已知最古老的蝎子化石，可能是最早探索陆地的动物之一

已知最古老的蝎子化石，可能是最早探索陆地的动物之一

Scientists have discovered the oldest known fossil of a scorpion – thought to be some of the first animals to leave the oceans and explore land – dating back to around 437 million years ago. Reported in the journal Scientific Reports, the “groundbreaking discovery” could shed some much-needed light on how the first animals made the momentous transition out of the sea to become land-dwelling creatures.

科学家们发现了迄今为止最古老的蝎子化石，它可以追溯到大约4.37亿年前，是最早离开海洋、探索陆地的动物之一。据《科学报告》杂志报道，这一“突破性的发现”可能会给我们提供一些急需的线索，帮助我们了解最早的动物是如何从海洋中过渡到陆地生物的。

The fossil was first discovered in the 1980s around the outskirts of Waukesha in Wisconsin, USA. With scientists unaware of its significance, the specimen was stowed away in a dusty museum for over 30 years until it was recently reexamined by researchers from Ohio State University and Otterbein University.

该化石于20世纪80年代，在美国威斯康星州沃基肖郊区首次被发现。由于科学家们没有意识到它的重要性，这个标本被藏在一个满是灰尘的博物馆里30多年，直到最近才被俄亥俄州立大学和奥特拜因大学的研究人员重新检查。

The scorpion, recently dubbed Parioscorpio venator, is about 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) long, a similar size to many scorpions alive today. The layer of rock it was found in dates to between 436.5 and 437.5 million years ago, during the early part of the Silurian period, a time when Wisconsin was covered in a warm and shallow sea.

蝎子，最近被称为Parioscorpio venator，大约2.5厘米(1英寸)长，和现在许多蝎子的大小相似。人们发现的这层岩石可追溯到4.365亿至4.375亿年前，在志留纪早期，威斯康星州被温暖而浅海覆盖。

Most importantly, the scorpion was found to have respiratory and circulatory systems that are almost identical to those of our modern-day scorpions (as seen in the image above). This suggests that the ancient scorpion’s respiratory system most likely behaved like a modern-day horseshoe crab, allowing it to spend prolonged periods on land, despite spending most of its time in the water.

最重要的是，人们发现蝎子的呼吸和循环系统与我们现代蝎子的几乎完全相同(如上图所示)。这表明，古代蝎子的呼吸系统极有可能表现得像现代的马蹄蟹，尽管大部分时间生活在水中，但它们仍能在陆地上生活很长时间。

“It's a groundbreaking discovery," Loren Babcock, study author and a professor of earth sciences at Ohio State University, said in a statement.

“这是一个突破性的发现。”该研究的作者、俄亥俄州立大学地球科学教授洛伦·巴布科克(Loren Babcock)在一份声明中说。

“The inner workings of the respiratory-circulatory system in this animal are, shape-wise, identical to those of the arachnids and scorpions that breathe air exclusively,” Babcock added. “But it also is incredibly similar to what we recognize in marine arthropods like horseshoe crabs. So, it looks like this scorpion, this lineage, must have been pre-adapted to life on land, meaning they had the morphologic capability to make that transition, even before they first stepped onto land.”

巴布科克补充说:“这种动物的呼吸循环系统的内部工作原理，在形状上与那些只呼吸空气的蛛形纲动物和蝎子完全相同。”“但它也与我们在马蹄蟹等海洋节肢动物身上发现的非常相似。所以，看起来这只蝎子，这一谱系，一定是预先适应了陆地上的生活，这意味着它们在首次踏上陆地之前，就已经具备了进行这种转变的形态能力。”

The earliest known scorpion before this discovery was found in Scotland and dated to about 434 million years ago. This new fossil, at least 2.5 million years its senior, provides the oldest and some of the clearest evidence of animals that became capable of exploring the land. In turn, this could perhaps explain how our own vertebrate ancient ancestors made this all-important leap from sea to land.

已知最早的蝎子是在苏格兰发现的，距今约4.34亿年前。这块比它至少大250万年的新化石提供了最古老和最清晰的证据，证明动物有能力探索陆地。反过来，这也许可以解释我们的脊椎动物祖先是如何从海洋跳到陆地的。

We're looking at the oldest known scorpion – the oldest known member of the arachnid lineage, which has been one of the most successful land-going creatures in all of Earth history, continued Babcock.

“我们正在研究已知最古老的蝎子——已知最古老的蛛形纲成员，它是地球历史上最成功的陆地生物之一。”巴布科克继续说。