史前生物的10大怪異特徵(上)

Most prehistoric creatures were terrifying, and every day we're glad they so politely died off those millions of years ago to bequeath us this awesome planet. But prehistoric animals weren't always nightmarish. Sometimes, they swapped terror for the weird and goofy.

大多數史前生物都很令人恐懼，好在讓人高興的是，它們在數百萬年前相繼死去，客氣地把這顆令人敬畏的星球讓給了我們。不過，史前生物也並不總是那麼恐怖，有時候，它們怪異呆萌的一面會取代它們可怕的那一面。

saur Eggs Were Colorful

10.五顏六色的恐龍蛋

Dinosaurs were a lot more colorful than we give them credit for in horror movies. You probably already know that some dinos sported flamboyantly hued feathers, but now we have strong evidence that even their eggs looked fabulous.

恐龍的顏色遠比我們在恐怖電影中賦予它們的更豐富。你可能已經知道，一些恐龍會賣弄色彩豔麗的羽毛，但我們現在已有真憑實據，可以證明連恐龍蛋都十分精妙。

Oviraptor eggs, for example, were a soothing greenish-blue, according to a 67-million-year-old clutch of eggs found in China. Most fossilized dinosaur eggs have been stained dark as a result of minerals seeping into the shell over time. However, the eggs in this particular clutch were pale and relatively untainted, allowing scientists to identify the pigments biliverdin and protoporphyrin. These are the same pigments that produce the beautiful colors in the eggs of emus and cassowaries—two really old birds, evolutionarily speaking. At first, it might seem like colored eggs would be easier for predators to spot, but it's actually just the opposite. Many dinosaurs kept their eggs in earthen, grassy nests, where a white egg would stand out like a sore thumb. But verdigris eggs would have blended in perfectly, allowing mama dinos to leave their eggs safely camouflaged while they sauntered off to catch a quick meal.

例如，根據一窩在中國發現且有6700萬年曆史的恐龍蛋來看，竊蛋龍的蛋的顏色是一種舒緩的藍綠色。由於礦物會滲漏到蛋殼內，因此久而久之，大多數已成化石的恐龍蛋會被染成黑色。然而，這一窩蛋顏色較淺，且相對沒有染污，科學家們可以鑑定出其中的膽綠素和原卟啉。這些色素也造就了鴯鶓蛋和食火雞蛋的漂亮顏色--從進化的角度來說，鴯鶓和食火雞都是古老的鳥類。起初，我們可能會覺得彩色的蛋更容易被食肉動物發現，但事實正好相反。許多恐龍會把它們的蛋放置在由土和草做成的窩裏，這樣，白色的蛋會異常顯眼，但銅綠色的蛋會與之完美融合。當要外出獵食的時候，恐龍媽媽就可以放心地離開僞裝得很安全的蛋。

aeopteryx Had Feathery Trousers

9.穿"毛褲"的始祖鳥

First discovered in Germany in 1861, Archaeopteryx is a milestone species because it represents the transition between dinosaurs and birds. Its teeth, claws, and beady eyes clearly identify it as a dinosaur, but its bird-like feathers show a clear link with modern avians as well.

於1861年在德國首次發現的始祖鳥是劃時代的物種，因爲它代表了恐龍與鳥之間的過渡。它的牙齒、爪子和明珠般的眼睛都清楚地表明它是恐龍，但它那如鳥一樣的羽毛也說明它與現代鳥類有着明顯的聯繫。

For a long time, paleontologists weren't sure whether Archaeopteryx had feathers all over its body or just on its wings. But recently, a surprisingly intact new fossil (a total of 11 have been found so far) revealed plumes of feathers running down its legs. Thanks to its thick feather-shafts, most scientists do think Archaeopteryx could fly, but the newly discovered leg feathers wouldn't have played a great role in that. Instead, the lower-body fluff might have served several other functions, including insulation and 's also possible that the pennate feathers evolved for display. The feathers found lining Archaeopteryx's body are symmetrical. Which sounds great, but it's actually asymmetrical feathers that are perfect for flight. So, Archaeopteryx probably evolved feathers to entice mates or communicate, which were then gradually "recruited for aerodynamic functions."

在很長一段時間裏，古生物學者都不能確定始祖鳥是全身都有毛還是隻有翅膀有毛。但最近，一個完好無損的新化石（目前共發現了11個）顯示，它的腿上都長有羽毛。由於它的羽軸粗大，大部分科學家都認爲始祖鳥會飛，但最新發現的腿部羽毛可能對它的飛翔並不起多大作用。相反，下肢的絨毛可能具有保溫和僞裝等其他功能。翼上的羽毛也可能進化爲炫耀的工具。始祖鳥身上內層的羽毛是對稱的，這聽起來很不錯，但其實非對稱的羽毛才最適合飛翔。所以，始祖鳥進化出羽毛可能是爲了吸引配偶或交流，之後才漸漸地"有了飛行功能"。

odentatus Unicus Had Vertical Zipper Teeth

8.獨特須齒龍的垂直梳狀牙齒

The time of the dinosaurs spawned some truly weird and horrific mouths, but Atopodentatus unicus is in a class of its own. Its mouth is so bizarre, it was actually named after it—Atopodentatus roughly translates as "weird teeth."

恐龍時代出現了一些千奇百怪的恐怖大嘴，而獨特須齒龍則單獨屬於一類。它的嘴巴相當古怪，它也因此得名--"Atopodentatus"，大概可以翻譯爲"怪異的牙齒"。

Around 3 meters (9 ft) in length, Atopodentatus was equally comfortable on land or in the seas. Lacking the hydrodynamic advantage of other sea monsters, Atopodentatus made up for it with a mouth full of needles. But what's really weird is that some of those needle-like teeth were set vertically in its ugly face. In other words, its mouth looked just like a zipper. Not subscribing to the notion that less is more, Atopodentatus was also equipped with a relatively standard set of chompers spaced across a conventional lower and upper jaw. All in all, the terrifying marine reptile boasted about 400 hypodermic teeth spread across its multiple mandibles. Sadly, while that sounds fearsome, scientists believe Atopodentatus was a bottom feeder and used its vertical teeth as a filtering screen rather than a tool for terrorizing smaller creatures.

獨特須齒龍長約3米（9英尺），在陸地和水裏都行動自如。由於沒有其他海洋巨獸所擁有的流體力學優勢，獨特須齒龍便用滿口針齒進行彌補。但奇怪的是，有些針一樣的牙齒竟然垂直長在它那張醜陋的臉上。換句話說，它的嘴巴看上去就是一個拉鍊。與"少即是多"的概念不同，獨特須齒龍牙齒的配置相對標準，排列在上下顎之間。總而言之，這恐怖的海洋爬行動物有400根尖牙，插在它的上下頜上。可惜的是，儘管這聽起來很嚇人，但科學家認爲獨特須齒龍是生活在海洋底層的食腐動物，垂直的牙齒是它用於捕食的濾網，而不是嚇唬小型動物的工具。

Crowned Triceratops

7.戴王冠的三角龍

With three massive horns on its face and a shovel for a forehead, you can't get much cooler than a triceratops. Except the Cretaceous totally did, cranking out the closely related Regaliceratops peterhewsi, colloquially known as "Hellboy" for the small horns above its eyes.

臉上三隻角，前額一把鏟，沒有比三角龍更酷的了。不過白堊紀時期可不一樣，角龍種類十分豐富，誕生了這種"皇家角龍"--口頭上被戲稱爲"地獄小子"，因爲它的眼睛上方長有一對角。

Regaliceratops translates to "royal horned face," while the creature's surname honors Peter Hews, the amateur fossil hunter who first noticed its ancient remains. Hews made his serendipitous discovery when he spotted a horn sticking out of a riverbank in Alberta, Canada. The specimen was airlifted to a museum while still encased in its limestone prison, and scientists subsequently spent two and a half years slowly chipping it down to a more recognizable form. The regaliceratops is weird for two reasons. Firstly, its horns are seemingly anachronistic. The triceratops usually had large brow horns and a smaller nose horn, whereas the regaliceratops had short brow horns and a huge nose spike, just like a separate line of dinosaurs that died out two million years earlier. Secondly, its shield of a forehead isn't frilled, but edged with pointy extensions that gave it a crown-like appearance (hence the name).

"Regaliceratops"可譯爲"長有犄角的皇室臉"，而它的姓"peterhewsi"則是爲了紀念彼得·休斯--一名愛好尋找化石的業餘人士，是他最先發現了皇家角龍的遺骸。休斯在加拿大艾伯塔省的一處河岸邊看見一隻角露在外面，隨後有了這次偶然的發現。化石被囚在石灰岩裏空運到了一家博物館，隨後，科學家花了兩年半的時間慢慢一點一點地將其更加清晰地呈現出來。皇家角龍有兩大怪異的地方。首先，它的角似乎並不屬於它那個時代。三角龍一般長有大型額角和小一點的鼻角，而皇家角龍額角很短，鼻角巨大，就像屬於一種200多萬年前就已經滅絕了的恐龍種族。其次，它前額的頭盾沒有褶皺，卻延展開一圈尖銳的邊緣，看起來就像戴了一頂皇冠（因此得名）。

psids Push Back The Nocturnal Timeline

6.下孔類動物將夜行性動物出現的年代提前

Around 300 million years ago, before even dinosaurs showed up, Earth teemed with synapsids: prototypical mammals that bore a superficial resemblance to lizards. These odd mammal precursors lived 100 million years before our small furry ancestors scurried underneath dinosaur noses. And, according to their fossils, they were nocturnal.

約3億年以前，在恐龍出現之前，地球上都是下孔類動物：即一種外表與蜥蜴相似的典型哺乳動物。在這種奇特的哺乳動物祖先出現的一億年後，纔有了我們那些小型的、長有毛皮、在恐龍腳下落荒而逃的祖先們。根據已發現的化石，我們可以看出，它們還是夜行動物。

Researchers usually work out whether a species was active during the day or night by looking at eye size. Large eyes are indicative of a nocturnal lifestyle, whereas smaller eyes indicate activity during the day. Obviously, eyes don't survive the fossilization process, but a bony ring that forms around the eye socket is usually a good indicator of size. And the bony rings around synapsid eyes indicate that they mostly operated at night, which paleontologists found iously, the conventional wisdom held that the earliest mammals became nocturnal to avoid dinosaurian detection. But the night-owl synapsids show that nocturnal behaviors evolved long before dinosaurs were around to worry about. In fact, even apex predator synapsids like the massive, sail-backed dimetrodons were nocturnal, suggesting the behavior did not evolve as a defensive strategy at all.

研究學者們經常會通過眼形的大小來判斷某個物種是白天活動還是夜間活動。大眼睛表明了夜間活動的生活方式，反之，小眼睛表明了白天活動的生活方式。顯然，眼睛沒有在石化過程中存留下來，但通常情況下，眼眶周圍的骨輪是眼睛大小的標誌。令古生物學者不解的是，從下孔類動物眼睛周圍的骨輪可以看出，這些動物大多於夜晚行動。之前的傳統觀點認爲，早期的哺乳動物爲了躲避恐龍而成爲夜行動物。但是作爲夜貓子的下孔類動物告訴我們，這種夜行行爲產生時，恐龍還沒有成爲它們的威脅。事實上，即使是大型帆狀異齒龍這種處在食物鏈頂端的下孔類動物也是夜間活動，這就意味着夜行並不是一種防衛策略。

審校：趙倩 編輯：旭旭 來源：前十網