New 'iron dragon' pterosaur found in Australia
pterosaur翼龙目
2017年秋日，位于澳大利亚的鲍勃·艾略特刚刚给贝尔蒙大牧场喷完除草剂，他注意到泥泞地里露出了奇怪的东西：若干斑驳的棕色骨头。
One fall day in 2017, Bob Elliott had just finished spraying for weeds on Australia’s Belmont ranch when he noticed something unusual poking through the silty ground: a handful of mottled brown bones.
ranch：大牧场
ranch house: 牧场式住宅
ranch hands:牧场工人
a cattle/sheep ranch 牧牛场；牧羊场
这个由艾略特和他人合办并管理的大牧场先前也发现过长颈蜥脚类恐龙的化石。
The ranch, which Elliott co-owns and manages, previously yielded remains of the long-necked dinosaurs known as sauropods.
sauropods蜥脚类恐龙
但和那些当代摩天大楼的钢筋铁骨相比，新发现的化石真是太小了。
But in comparison to bones from those living skyscrapers, the newfound fossils were downright small.
downright: (表示强调，多为贬义）It's a downright disgrace. 那是奇耻大辱；（直率的，生硬的）Her downright attitude toward life surprised him. 她对生活直率的态度让他感到吃惊。
“他立即得知这次的发现很不一样……和我们之前看到的任何化石都不一样。" 昆士兰澳洲恐龙时代自然史博物馆助理研究员阿德勒·潘德拉说道。
“He knew straightaway this was quite different ... and unlike anything that we’d seen before,” says Adele Pentland, a research associate with the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Natural History Museum in Winton, Queensland.
Australian Age of Dinosaurs Natural History Museum澳洲恐龙时代自然史博物馆
根据潘德拉及其同事的进一步研究结果，确定了艾略特所发现的骨头化石属于能飞行的爬行动物——翼龙目，而且新发现的化石还是目前在澳洲发现最完整的翼龙化石。
Further study from Pentland and her colleagues confirmed that the fossil bones Elliott found came from a flying reptile known as a pterosaur—and that they represent the most complete set of pterosaur remains yet found in Australia.
flying reptile 飞行的爬行动物
拉丁名Ferrodraco lentoni，新发现的化石骨骼还远远称不上完整；它包括了部分的上颌和下颌，五块不完整的颈椎骨，还有翅膀的部分以及若干牙齿。
Named Ferrodraco lentoni, the new fossil is far from a full skeleton; it includes parts of the upper and lower jaw, five partial neck bones, sections of both wings, and many teeth.
然而，在澳大利亚发现的翼龙化石极其稀少，而且这些化石都被保存得额外好。
But pterosaur finds in Australia are exceedingly rare, and these fossils are exceptionally well preserved.
“这真的是一次意义重大的发现。”莱切斯特大学古生物学者大卫·安文说道：“它填补了我们在翼龙空间和时间分布方面的知识空缺。”
“It’s really a substantial find,” says David Unwin, a paleontologist at the University of Leicester. “It’s filling in gaps in terms of our knowledge of their spatial distribution and also their distribution in time.”
今天发布的《科学》杂志表示，根据先前报道的掩埋翼龙的岩石形成年代，猜测新发现的翼龙大约生活在960万年前。
Described today in Scientific Reports, the newly found pterosaur is roughly 96 million years old, based on previously reported ages of the rock formation thought to entomb the creature’s bones.
entomb：掩埋，埋葬，使受困（一般用作被动）
翼龙最近的亲属，古魔翼龙属，被推测为在940万年前已经灭绝。
Its closest relatives, pterosaurs of the group Anhanguera, are thought to have died out by 94 million years ago.
尽管尚不明确翼龙生存的具体年代，该发现仍然是澳大利亚最振奋人心的恐龙时代新发现之一，包括保存最完好的蛋白石恐龙化石。
Though its precise age remains uncertain, Ferrodraco joins a number of exciting new Australian discoveries from the age of dinosaurs, including the most complete dinosaur fossil preserved as opal.
opalized dinosaur bone 蛋白化的恐龙骨头，也称opal蛋白石
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