新奇事件簿 科学家破解海马的秘密（在线收听）

For the first time, scientists have unlocked the secrets to one of the world's most recognizable and unique, but least understood fish – the seahorse. Researchers have worked out the genetic code of the Southeast Asian tiger tail seahorse. They now have the genetic map of all of its DNA. This means scientists can find out a lot more about this sea creature than before. They can now start to figure out why seahorses are so different to other fish. Unlike other fish, seahorses have no teeth. Another difference is the male brooding of their young - male seahorses carry babies and give birth to them instead of females. In addition, seahorses do not swim horizontally like other fish; they swim vertically (up and down).

科学家首次破解了世界上最容易辨别，最独特，但是人们了解最少的鱼类——海马的秘密。研究人员描绘出了东南亚虎尾海马的基因序列。他们现在已经掌握了海马所有的DNA图谱。这意味着科学家可以比以前更好地了解这种海洋生物。他们现在可以开始调查为何海马与其他鱼类差别如此之大。与其他鱼类不同，海马没有牙齿。另外一个区别是，海马由雄性来哺育后代——雄性怀孕，然后生育幼崽。此外，海马不像其他鱼类一样水平游动，而是垂直上下游动。

Scientists from Germany’s University of Konstanz and others from China and Singapore helped to sequence the genome of the tiger tail seahorse. A genome is a map of all the genes and genetic information in a cell or organism. Seahorses started to change from other fish about 100 million years ago. They began to take on their unusual shape, which resembles a horse. There is a total of 54 species of seahorse. Its scientific name is Hippocampus. The word 'Hippocampus' comes from the Ancient Greek word hippos meaning 'horse' and kampos meaning 'sea monster'. The word 'seahorse' can also be written as two separate words (sea horse), or hyphenated with a dash between the two words (sea-horse).

来自康斯坦茨大学的科学家和来自中国，新加坡的研究人员帮助确定了虎尾海马的基因序列。基因组是所有基因的图谱，包含一个细胞或有机体所有的基因信息。大约1亿年前，海马开始从其他鱼类转变。它们开始呈现出不同的形状，就像马一样。海马共有54个品种。它的学名叫做Hippocampus（马头鱼尾兽）。"Hippocampus"一词来自古希腊词语，hippos的意思是马，kampos的意思是海怪。seahorse这个单词也可以分开写作sea horse，或者中间加上连字符，写作sea-horse。