數(shù)百萬年前，一只小型有袋類獅子潛伏在澳大利亞古老的熱帶雨林中

數(shù)百萬年前，一只小型有袋類獅子潛伏在澳大利亞古老的熱帶雨林中

Long before the time of humans, this small but deadly marsupial lion raised hell in the ancient rainforests of Australia. Some 24 million years later, researchers have taken a second look at fossilized remains of this unusual marsupial lion and discovered it actually belongs to a never-before-seen genus of animals.

早在人類出現(xiàn)之前，這種體型雖小但致命的有袋類獅子就在澳大利亞的古代雨林中制造了地獄。大約2400萬年后，研究人員對這種不尋常的有袋類獅子的化石遺跡進行了第二次研究，發(fā)現(xiàn)它實際上屬于一個從未見過的動物屬。

The remains of the marsupial lion were first discovered in the late 1980s at the Riversleigh World Heritage Area in Queensland and were initially believed to belong to a carnivorous marsupial, Priscileo roskellyae. Reporting in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, researchers from the University of New South Wales have recently reevaluated the shape and structures of the beast's teeth and lower jaw to find that it actually belonged to a new genus of marsupial lion, Lekaneleo roskellyae, nicknamed Leo.

這種有袋類獅子的遺骸于20世紀(jì)80年代末在昆士蘭的Riversleigh世界遺產(chǎn)地區(qū)首次被發(fā)現(xiàn)，最初人們認(rèn)為它屬于一種食肉有袋類動物Priscileo roskellyae。據(jù)《脊椎動物古生物學(xué)雜志》報道，新南威爾士大學(xué)的研究人員最近重新評估了這種動物的牙齒和下頜的形狀和結(jié)構(gòu)，發(fā)現(xiàn)它實際上屬于一個有袋類獅子的新屬，Lekaneleo roskellyae，昵稱Leo。

“As we found more and better specimens at Riversleigh, we began to realize it didn't belong to that group at all. It was a new kind of marsupial that hadn't been seen before. It was a different branch on the marsupial lion family tree," study author Michael Archer, professor of biological, earth, and environmental science at the University of New South Wales, told CNN.

“隨著我們在里弗斯利發(fā)現(xiàn)更多更好的標(biāo)本，我們開始意識到它根本不屬于那個群體。這是一種以前從未見過的有袋動物。這項研究的作者、新南威爾士大學(xué)生物、地球和環(huán)境科學(xué)教授邁克爾·阿徹在接受CNN采訪時表示。

Tom Hale

Despite its name, the animal is not closely related to lions. In fact, the genus doesn't have any close relatives alive on Earth today, so it's tough to truly understand how Leo might have behaved. However, it does possess some stand-out features that provide some strong hints of how the species might have coped with the massively complex ecosystem of Australia's ancient forests.

盡管它的名字叫有袋類獅子，但它不是與獅子密切相關(guān)的動物。事實上，這個屬在地球上沒有任何近親，所以很難真正理解利奧的行為。然而，它確實擁有一些突出的特征，為這個物種如何應(yīng)對澳大利亞古老森林龐大復(fù)雜的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)提供了有力的線索。

"In Australia, the marsupial lions were the supremely specialised carnivores throughout at least the last 30 million years of Australian history," Archer told ABC News.

“在澳大利亞，至少在3000萬年的歷史中，有袋類獅子是最特別的食肉動物，”Archer告訴ABC新聞。

It was armed with razor-shape teeth, which the researchers compare to mini bolt-cutters. Although no larger than a domestic cat, the lion is thought to have been a sneaky and fierce predator of small animals during the Oligocene–Miocene of Australia, living among the area’s trees and hunting small mammals, snakes, and reptiles.

它長著剃刀形狀的牙齒，研究人員將其比作微型螺栓切割機。雖然獅子不比家貓大，但人們認(rèn)為，在澳大利亞漸新世-中新世時期，獅子是一種狡猾而兇猛的小型動物捕食者，生活在該地區(qū)的樹林中，捕食小型哺乳動物、蛇和爬行動物。

"They had an extraordinary, elongated, bolt-cutting type of premolar," Archer told ABC News. "This was the most extraordinary adaptation or evolution that a carnivorous mammal has ever developed anywhere in the world. It is capable of slicing straight through bones."

阿徹告訴美國廣播公司新聞網(wǎng):“它們的前磨牙長得很特別，修長，可以用螺栓切斷。”“這是食肉哺乳動物在世界上任何地方最不尋常的適應(yīng)或進化。它可以直接穿透骨頭。”

Australasia and the Americas are the sole kingdoms of marsupials, a peculiar bunch of mammals that give birth to underdeveloped young that continue to grow in the mother's pouch. Some of their most famous members include kangaroos, wallabies, and koalas.

大洋洲和美洲是有袋類動物的唯一王國，有袋類動物是一種特殊的哺乳動物，它們生下發(fā)育不全的幼仔，幼仔繼續(xù)在母親的育兒袋里生長。它們最著名的成員包括袋鼠、小袋鼠和樹袋熊。

The new member of this gang is part of the same family as the thylacine, aka the Tasmanian tiger. This species was the only member of the Thylacinidae family to survive into modern times, however, it plunged into extinction over 80 years ago when the last living individual died at a Washington DC zoo in 1936.

這個團伙的新成員和袋狼屬于同一個家族，也就是塔斯馬尼亞虎。這個物種是袋狼家族中唯一存活到現(xiàn)代的成員，然而，在80多年前，當(dāng)最后一個存活的個體1936年死于華盛頓特區(qū)動物園時，袋狼就陷入了滅絕的邊緣。