四岁的孩子发现了两亿两千万年前保存完好的恐龙脚印

四岁的孩子发现了两亿两千万年前保存完好的恐龙脚印

Beachcombers and fossil hunters will be all too aware of the sometimes arduous process of getting your eye in when searching for fossilized sharks’ teeth or the witness marks of an ammonite. It seems for Lily Wilder, four years old, from Barry, South Wales, the skill comes easily. The young paleontologist was the first to spot a 220-million-year-old dinosaur footprint while on a walk in January. The find represents a very important specimen academically speaking, as it was made at an early point in the evolution of dinosaurs when the different groups were first diversifying.

海滩上的人和化石搜寻者都很清楚，在寻找鲨鱼的牙齿化石或鹦鹉螺的痕迹时，眼睛要看进去，这有时是一个非常艰难的过程。对于来自南威尔士巴里的四岁女孩莉莉·怀尔德来说，这个技能来得很容易。这位年轻的古生物学家在一月份的一次散步中第一个发现了一个2.2亿年前的恐龙脚印。从学术上讲，这一发现代表了一个非常重要的标本，因为它是在恐龙进化的早期发现的，当时不同的类群刚刚开始多样化。

The footprint is remarkably well preserved, and it’s hoped it may reveal insights that could help scientists to build a clearer picture as to how dinosaurs walked. It was found embedded in a loose block of fossilized desert mud near the sea at Bendricks Bay, an established hotspot for dinosaur and ancient crocodilian footprints.

这个脚印保存得非常完好，人们希望它能揭示一些信息，帮助科学家们建立一幅恐龙如何行走的更清晰的画面。它是在Bendricks湾附近的一块沙漠泥化石中被发现的，那里是恐龙和古代鳄鱼脚印的固定聚集地。

Suspecting the novel find was a new addition to the region’s famous footprints, Wilder and her family reached out to curator Cindy Howells from Amgueddfa Cymru, the National Museum of Wales Palaeontology department. No stranger to the Bay’s footprints, Howells described the Wilder’s find as the best specimen ever found in the area. The footprint is clear enough to show individual pads and even claw impressions, which could reveal new information about the early morphology of dinosaur feet,

怀尔德和她的家人怀疑这个新奇的发现是该地区著名脚印的新发现，于是他们联系了威尔士国家博物馆古生物学系Amgueddfa Cymru的馆长辛迪·豪威尔斯。豪威尔斯对海湾的脚印并不陌生，他说野生动物的发现是该地区发现的最好的标本。这个脚印已经足够清晰，可以显示出单独的脚掌甚至爪印，这可能会揭示恐龙脚早期形态的新信息。

Rachael Funnell

It’s not possible to determine what kind of dinosaur left the print, but the specimen’s shape places it within a group of prints known as Grallator: a common type of small, three-toed prints that are thought to have been left by a range of bipedal theropod dinosaurs. At 10 centimeters (3.9 inches) long, it’s estimated the creature that made the print was around 75 centimeters (29.5 inches) tall and 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) long. Such dinosaurs most likely walked on their two hind feet, a modest predator hunting small animals and insects.

我们无法确定是哪种恐龙留下了脚印，但从样本的形状来看，它属于一组被称为擦脚龙的脚印:一种常见的小型三趾脚印，被认为是一系列两足兽脚类恐龙留下的。据估计，这只恐龙身长10厘米(3.9英寸)，高约75厘米(29.5英寸)，长2.5米(8.2英尺)。这种恐龙很可能是用两只后脚走路的，是一种捕食小型动物和昆虫的中度食肉动物。

Natural Resources Wales made a special request to be permitted to remove the footprint for analysis, as the beach where it was found is legally protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. After permission was granted, the fossil was extracted to be delivered to National Museum Cardiff, where it will be studied and protected.

威尔士自然资源管理局提出了一项特殊要求，要求允许移除脚印进行分析，因为发现脚印的海滩是受法律保护的具有特殊科学价值的地点。在获得许可后，这块化石被提取出来，送往加的夫国家博物馆，在那里它将被研究和保护。

“This fossilised dinosaur footprint from 220 million years ago is one of the best-preserved examples from anywhere in the UK and will really aid palaeontologists to get a better idea about how these early dinosaurs walked,” said Howells in a press release. “During the Covid pandemic scientists from Amgueddfa Cymru have been highlighting the importance of nature on people’s doorstep and this is a perfect example of this. Obviously, we don’t all have dinosaur footprints on our doorstep but there is wealth of nature local to you if you take the time to really look close enough.”

Howells在新闻发布会上说:“这个2.2亿年前的恐龙足迹化石是英国保存最完好的化石之一，它将真正帮助古生物学家更好地了解这些早期恐龙是如何行走的。”“在新冠肺炎大流行期间，来自Amgueddfa Cymru的科学家一直在强调自然对人们家门口的重要性，这是一个很好的例子。显然，并不是每个人的家门口都有恐龙的脚印，但如果你花时间仔细观察，就会发现附近有丰富的自然资源。”