最完整的恐龍胚胎

山東 湯金霞

中國科學家在蛋化石中發現了保存完好的恐龍胚胎化石標本，這個標本叫作“英良貝貝”，是一只尚未破殼的竊蛋龍寶寶。

題材考古體裁新聞報道文章詞數難度建議用時346★★★★6 分鐘

1Scientists in China have discovered a rare 66-million-year-old perfectly preserved fossil of a baby dinosaur in its egg showing similarities between theropod (獸腳類) dinosaurs and the birds they would evolve (進化) into.

2The embryo (胚胎) has been named Baby Yingliang after the museum in southern China where it was discovered.

3According to an ABC News report published， the fossilised bones are seen curled up inside its 6-inch long eggshell and look almost exactly like a modern bird at that stage， although it has tiny arms and claws rather than wings.

4Fion Waisum Ma， a paleontologist at the University of Birmingham and one of the authors of the fossil study published in the journal iScience， was quoted as saying that the head in the embryo has a striking similarity with the head of a newly hatched bird，especially because of its mouth， which was a feature of the dinosaur species， called oviraptorosaur.

5Oviraptorosaurs were a type of theropod dinosaur with hollow bones and three-toed limbs. It was very close to the dinosaurs that evolved into modern birds.

6According to ABC News， embryonic dinosaur fossils， which the paleontologists have found at only about half a dozen sites， are extremely valuable.

7This is also the first time that any embryonic dinosaur fossils have shown signs of a distinctive posture known as “tucking”， which means the head placed under the right arm， though some dinosaur embryos have shown distinct “egg teeth” that they may have used to break out of their shells， said John Nudds， a paleontologist at the University of Manchester， who wasn't involved in the study.

8The researchers said the embryo's shape was unique， with the head in the lower part of the body and legs around the head—similar to a modern bird embryo. The process of hatching，which earlier studies suggested was unique to birds， may have evolved from dinosaurs， they said.

9“A fossil embryo is a rare and precious resource in the study of dinosaur reproduction， behavior and evolution， as well as in paleoecology，” said Xing Lida， a professor at China University of Geosciences.

Reading Check

Choose the best answers according to the text

Language Study

Ⅰ. Analyze the difficult sentence in the text

The researchers said the embryo's shape was unique， with the head in the lower part of the body and legs around the head—similar to a modern bird embryo. 研究團隊說，這個胚胎的形狀很獨特，其頭部位于身體下方，腿圍繞著頭部，這種姿勢與現代鳥類的胚胎類似。

【點石成金】本句是一個主從復合句，句中the embryo's shape was unique是賓語從句，作動詞said的賓語；with the head in the lower part of the body是with的復合結構，作伴隨狀語。

Ⅱ. Memorize some text-centered chunks

name after 以……命名

look like 看起來像

because of 因為

be close to 接近

be known as 被稱為；被認為是；以……而著稱

break out of 逃出

be similar to 與……類似