[ti:Giant Ocean Reptile Discovered by Father, Daughter]
[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00]更多听力请访问21VOA.COM
[00:00.04]An ancient fossil found by a girl
[00:03.64]and her father on a beach in England
[00:06.84]belongs to a creature that might have been
[00:10.12]among the largest animals ever on Earth.
[00:15.08]Researchers said in a recent study
[00:18.04]that the fossilized bone, called a surangular,
[00:22.60]was from a reptile called an ichthyosaur
[00:26.68]that lived in the sea.
[00:28.76]Based on its size, compared to the same bone
[00:32.92]in closely related ichthyosaurs,
[00:35.92]the researchers estimated that the creature was between
[00:40.48]22 and 26 meters long.
[00:44.60]They named it Ichthyotitan severnensis.
[00:48.76]That would make it possibly
[00:50.88]the largest known marine reptile.
[00:53.60]Its size would be close to the largest whales alive today.
[00:59.16]The blue whale,
[01:01.00]considered the largest animal ever to have lived,
[01:04.92]can reach about 30 meters in length.
[01:09.20]Marine reptiles lived in the world's oceans
[01:12.72]at the same time that dinosaurs lived on the land.
[01:17.20]Ichthyosaurs disappeared 90 million years ago.
[01:21.76]They came in several sizes.
[01:24.68]The creatures ate fish and other sea animals.
[01:28.92]Ichthyotitan, however,
[01:31.48]is known only from two jawbones.
[01:34.88]The jaw forms the lower part of the mouth.
[01:38.68]Ruby Reynolds and her father Justin Reynolds
[01:43.04]found one of the bones in 2020
[01:46.40]at Blue Anchor in Somerset.
[01:49.28]The other bone is from a different
[01:52.52]Ichthyotitan individual found in 2016,
[01:57.28]along the Somerset coast at Lilstock.
[02:01.16]Dean Lomax was the lead writer
[02:04.20]of the study published recently in PLOS ONE.
[02:08.00]Lomax said, "It is quite remarkable to think that gigantic,
[02:13.96]blue whale-sized ichthyosaurs
[02:16.92]were swimming in the oceans
[02:19.04]around the time that dinosaurs were walking on land
[02:23.08]in what is now the UK (Britain)
[02:25.64]during the Triassic Period."
[02:28.36]The Triassic Period describes
[02:30.48]a time over 200 million years ago.
[02:34.76]Ruby Reynolds was 11
[02:37.00]at the time she and her father discovered
[02:40.12]the fossil surangular bone on the beach.
[02:44.52]Ruby continued to search the area
[02:47.36]and found a second piece -
[02:49.52]much larger than the first -
[02:51.96]partly buried in the ground.
[02:54.44]They then contacted Lomax,
[02:57.44]an ichthyosaur expert,
[02:59.44]and more parts of the bone were unearthed.
[03:03.60]Ruby's part in the discovery
[03:05.96]has led to comparisons with Mary Anning.
[03:09.68]Anning was a 19th century British fossil hunter who,
[03:14.48]among other things,
[03:16.16]discovered ichthyosaur fossils when she was 12.
[03:20.32]"I think Mary Anning was an incredible paleontologist,
[03:24.96]and it's amazing to be compared to her," Ruby said.
[03:30.28]Justin Reynolds added, "It has been an amazing...
[03:34.32]and fun experience to work with these experts,
[03:38.12]and we are proud to be part of the team
[03:40.96]and co-authors of a scientific paper
[03:44.28]which names a new species and genus."
[03:48.16]Fossil collector Paul de la Salle
[03:51.64]found the 2016 remains
[03:54.40]now identified as Ichthyotitan.
[03:57.60]The big marine reptile was a member
[04:01.20]of a family of giant ichthyosaurs called Shastasauridae.
[04:07.60]These creatures lived 13 million years later
[04:11.24]than other ichthyosaurs.
[04:13.80]They survived until a world-wide event
[04:17.52]caused many kinds of animals to disappear
[04:21.36]about 201 million years ago
[04:24.56]at the end of the Triassic Period.
[04:27.52]No other fossils from Ichthyotitan have been discovered.
[04:33.12]But the researchers have been able to guess at its appearance
[04:38.32]based on other members of its family,
[04:41.80]including Shonisaurus from British Columbia, Canada.
[04:47.32]Study co-writer Jimmy Waldron used the term humbled –
[04:51.92]meaning to be made to feel less important or proud –
[04:56.24]to describe the discoveries.
[05:00.84]Waldron said, "Discoveries like this create incredible moments
[05:05.20]where we become humbled
[05:06.72]at our size and place in the world."
[05:11.04]I'm John Russell. 更多听力请访问21VOA.COM
END OF TRACK. "END OF TRACK." The two men bowed. "Whoever was that person you were talking to?" she enquired, as soon as they stood together. The took of triumph faded from her eyes, she had grown worn and weary. The roses were wilting on the walls, the lights were mostly down now. Hetty, looking in to see if anything was wanted, found herself driven away almost fiercely. I only saw Master Jervie once when he called at tea time, The year 1747 was opened by measures of restriction. The House of Lords, offended at the publication of the proceedings of the trial of Lord Lovat, summoned the parties to their bar, committed them to prison, and refused to liberate them till they had pledged themselves not to repeat the offence, and had paid very heavy fees. The consequence of this was that the transactions of the Peers were almost entirely suppressed for nearly thirty years from this time, and we draw our knowledge of them chiefly from notes taken by Horace Walpole and Lord Chancellor Hardwicke. What is still more remarkable, the reports of the House of Commons, being taken by stealth, and on the merest sufferance, are of the most meagre kind, sometimes altogether wanting, and the speeches are given uniformly under fictitious names; for to have attributed to Pitt or Pelham their[112] speeches by name would have brought down on the printers the summary vengeance of the House. Many of the members complained bitterly of this breach of the privileges of Parliament, and of "being put into print by low fellows"; but Pelham had the sense to tolerate them, saying, "Let them alone; they make better speeches for us than we can make for ourselves." Altogether, the House of Commons exhibited the most deplorable aspect that can be conceived. The Ministry had pursued Walpole's system of buying up opponents by place, or pension, or secret service money, till there was no life left in the House. Ministers passed their measures without troubling themselves to say much in their behalf; and the opposition dwindled to Sir John Hinde Cotton, now dismissed from office, and a feeble remnant of Jacobites raised but miserable resistance. In vain the Prince of Wales and the secret instigations of Bolingbroke and Doddington stimulated the spirit of discontent; both Houses had degenerated into most silent and insignificant arenas of very commonplace business. "It certainly will be. Miss Widgeon," answered Maria, with strictly "company manners." "One who has never had a brother exposed to the constant dangers of army life can hardly understand how glad we all feel to have Si snatched from the very jaws of death and brung back to us." "Just plug at 'em as you would at a crow, and then go on your way whistlin'?" persisted Harry. "Hurroo!" echoed Hennessey; "that's the ticket." "Come forward, keeper," continued the baron, "and state how these arrows came into your hands!" "Yes." HoMEJULIA京香2018下载
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