Cracking open a clue

Over the last 100 years, many dinosaur egg fossils have been found, but finding one with a well-preserved embryo inside is extremely rare. A dinosaur embryo that dates back to 66 million years ago was recently discovered in Ganzhou, Jiangxi province. The perfectly preserved fossil is helping shed light on the link between modern birds and their dinosaur ancestors.
在过去的100年里，人们发现了许多恐龙蛋化石，但要发现一块内部胚胎保存完好的化石，情况却极其罕见。最近在江西赣州，科学家们发现了一个有着6600万年历史的恐龙胚胎。这块化石保存完好，有助于解释现代鸟类与其祖先恐龙之间的联系。

The embryo fossil is housed in the Yingliang Stone Nature History Museum in Fujian province, where it was dubbed “Baby Yingliang”.
这块恐龙胚胎化石馆藏于福建省英良石材自然历史博物馆，博物馆将这个标本昵称为“英良贝贝”。

Estimated to be 27 centimeters from head to tail, the creature lies inside a 17-centimeter-long egg. Paleontologists believe it belongs to a toothless theropod dinosaur, which is called Oviraptor. Oviraptors were feathered. They were found in the rocks of Asia and North America. They had varied beaks and body sizes, allowing them to adopt a wide range of diets, according to the Daily Mail.
据推测，“英良贝贝”从头到尾总长度估计为27厘米，蜷曲在一个17厘米长的蛋化石中。古生物学家认为该个体属于一种没有牙齿的兽脚亚目恐龙，叫做窃蛋龙类。窃蛋龙类身披羽毛，来自亚洲和北美的白垩纪地层。据《每日邮报》报道，窃蛋龙类喙部形状和体型多变，因此具有广泛的食性类型。

The posture of the embryo within the egg implies that these dinosaurs developed a birdlike posture close to hatching, according to the study published in the journal iScience on Dec 21.
根据12月21日发表在《交叉科学》杂志上的相关研究，蛋内胚胎的姿势意味着这些恐龙在接近孵化时发展成了类似鸟类的姿势。

The international research team found the posture of “Baby Yingliang” unique among known dinosaur embryos – its head lies below the body, with its feet on either side and the back curled along the blunt end of the egg. Previously unrecognized in dinosaurs, this posture is similar to that of modern bird embryos, said China Daily.
研究团队发现，“英良贝贝”的保存姿势在已知的恐龙胚胎中是独一无二的，其头部位于身体下方，脚在两侧，身体背部沿着蛋的钝端蜷缩着。据《中国日报》报道，这种姿势与现代鸟类的胚胎类似，而在以前的恐龙胚胎化石中从来没有发现过这种情况。

Before hatching, birds are known to develop a series of tucking postures, bending their bodies and extending their heads under their wings. “It is interesting to see this dinosaur embryo and a chicken embryo pose in a similar way inside the egg, which possibly indicates similar prehatching behaviors,” Fion Waisum Ma, one of the study authors, told the Daily Mail.
鸟类在孵化前不久会产生一系列的收缩姿势，即弯曲身体，把头伸到翅膀下面。《每日邮报》报道，该研究的共同第一作者马慧芯表示：“有趣的是，这只恐龙胚胎和鸡的胚胎在蛋里的姿势相似，这可能表明了它们在孵化前有着相似的行为。”

Team member Steve Brusatte from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, told China Daily that this little dinosaur looks just like a baby bird in its egg, providing yet “more evidence that many features of today’s birds first evolved in their dinosaur ancestors”.
研究团队的成员之一——来自苏格兰爱丁堡大学的史蒂夫·布鲁萨特教授在接受《中国日报》采访时表示：这只出生前的小恐龙看起来就像一只蜷缩在蛋里的小鸟，这又一次证明了“今天鸟类的许多特征最早是从它们的恐龙祖先中演化出来的”。

“Dinosaur embryos are some of the rarest fossils and most of them are incomplete with the bones dislocated,” Fion Waisum Ma told BBC Science Focus. “We are very excited about the discovery of ‘Baby Yingliang’ – it is preserved in a great condition and helps us answer a lot of questions about dinosaur growth and reproduction.”
“恐龙胚胎是最稀有的化石之一。它们中的大多数保存都不完整，骨头错位。”马慧芯在接受英国广播公司（BBC）《科学焦点》采访时表示，“我们对‘英良贝贝’的发现感到非常兴奋，它的保存状况非常好，我们可以凭借它来回答很多关于恐龙生长和繁殖的问题。”

以上文章内容选自《21世纪学生英文报高中版》，详情请见《21世纪学生英文报高中版》高一856期