2017考研英语拓展阅读：人类首次在琥珀中发现恐龙化石

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    　　2017考研英语拓展阅读：人类首次在琥珀中发现恐龙化石
    Scientists have found dinosaur-era feathers and evidence of them in fossil
impressions before. But this is the first time they’ve discovered a
full-feathered tail section preserved in amber, ripe for forensic analysis and
Spielbergian dreams.
    科学家早已发现了恐龙时代的羽毛，并拥有其印在化石上证据。但这是他们第一次在琥珀中发现一根完整的羽毛覆盖的尾部，等待着人们对其进行法医分析和创造《侏罗纪公园》般的梦想。
    Paleontologist Lida Xing of the China University of Geosciences led the
research, as detailed in a report that came out today in the journal Current
Biology.
    中国地质大学的古生物学家邢立达领导了这项研究，具体报告发表在今天的“当代生物学”杂志上。
    The sample itself, known as DIP-V-15103 and unofficially as "Eva" after the
wife of the report’s co-author, came from a mine in Kachin, a state in northern
Myanmar. Based on the structure of the tail, it likely came from a
Cretaceous-era young coelurasaur, a subgroup of therapods that includes
everything from tyrannosauruses to birds, points out National Geographic.
    样品本身被称为DIP-V-15103，并以该报告的共同作者的妻子“伊娃”的名字作为非官方命名。该样品来自缅甸北部克钦邦的一个矿山。基于尾巴的结构，它可能来自白垩纪时代的一只年轻虚骨龙类恐龙，是包括从暴龙到鸟类的节肢动物的一个分支，据国家地理介绍。
    While you should check your excitement for the possibilities of dino DNA,
the preserved feathers gave the scientists forensic insight into their role. The
encased plumage seems to be ornamental rather than functional: Previous research
by the same team found that birds from this sample’s era had similar feathers to
those of birds today. In short, if the rest of the tail looked like Eva, this
dino likely wouldn’t have been able to fly.
    当你为该样品可能拥有恐龙基因兴奋之时，保存完好的羽毛让科学家能够通过法医视角洞察它。镶嵌在琥珀中的羽毛似乎是更具观赏性，而非功能性：同一个团队的早前研究发现，来自该样品的鸟类与今天的鸟类羽毛类似。总之，如果尾巴的其余部分看起来像“伊娃”，这个恐龙可能不会飞。
    Xing and his team didn’t dig the sample up, however -- they collected it
from an amber market in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin. Burmese amber is often
used as jewelry, and Eva had already been shaped by the time it was collected
with other samples in 2015.
    该样品并不是由邢立达和他的团队挖掘得来的，而是他们从克钦的首都密支那的琥珀市场收集到的。缅甸琥珀经常被用作首饰、伊娃，和其他样品一样，于2015年被收集的时候已被打磨成型。