百科知识视频之煎蛋小学堂82 世界上比较大的生物

Blue whales are the biggest animals ever to exist on earth.They can weigh upwards of 150 tons,which is more than the largest dinosaurs!But the blue whale is not the biggest living thing.That title goes to...well,it depends on what you mean by"biggest"!The tallest may be a California redwood nicknamed"Hyperion",At a towering 115M,this giant is taller than the Statue of Liberty,The most extensive organism is a very old"humongous fungus" that covers a whopping 2,385 acres in a national forest in Oregon.

蓝鲸是世界上存在的最大的动物。其体重最大可达150吨 比最大的恐龙还重要!但是蓝鲸并非最大的生物。这个头衔属于...这取决于你是如何理解这个“最大!”最高也许是加尼福尼亚一棵名为“亥伯龙神”的红杉。这棵树高115米 比自由女神像还高，延伸面积最广的生物是一株古老的巨型真菌，在俄勒冈一国家森林中 其覆盖面积达到2385英亩。

At the base of the trees,bunches of "honey mushrooms"appear...They are the "fruiting bodies"produced by the fungus,which otherwise lives out of sight.imagine if apple trees grew underground and only the apples were visible to us!That's basically what the fungus does,except that it spreads its"mycelia"not just through the soil but also through the roots and bark of trees in the forest,attacking them and stealing their nutrients so it can continue spreading outwards.

在树根处悄然出现几簇“假蜜环菌”它们是真菌所产生的“子实体”，另外它们生活在人们的视野之外。想象一下 如果苹果树生长在地下 而我们能看到的只有苹果!这就是这些真菌所做的，除了它不仅在通过土壤散播菌丝，还有森林中的树根和树皮，真菌攻击它们 偷来养分以继续向更远处传播。

However,if we're talking about the good old heaviest organism ever found,that prize goes to a giant panda living high on a Utah plateau,Just kidding...It goes to a single quaking aspen named "Pando" that weighs over 6,000 tons-as much as forty blue whales.If you go to Fishlake National Forest,though,you won't see a giant tree trunk,you'll just see a forest of regular-sized trees.

不过 如果我们说的是有史以来找到最重的生物，这个奖项要属于居住在犹他州高原上的巨型熊猫。逗你玩呢...这属于一棵名叫“Pando”的山杨 其重量逾6000吨 和40条蓝鲸一样重。如果你去Fishlake国家森林，你看到的可不是一个大树干，而是一整片正常大小的树林。

But,thanks to genetic testing,we've learned that this stand of aspen covering 106 acres of land is actually a single clonal organism that grew from a lone seed long ago.That single tree was able to spread so much because its roots send up shoots that grow into what look like individual trees.Since all 47,000"trees"are apart of the same organism,the forest behaves somewhat unusually,for example,the entire forest transitions simultaneously from winter to spring and uses its vast network of roots to distribute water and nutrients from trees with plenty to trees in need.

不过 正由于基因检测 我们发现这片覆盖106英亩的山杨，实际上是由很长时间前的一粒种子无性繁殖出来的。那一棵树扩张得如此之广，因为它的根会发生新芽 长出那些表面上独立的树。由于47000棵“树”都是同一生物体的部分，这片森林表现出的行为也与众不同，比如 整个森林在冬春交季时同时发生变化，并凭借其巨大的根茎网络来从营养富足的树向需养的树输送水和营养物质。

Speaking of water... if you include water when weighing these giant organisms,then the humongous fungus might actually weigh more than Pando.But foresters,at least,care only about the mass actually produced during growth:the dry mass.And since fungi are mostly water Pando wins.

说到水 如果在称这些巨型生物时算上水的重量，那么巨型真菌可能比Pandora还要重。但是护林人只在乎植物生长时增加的质量：即“干质量”由于真菌中大部分都是水分Pando获胜。

Either way,it's likely that some of the belowground connections,whether roots or mycelia have become severed over time,meaning these giants are probably comprised of smaller,but still ginormous and genetically identical,patches.

无论如何 很可能某些深埋地下的联系，无论是根还是菌丝 在某时曾经断裂，揭示出他们都是从小群体演化而来的，但它们仍然十分庞大 个体的基因仍相似。

And finally,because of the extensive testing required to confirm"biggest anything"claims,the fungus and aspen can only profess to be the largest living organisms ever found there may be even bigger monsters lurking right under our feet,just waiting to be discovered!

最终 由于确定“最大的物体”需要进行大量的测试，真菌和山杨因而都只能被称为目前已发现的最大生物体，也许更大的怪物中潜伏在我们脚下，就等着被我们发现!