已知最古老的蝎子化石，可能是最早探索陸地的動物之一

已知最古老的蝎子化石，可能是最早探索陸地的動物之一

Scientists have discovered the oldest known fossil of a scorpion – thought to be some of the first animals to leave the oceans and explore land – dating back to around 437 million years ago. Reported in the journal Scientific Reports, the “groundbreaking discovery” could shed some much-needed light on how the first animals made the momentous transition out of the sea to become land-dwelling creatures.

科學(xué)家們發(fā)現(xiàn)了迄今為止最古老的蝎子化石，它可以追溯到大約4.37億年前，是最早離開海洋、探索陸地的動物之一。據(jù)《科學(xué)報告》雜志報道，這一“突破性的發(fā)現(xiàn)”可能會給我們提供一些急需的線索，幫助我們了解最早的動物是如何從海洋中過渡到陸地生物的。

The fossil was first discovered in the 1980s around the outskirts of Waukesha in Wisconsin, USA. With scientists unaware of its significance, the specimen was stowed away in a dusty museum for over 30 years until it was recently reexamined by researchers from Ohio State University and Otterbein University.

該化石于20世紀(jì)80年代，在美國威斯康星州沃基肖郊區(qū)首次被發(fā)現(xiàn)。由于科學(xué)家們沒有意識到它的重要性，這個標(biāo)本被藏在一個滿是灰塵的博物館里30多年，直到最近才被俄亥俄州立大學(xué)和奧特拜因大學(xué)的研究人員重新檢查。

The scorpion, recently dubbed Parioscorpio venator, is about 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) long, a similar size to many scorpions alive today. The layer of rock it was found in dates to between 436.5 and 437.5 million years ago, during the early part of the Silurian period, a time when Wisconsin was covered in a warm and shallow sea.

蝎子，最近被稱為Parioscorpio venator，大約2.5厘米(1英寸)長，和現(xiàn)在許多蝎子的大小相似。人們發(fā)現(xiàn)的這層巖石可追溯到4.365億至4.375億年前，在志留紀(jì)早期，威斯康星州被溫暖而淺海覆蓋。

Most importantly, the scorpion was found to have respiratory and circulatory systems that are almost identical to those of our modern-day scorpions (as seen in the image above). This suggests that the ancient scorpion’s respiratory system most likely behaved like a modern-day horseshoe crab, allowing it to spend prolonged periods on land, despite spending most of its time in the water.

最重要的是，人們發(fā)現(xiàn)蝎子的呼吸和循環(huán)系統(tǒng)與我們現(xiàn)代蝎子的幾乎完全相同(如上圖所示)。這表明，古代蝎子的呼吸系統(tǒng)極有可能表現(xiàn)得像現(xiàn)代的馬蹄蟹，盡管大部分時間生活在水中，但它們?nèi)阅茉陉懙厣仙詈荛L時間。

“It's a groundbreaking discovery," Loren Babcock, study author and a professor of earth sciences at Ohio State University, said in a statement.

“這是一個突破性的發(fā)現(xiàn)。”該研究的作者、俄亥俄州立大學(xué)地球科學(xué)教授洛倫·巴布科克(Loren Babcock)在一份聲明中說。

“The inner workings of the respiratory-circulatory system in this animal are, shape-wise, identical to those of the arachnids and scorpions that breathe air exclusively,” Babcock added. “But it also is incredibly similar to what we recognize in marine arthropods like horseshoe crabs. So, it looks like this scorpion, this lineage, must have been pre-adapted to life on land, meaning they had the morphologic capability to make that transition, even before they first stepped onto land.”

巴布科克補充說:“這種動物的呼吸循環(huán)系統(tǒng)的內(nèi)部工作原理，在形狀上與那些只呼吸空氣的蛛形綱動物和蝎子完全相同。”“但它也與我們在馬蹄蟹等海洋節(jié)肢動物身上發(fā)現(xiàn)的非常相似。所以，看起來這只蝎子，這一譜系，一定是預(yù)先適應(yīng)了陸地上的生活，這意味著它們在首次踏上陸地之前，就已經(jīng)具備了進行這種轉(zhuǎn)變的形態(tài)能力。”

The earliest known scorpion before this discovery was found in Scotland and dated to about 434 million years ago. This new fossil, at least 2.5 million years its senior, provides the oldest and some of the clearest evidence of animals that became capable of exploring the land. In turn, this could perhaps explain how our own vertebrate ancient ancestors made this all-important leap from sea to land.

已知最早的蝎子是在蘇格蘭發(fā)現(xiàn)的，距今約4.34億年前。這塊比它至少大250萬年的新化石提供了最古老和最清晰的證據(jù)，證明動物有能力探索陸地。反過來，這也許可以解釋我們的脊椎動物祖先是如何從海洋跳到陸地的。

We're looking at the oldest known scorpion – the oldest known member of the arachnid lineage, which has been one of the most successful land-going creatures in all of Earth history, continued Babcock.

“我們正在研究已知最古老的蝎子——已知最古老的蛛形綱成員，它是地球歷史上最成功的陸地生物之一。”巴布科克繼續(xù)說。