来见识两种新恐龙

British palaeontologists have unearthed two new species of dinosaur on the unassuming, 380 square kilometre Isle of Wight, off England’s south coast, according to a new study out today in the journal Scientific Reports.

根据今天发表在《科学报告》杂志上的一项新研究，英国古生物学家在距离英格兰南部海岸380平方公里、毫不起眼的怀特岛上发现了两种新的恐龙物种。

The two new creatures appear to be types of spinosaurids, predatory theropod dinosaurs related to the giant Spinosaurus.

这两种新生物似乎是棘龙的一种，一种食肉兽脚亚目恐龙，与巨型棘龙有亲缘关系。

The haul of bones was discovered over a period of years by amateur fossil hunters and later a crew of researchers from Dinosaur Isle Museum, on a beach near the picturesque village of Brighstone. In all, over 50 bones were recovered from the site, from rocks dating to the Early Cretaceous some 125 million years ago.

多年来，业余化石猎人和后来恐龙岛博物馆的一组研究人员，在风景如画的布里格斯通村附近的海滩上发现了这批化石。在遗址中总共发现了50多块骨头，这些骨头的年代可以追溯到大约1.25亿年前的白垩纪早期。

Now, new analysis of the bones by researchers from the University of Southampton suggests they belonged to two new species previously unknown to science.

现在，来自南安普顿大学的研究人员对这些骨头进行的新分析表明，它们属于两个此前科学界未知的新物种。

“We found the skulls to differ not only from Baryonyx [the UK’s only spinosaurid specimen before now], but also one another, suggesting the UK housed a greater diversity of spinosaurids than previously thought,” says lead author Chris Barker, of the University of Southampton.

南安普敦大学的首席作者Baryonyx说：“我们发现，这些头骨不仅与重龙(英国迄今为止唯一的棘龙标本)不同，而且彼此之间也不同，这表明英国的棘龙种类比之前认为的要多。”

But co-author Darren Naish, an expert in British theropod dinosaurs, says the discovery of spinosaurids on the Isle of Wight was a long time coming.

但合著者、英国兽脚类恐龙专家达伦·奈什(Darren Naish)表示，在怀特岛上发现棘龙是一个漫长的过程。

“We’ve known for a couple of decades now that Baryonyx-like dinosaurs awaited discovery on the Isle of Wight, but finding the remains of two such animals in close succession was a huge surprise.”

“几十年来，我们一直知道怀特岛上有重龙类恐龙等着被发现，但连续发现两具这样的动物的遗骸是一个巨大的惊喜。”

Although the skeletons are incomplete, the researchers estimate that both species would have been around nine metres long; it’s likely they grabbed prey with their metre-long skulls.

尽管骨骼还不完整，研究人员估计这两个物种都大约有9米长，它们很可能是用一米长的头骨捕捉猎物的。

The first species has been named Ceratosuchops inferodios, which translates, evocatively, to the “horned, crocodile-faced hell heron”. The creature had a series of low horns and bumps on its hefty brow, and its hunting style would have been similar to – though much more frightening than – that of a heron.

第一个物种被命名为Ceratosuchops inferodios，直译过来就是“长着角、鳄鱼脸的地狱鹭”。这种生物有一排的低角和隆起的额头，它的狩猎方式与苍鹭相似——尽管比苍鹭可怕得多。

The second species was named Riparovenator milnerae, translated as “Milner’s riverbank hunter”, in honour of the late British palaeontologist Angela Milner, who studied and named Baryonyx.

第二个物种被命名为Riparoventor milnerae，翻译为“米尔纳的河岸猎人”，以纪念已故的英国古生物学家安吉拉·米尔纳，她研究并命名了重龙。