、皇家安大略博物館和多倫多大學(xué)的古生物學(xué)家莫伊蘇克表示。

Cambroraster was excavated in Kootenay National Park in the Canadian Rockies from a rock formation known as the Burgess Shale that has yielded fossils of a wondrous array of Cambrian animals. The Cambrian was a time of evolutionary experimentation when nearly all major animal groups first appeared and numerous oddballs came and went.

Cambroraster是在加拿大落基山脈的Kootenay國家公園從一個名為伯吉斯頁巖的巖層中挖掘出來的，這個巖層中發(fā)現(xiàn)了一系列奇妙的寒武紀(jì)動物化石。寒武紀(jì)是一個進(jìn)化的時期，幾乎所有主要的動物群體都是在這個時期首次出現(xiàn)的，并且有許多奇形怪狀的動物來來去去。

“With its huge head, small body and upward-facing eyes, Cambroraster superficially resembles a horseshoe crab, although in detail they are quite different animals,” Moysiuk said. “Just like horseshoe crabs, we think Cambroraster spent its time hanging around near the seafloor, feeding on organisms buried in the mud.”

莫伊蘇克說：“由于巨大的頭部、小巧的身體和向上的眼睛，表面上看起來像一只馬蹄蟹，盡管在細(xì)節(jié)上它們是完全不同的動物。”“就像馬蹄蟹一樣，我們認(rèn)為它會花時間在海底附近徘徊，以埋在泥里的生物為食。”

Its large head was covered by a shield-like carapace whose shape reminded the scientists of the Millennium Falcon spaceship of “Star Wars” fame.

它的大腦袋上蓋著一個盾狀的甲殼，它的形狀讓科學(xué)家們想起了因《星球大戰(zhàn)》而聞名的千年隼號宇宙飛船。

At the front of its body were two large claws with a succession of parallel outgrowths like a series of rakes, letting it sift through seafloor mud and strain out any prey. Tooth-like plates surrounded its circular mouth. It may have dined upon worms, small fish and larvae.

在它的身體前部有兩個巨大的爪，爪上有一系列類似耙的平行生長物，讓它在海底泥漿中篩選，并濾出任何獵物。牙齒狀的盤子包圍著它的圓形嘴。它可能以蠕蟲、小魚和幼蟲為食。

It belonged to the same group — radiodonts — as the apex predator of the time, called Anomalocaris, a dangerous hunter reaching three feet (one meter) long that may even have targeted Cambroraster.

它與當(dāng)時的頂級掠食者——radiodonts——屬同一類群，被稱為“奇蝦”，是一種危險(xiǎn)的獵手，身長可達(dá)3英尺(1米)，甚至可能把Cambroraster當(dāng)作目標(biāo)。

Radiodonts, among the earliest offshoots of the arthropod lineage, are usually known from fragmentary remains. But the scientists found such a large number of beautifully preserved and complete Cambroraster fossils that they achieved a breakthrough in the understanding of this significant extinct group.

放射體是節(jié)肢動物譜系中最早的分支之一，通常是從殘片中發(fā)現(xiàn)的。但是，科學(xué)家們發(fā)現(xiàn)了如此大量保存完好、完整的寒武紀(jì)化石，他們在了解這一重要的滅絕物種方面取得了突破。