在南极洲发现的尼斯湖水怪

在南极洲发现的尼斯湖水怪

We're no closer to confirming the existence of the Loch Ness Monster, but what may be its long-lost twin has been discovered on the other side of the world.

我们离确认尼斯湖水怪的存在还差得远，但在地球的另一端发现了它失踪已久的孪生兄弟。

Paleontologists have found the fossilised remains of an enormous marine reptile on Antarctica's Seymour Island. It measures 11m from snout to tail, and likely weighed almost 15 tonnes when it was alive millions of years ago.

古生物学家在南极洲西摩岛上发现了一种大型海洋爬行动物的化石残骸。它从鼻子到尾巴有11米长，可能在数百万年前活着的时候重达15吨。

The creature is believed to be an elasmosaurus, a kind of plesiosaur that lived in what's now known as North America during the Cretaceous Era between 93 million and 70 million years ago.

这种生物被认为是依拉丝莫龙，一种蛇颈龙，在9300万到7000万年前的白垩纪时期，生活在现在的北美洲。

Scientists say it's long-awaited proof that such creatures once swam in our oceans.

科学家表示，这是人们期待已久的证据，证明这种生物曾经在我们的海洋中游动过。

"For years it was a mystery...we didn't know if they were elasmosaurus or not," José O'Gorman of the National Scientific and Technical Research Council of Argentina told National Geographic.

阿根廷国家科学技术研究委员会的乔斯·奥戈尔曼对国家地理说：“多年来，这一直是个谜……我们不知道它们是不是依拉丝莫龙。”

"They were some kind of weird plesiosaurs that nobody knew."

“他们是一种奇怪的蛇颈龙，没有人知道。”

Other Cretaceous fossils have been found in Antarctica before, but this discovery is one of the most complete fossils ever recovered there.

此前在南极洲也发现过其他白垩纪化石，但这一发现是在那里发现的最完整的化石之一。

The recovery of Nessie's lookalike has been three decades in the making. The huge fossil was first detected in 1989, but the expedition team didn't have the resources to dig it up.

尼斯湖水怪的复原工作已经进行了30年。这块巨大的化石于1989年首次被发现，但探险队没有足够的资源把它挖出来。

It took three separate return trips to Antarctica in 2005, 2012 and 2017 to fully extricate, with scientists collecting 800kg of fossilised bones in the process.

科学家们分别于2005年、2012年和2017年三次返回南极洲，在此过程中收集了800公斤的骨骼化石。

A study into the fossil, funded by Argentina's National Antarctic Directorate and the Argentine Antarctic Institute, will be published in the Cretaceous Researchjournal in October.

由阿根廷国家南极理事会和阿根廷南极研究所资助的一项关于这块化石的研究将于10月发表在《白垩纪研究杂志》上。