Jurassic fossils found in the UK 英國發現侏羅紀時期海洋生物化石

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學習要點

有關 “fossils（化石）” 的詞匯

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What covered the area of the dig in the past?

文字稿

A race against time to reveal our ancient past.

考古人員為揭開遠古的奧秘爭分奪秒。

The team from the Natural History Museum has just three days to excavate this unique site.

英國自然歷史博物館的這支團隊隻有三天時間來挖掘這個獨特的遺址。

The Cotswold quarry holds a treasure trove of sea creatures that lived during the Jurassic period. What’s here is so extraordinary, the location is being kept secret.

科茨沃爾德采石場蘊藏著大量珍貴的侏羅紀時期海洋生物化石。這裡的遺跡是如此非比尋常，就連它的位置都一直被保密。

Tim Ewin, palaeontologist, London’s Natural History Museum
We’ve got another really nice exceptional specimen here. It’s actually a brittle star. It’s likely to be a new species. It’s the quality of preservation. It’s the number of fossils that we’re finding. But it’s also the diversity – it’s really unprecedented in geological sites of this age across the world.

蒂姆·埃文倫敦自然歷史博物館古生物學傢
“我們在這裡又發現瞭一個非常特別的標本。這其實是一隻海蛇尾，很可能是一個新發現的物種。這裡的特別之處在於化石保存質量之完好、發現的化石數量之多，但同時還有物種的多樣性，在世界各地該時期的地質遺跡中是史無前例的。”

This area was once covered by a shallow tropical sea – living there were animals like starfish, sea urchins, brittle stars and sea cucumbers.

這個地方過去一度被熱帶淺海覆蓋，曾經生活著海星、海膽、海蛇尾和海參等動物。

The site was discovered by local fossil hobbyists Nev and Sally. But at first, the quarry didn’t look too promising.

該遺址是由當地的化石愛好者內夫和薩莉發現的。但一開始，這個采石場的考古價值並沒有被看好。

Sally Hollingworth, amateur fossil hunter
We were finding very small fragments of like plates of sea urchins. Just tiny, tiny fragments, though. Nothing really spectacular. When we got it home and cleaned it up, he was like ‘Oh my God, Sally, you’ve got to come and see this…’ And there’s this beautiful Jurassic sea creature coming to life.

薩莉·霍林沃斯業餘化石搜尋者
“我們發現瞭海膽化石板這樣的小碎片。隻是很小的碎片，沒什麼大不瞭的。但當我們把它帶回傢清理幹凈後，他說：‘天啊，薩莉，你得過來看看這個……’ 然後這個美麗的侏羅紀海洋生物就重現瞭生機。”

With so many fossils here, the challenge is working out which ones to keep. The very best are now heading to the Natural History Museum. The team says it’s the discovery of a lifetime.

這裡有這麼多的化石，要決定挑選哪些來保存真的不容易。最好的化石正被運往自然歷史博物館。這支團隊說，這是一次終生難遇的發現。