科学美国人60秒 SSS 恐龙也会得癌症

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Emily Schwing.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是埃米莉·施温。

"Given that hundreds of thousands of dinosaur¹ bones have been dug up, is there any evidence that dinosaurs² got cancer?"

“鉴于已挖掘出数十万块恐龙骨骼，那有没有证据表明恐龙得了癌症？”

David Evans, senior curator of paleontology at the Royal Museum of Ontario in Toronto.

多伦多安大略皇家博物馆的古生物高级馆长大卫·埃文斯说到。

"There had been a few studies that had kind of suggested, based on gross anatomy³, that dinosaurs might have gotten cancer.

“有一些研究表明，基于大体解剖学，恐龙可能得了癌症。

But there was nothing compelling from a medical standpoint.

但从医学角度来看，没有什么令人信服的证据。

And from that point on, we decided⁴ to go on a hunt for rare dinosaur diseases, in particular cancer."

从那时起，我们决定继续寻找罕见的恐龙疾病，特别是癌症。”

So in 2017, Evans and colleagues went digging through a collection of dinosaur bones at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in Alberta—a hotbed of dinosaur fossils.

因此，2017年，埃文斯和同事在阿尔伯塔省皇家泰瑞尔古生物博物馆——恐龙化石的温床——挖掘了一批恐龙骨骼。

"And out of the hundreds of dinosaur bones that we looked at, we found one that was a candidate for bone cancer."

“在我们观察的数百块恐龙骨骼中，我们发现了一个骨癌候选人。”

The bone specimen⁵ Evans and his colleagues found comes from a dinosaur that roamed western Canada between 70 and 75 million years ago.

埃文斯和同事发现的这个骨骼标本来自7000万至7500万年前在加拿大西部漫步的恐龙。

The creature is called a Centrosaurus.

这种生物被称为“尖角龙”。

"Centrosaurus is a horned dinosaur. It's about the size of a rhinoceros⁶, and it's a close cousin of the famous triceratops, so it looked very similar.

“尖角龙是一种角龙。其体型与犀牛差不多，是著名的三角龙的近亲，所以看起来非常相似。

It would have a parrot-like beak⁷ at the end of its large skull⁸. It had a neck shield similar to triceratops and walked around on four feet and ate plants."

它的大头骨末端有一个鹦鹉喙。它有类似三角龙的颈盾，用四只脚行走，以植物为食。”

Its apparent cancer is a particularly aggressive type.

其明显的癌症是一种极具侵略性的类型。

"And this would have made it more vulnerable to the top predators⁹ at the time, which were the cousins of T. rex.

“这将使它更容易受到当时顶级捕食者的攻击，这些捕食者是霸王龙的表亲。

But we actually don't think it's the cancer that killed this animal—

但我们实际上并不认为是癌症杀死了这只动物，

even though, if it were allowed to run its course, it certainly would have been fatal."

尽管如果任癌症发展下去，肯定会令其致命。”

The tumorous¹⁰ bone was discovered among thousands of other bones from the same species.

这根肿瘤骨是在同一物种的数千块其他骨骼中发现的。

All these animals appeared to have died in a coastal¹¹ flood.

所有这些动物似乎都死于沿海洪水。

"And this flood looked like it killed a herd¹² of these horned dinosaurs, Centrosaurus, which are known for living in large social groups.

“这场洪水似乎杀死了一群尖角龙，它们以大量群居而闻名。

And we suspect, although we can't prove, that the cancer could get to such an advanced state

尽管无法证明，但我们怀疑癌症可能会发展到如此晚期的阶段，

because this animal was able to benefit from the safety of numbers of being in a herd.

是因为这种动物能够从群体数量的安全中获益。

Whereas if it was out on its own, with this devastating¹³ disease, it certainly would have had a good chance of being picked off before the cancer progressed this far."

然而，如果患有这种毁灭性疾病的个体独自外出，那它肯定有很大几率在癌症发展到如此严重之前就被杀死。”

The study is in the journal Lancet Oncology.

这项研究发表在《柳叶刀·肿瘤学》期刊上。

Evans says the research introduces a new way to study paleopathology in the fossil record.

埃文斯表示，这项研究引入了一种新的方法来研究化石记录中的古病理学。

"You know, this discovery definitely takes dinosaurs, which we often think of as almost mythical¹⁴, powerful creatures, and, I think, it shows that they were real animals

“这一发现无疑将恐龙——我们通常认为是神话般强大的生物，但我认为这表明它们是真正的动物——

in a way that's really unique and sobering that they got diseases similar to the ones that humans get today.

带入相当独特且令人深省的形象，它们患上了与如今的人类相似的疾病。

And they would have suffered greatly from these diseases, and so it brings them to life in a really unusual way."

它们会因为这些疾病而遭受巨大的痛苦，而这以非常独特的方式让恐龙的形象生动有趣起来。”

Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Emily Schwing.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是埃米莉·施温。

1 dinosaur   

n.恐龙

参考例句：

• Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击？
• He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。

2 dinosaurs   

n.恐龙( dinosaur的名词复数 )；守旧落伍的人，过时落后的东西

参考例句：

• The brontosaurus was one of the largest of all dinosaurs. 雷龙是所有恐龙中最大的一种。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years. 恐龙绝种已有几百万年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 anatomy   

n.解剖学，解剖；功能，结构，组织

参考例句：

• He found out a great deal about the anatomy of animals.在动物解剖学方面，他有过许多发现。
• The hurricane's anatomy was powerful and complex.对飓风的剖析是一项庞大而复杂的工作。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 specimen   

n.样本，标本

参考例句：

• You'll need tweezers to hold up the specimen.你要用镊子来夹这标本。
• This specimen is richly variegated in colour.这件标本上有很多颜色。

6 rhinoceros   

n.犀牛

参考例句：

• The rhinoceros has one horn on its nose.犀牛鼻子上有一个角。
• The body of the rhinoceros likes a cattle and the head likes a triangle.犀牛的形体像牛，头呈三角形。

7 beak   

n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻

参考例句：

• The bird had a worm in its beak.鸟儿嘴里叼着一条虫。
• This bird employs its beak as a weapon.这种鸟用嘴作武器。

8 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

9 predators   

n.食肉动物( predator的名词复数 )；奴役他人者（尤指在财务或性关系方面）

参考例句：

• birds and their earthbound predators 鸟和地面上捕食它们的动物
• The eyes of predators are highly sensitive to the slightest movement. 捕食性动物的眼睛能感觉到最细小的动静。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 tumorous   

肿胀的； 肿瘤性的； 浮华的； 浮夸的

参考例句：

• Younger patients with non-tumorous nipple discharge should be followed up. 年轻的非肿瘤性乳头溢液患者应随访。
• Methods: Seven patients with mandibular tumor were treated with pr ompt autotransplantation of boliled tumorous mandibule. 方法：对7例下颌骨肿瘤患者施行了煮沸自体下颌肿瘤骨立即再植术。

11 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

12 herd   

n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• He had no opinions of his own but simply follow the herd.他从无主见，只是人云亦云。

13 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

14 mythical   

adj.神话的；虚构的；想像的

参考例句：

• Undeniably,he is a man of mythical status.不可否认，他是一个神话般的人物。
• Their wealth is merely mythical.他们的财富完全是虚构的。