最完整的恐龙胚胎

山东 汤金霞

中国科学家在蛋化石中发现了保存完好的恐龙胚胎化石标本，这个标本叫作“英良贝贝”，是一只尚未破壳的窃蛋龙宝宝。

题材考古体裁新闻报道文章词数难度建议用时346★★★★6 分钟

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 (兽脚类) dinosaurs and the birds they would evolve (进化) 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. 研究团队说，这个胚胎的形状很独特，其头部位于身体下方，腿围绕着头部，这种姿势与现代鸟类的胚胎类似。

【点石成金】本句是一个主从复合句，句中the embryo's shape was unique是宾语从句，作动词said的宾语；with the head in the lower part of the body是with的复合结构，作伴随状语。

Ⅱ. Memorize some text-centered chunks

name after 以……命名

look like 看起来像

because of 因为

be close to 接近

be known as 被称为；被认为是；以……而著称

break out of 逃出

be similar to 与……类似