国家地理 南极深海的神秘生物（在线收听）

Scientists investigating the icy waters of Antarctic said on Tuesday they collected mysterious creatures including giant sea spiders and huge worms from the murky depths. Australian experts taking part in an international program to take a census of marine life in the southern ocean collected specimens from up to 6,500 feet beneath the surface. Some of the animals far under the sea grow to unusually large sizes, a phenomenon called "gigantism" that scientists still don't fully understand. Voyage leader Dr. Martin Riddle said during twenty days of actual sampling, they collected many samples of marine life, up to twenty-five percent of them previously unknown.

周二，研究南极冰冷海水的科学家们表示，他们从深海中收集了一些神秘的生物，包括巨大的海蜘蛛和巨大的蠕虫。澳大利亚专家参加了一项国际计划，对南大洋的海洋生物进行普查，他们从水下6500英尺的地方采集标本。海洋深处的一些动物长得异常大，这种现象被称为“巨大症”，科学家们至今仍未完全理解。航行负责人马丁·里德尔博士说，在20天的实际采样中，他们收集了许多海洋生物的样本，其中多达25%是以前不知道的。

We saw giant worms, giant crustaceans, giant sea spiders, glass-like tunicates, enormously diverse areas in some places, in other places things scraped bare and barren by iceberg/ scour. So huge diversity of life, very colorful, very rich, far exceeding any of our expectations.

我们在某些地方看到了巨大的蠕虫、巨大的甲壳类动物、巨大的海蜘蛛、像玻璃一样的被膜类动物，而在另一些地方，却被冰山刮得光秃秃的。生命多样性如此丰富、色彩琳琅、种类繁多，远远超出我们的期望。

Among the bizarre looking creatures the scientists spotted, was a species of tunicates, plankton-eating animals that resemble slender glass structures up to three feet tall, other animals were equally baffling.

在科学家们发现的奇异生物中，有一种被囊类动物，这是一种以浮游生物为食的动物，类似于三英尺高的细长玻璃结构，其他动物也同样令人困惑。

They had, they had fins in various places. They had funny dangly bits around their mouths. They, most of all were working on the bottom, so they were all bottom dwellers. So they were all evolved in different ways to live, to hang on the seabed in the dark, so many of them had very large eyes, so that what they are gonna use them for there where there's no life? I couldn't tell you. But yeah, they are very strange-looking fish.

这种动物长了很多鳍。嘴周围长着滑稽的尖牙。大多数都在底层工作，所以他们都是底层居民。动物进化出了不同的生活方式，他们在黑暗的海床上生存，所以很多都有大眼睛，那在没有生命的地方会用大眼睛做什么呢？我也说不出来。但是，是的，它们看起来很奇怪。

The specimens have been sent to universities and museums around the world for identification, tissue sampling and DNA studies. The expedition was part of an ambitious international effort to map life forms in the Antarctic Ocean, also known as the "Southern Ocean''. Scientists are studying the impact of climate change and monitoring how increased ocean acidification affects coral gardens. Increased acidification will make it harder for marine organisms to grow and sustain calcium carbonate skeletons. Scientists are planning a follow-up expedition in ten years to examine the effects of climate changes on the environment.

这些标本已被送往世界各地的大学和博物馆进行鉴定、组织取样和DNA研究。这次考察是一个宏大的国际合作项目，目的是绘制南极海洋(也被称为“南大洋”)上的生命形态。科学家们正在研究气候变化的影响，并监测海洋酸化对珊瑚花园的影响。酸化的增加将使海洋生物更难生长和维持碳酸钙骨架。科学家们计划在十年后进行一次后续考察，以研究气候变化对环境的影响。