我們對(duì)神秘的“塔利怪獸”的了解

我們對(duì)神秘的“塔利怪獸”的了解

Ever since its 300-million-year-old fossils were first unearthed in 1958, the alien-like "Tully Monster" has defied classification.

自從它的三億年前的化石于1958年首次出土以來，這只長相酷似外星人的“塔利怪物”就一直沒有被歸類。

This bizarre creature featured a narrow, trunk-like neck that extended from its head, with a mouth at the end filled with razor-sharp teeth. Its eyes sat further back on the body at the ends of a rigid bar perched on its back, and it swam using cuttlefish-like fins at the tail section.

這種奇怪的生物有一個(gè)從頭部延伸出來的狹窄的，像樹干一樣的脖子，在它的末端有一個(gè)充滿鋒利牙齒的嘴巴。它的眼睛向后靠在身體后面，在背部一根堅(jiān)硬的桿的末端，它在尾部用墨魚一樣的鰭游動(dòng)。

A reconstruction of the so-called 'Tully Monster,' which also happens to be the state fossil of Illinois. (Photo: Dotted Yeti/Shutterstock)

Needless to say, it looked more like a chimera or hoax than any sort of real creature. It was unlike anything else ever found on Earth.

不用說，它看起來更像一個(gè)幻想或惡作劇，而不是任何一種真正的生物。它不像地球上發(fā)現(xiàn)的任何東西。

In April 2016, a Yale-led team of paleontologists said they had determined what this animal was, reports Phys.org.

據(jù)Phys.org報(bào)道，2016年4月，一個(gè)由耶魯大學(xué)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的古生物學(xué)家團(tuán)隊(duì)表示，他們已經(jīng)確定了這種動(dòng)物是什么。

It's a vertebrate, according to researchers, and its closest living relative is probably a lamprey. With painstaking, high-tech analysis of its fossils, the Yale team was able to establish that the Tully Monster had gills and a stiffened rod or notochord (basically, a rudimentary backbone) that supported its body.

根據(jù)研究人員的說法，它是一種脊椎動(dòng)物，它現(xiàn)存的近親可能是七鰓鰻。通過對(duì)它的化石進(jìn)行細(xì)致、高科技的分析，耶魯大學(xué)的研究小組得以確定，塔利巨獸有腮和一根支撐身體的加勁桿或脊索(基本上是基本的脊椎骨)。

"I was first intrigued by the mystery of the Tully Monster. With all of the exceptional fossils, we had a very clear picture of what it looked like, but no clear picture of what it was," said Victoria McCoy, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature.

“我第一次被神秘的塔利怪獸所吸引。研究報(bào)告的第一作者維多利亞·麥考伊在《自然》雜志上說:“我們對(duì)所有這些異?；加幸粋€(gè)非常清晰的認(rèn)識(shí)，但對(duì)它們究竟是什么卻沒有一個(gè)清晰的認(rèn)識(shí)。”

"Basically, nobody knew what it was," added Derek Briggs, co-author of the study. "The fossils are not easy to interpret, and they vary quite a bit. Some people thought it might be this bizarre, swimming mollusk. We decided to throw every possible analytical technique at it."

“基本上，沒人知道那是什么，”研究報(bào)告的合著者德里克·布里格斯補(bǔ)充道。“化石不容易解釋，而且它們有很大的差異。有些人認(rèn)為這可能是一種奇怪的會(huì)游泳的軟體動(dòng)物。我們決定使用一切可能的分析技術(shù)。”

Another study, also published in the journal Nature, showed that the monster's eyes had melanosomes, which make and store melanin. Those structures are typical of vertebrates, according to the researchers, giving that theory more credence.

另一項(xiàng)同樣發(fā)表在《自然》雜志上的研究表明，這種怪物的眼睛有黑素體，可以制造和儲(chǔ)存黑色素。研究人員稱，這些結(jié)構(gòu)是脊椎動(dòng)物的典型特征，這使該理論更加可信。

Or maybe it doesn't have a spine

或者它可能沒有脊椎

A artist's concept of a group of Tully Monsters swimming in the ocean. (Photo: Dotted Yeti/Shutterstock)

However, about a year later, a different team of researchers said there was no spine there after all. In their study, published in the journal Paleontology, they said the Tully Monster was likely an invertebrate.

然而，大約一年后，另一組研究人員說，它根本沒有脊椎。在他們發(fā)表在《古生物學(xué)》雜志上的研究中，他們說塔利巨獸很可能是一種無脊椎動(dòng)物。

Sallan and her team said the studies failed to definitively classify the creature as a vertebrate.

Sallan和她的團(tuán)隊(duì)說，這些研究并沒有明確地將這種生物歸類為脊椎動(dòng)物。

So how do we identify the creature?

那么我們?nèi)绾巫R(shí)別這種生物呢?

A Tully Monster fossil, showing its proboscis and eye bar or stalks, found in the Mazon Creek fossil area of Illinois. (Photo: Kimberly Boyles/Shutterstock)

The technology that may make the identification of the Tully Monster possible is a method known as synchrotron elemental mapping, which illuminates an animal's physical features by mapping the chemistry within a fossil.

同步加速器元素繪圖技術(shù)可能會(huì)使確認(rèn)塔利怪物成為可能。同步加速器元素繪圖技術(shù)通過繪制化石內(nèi)部的化學(xué)成分來闡明動(dòng)物的物理特征。

Thousands of Tully Monster fossils have been found, but all of them have been unearthed at a single site: coal mining pits in northeastern Illinois. So as far as researchers know, these animals could have been distinct to a specific habitat. They were named after their initial discoverer, Francis Tully, and their official scientific designation is Tullimonstrum gregarium.

成千上萬的塔利怪物化石已經(jīng)被發(fā)現(xiàn)，但它們都是在一個(gè)地方出土的:伊利諾斯州東北部的煤礦。因此，據(jù)研究人員所知，這些動(dòng)物可能與特定的棲息地截然不同。它們是以最初的發(fā)現(xiàn)者弗朗西斯·塔利的名字命名的，他們的官方科學(xué)名稱是塔利蒙斯·格里瑞姆。

The creatures are so unfamiliar that they're pretty terrifying, and those teeth certainly don't help, but the largest Tully Monster ever found only measures about a foot long. That means that if they were alive today, humans probably wouldn't be on their menu. It's difficult to say much of anything about their behavior, though.

這些生物是如此的陌生，以至于它們非常可怕，而且這些牙齒當(dāng)然沒有幫助，但迄今為止發(fā)現(xiàn)的最大的塔利怪物只有一英尺長。這意味著，如果它們今天還活著，人類可能不會(huì)出現(xiàn)在它們的菜單上。然而，我們很難對(duì)它們的行為做出評(píng)價(jià)。

"It's so different from its modern relatives that we don't know much about how it lived," McCoy said. "It has big eyes and lots of teeth, so it was probably a predator."

McCoy說:“它和它的現(xiàn)代親戚非常不同，我們不太了解它是如何生活的。它有大眼睛和很多牙齒，所以它可能是掠食者。”