新西兰发现古代企鹅:身高达一米八能与人类比肩

　　Newly discovered fossils in New Zealand have revealed a giant penguin that was as big as an adult man.

　　在新西兰最新发现的化石中,有一只和成年男性一样大小的巨型企鹅。

　　The creature was almost the same size and weight as professional Canadian hockey player Sidney Crosby, who plays for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

　　该生物的身高和体重几乎和为加拿大匹兹堡企鹅队效力的专业冰球手西尼.克罗斯比一样大。

　　Scientists estimate it was a little shorter than Crosby, at 178 centimeters (Crosby is 180 centimeters), and nine kilograms heavier.

　　科学家估计这只企鹅也就比克罗斯比矮一点点，身高178厘米(克罗斯比身高为180厘米)，重9公斤。

　　If the hockey player and the real penguin had met on the ice, however, things would have looked a bit different. When standing up, the ancient bird only stood about 160 centimeters.

　　然而，如果这位冰球选手和这只真正的企鹅在冰上遇到，那看起来估计还是会有些不同。站立时，这只古代的鸟仅有160厘米高。

　　The new discovery is larger than any other ancient penguin that scientists have found, says Gerald Mayr. He is with the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum in Frankfurt, Germany.

　　新发现的这只企鹅比之前科学家发现的任何一只古时候的企鹅都大，杰拉尔德?迈尔表示。迈尔在德国法兰克福森肯堡研究所和国家自然历史博物馆工作。

　　A possibly larger penguin is only known to scientists from a small piece of leg bone. That makes estimating its size difficult.

　　科学家只能从一小块腿骨了解到可能有更大的企鹅。所以估测企鹅大小非常困难。

　　The largest living penguin species is the emperor penguin in Antarctica. It stands about 120 centimeters tall.

　　如今最大型的活企鹅是生活在南极洲的帝企鹅。站立时大概有120厘米高。

　　Mayr and others described the giant bird in a paper released this week. It was published in the journal Nature Communications. The researchers named the penguin Kumimanu biceae. The name is a combination of Maori-language words for a mythological monster and a bird, and the name of one of the author’s mother.

　　迈尔和其他研究员共同写了一篇关于这只大鸟的论文，已于本周发表在《自然通讯》期刊上。研究员将这只企鹅命名为“Kumimanu biceae”。这个名字在毛利语中是一只神话怪物和一只鸟的组合，也是其中一位作者母亲的名字。

　　The fossils are between 56 million to 60 million years old. That is almost as old as the earliest-known penguin fossils, says Daniel Ksepka. He works at the Bruce Museum of Greenwich, Connecticut. Ksepka has studied New Zealand fossil penguins but was not a part of the new study.

　　这块化石已有5600万到6000万年历史。几乎与已知的最古老的企鹅化石一般大，丹尼尔.卡瑟普卡说。他在康涅狄格州格林威治布鲁斯博物馆工作。卡瑟普卡一直在研究新西兰化石，但并未参与这项新研究。

　　Ksepka told the Associated Press that the new discovery shows that penguins grew very large, very quickly. They grew just after a mass extinction 66 million years ago – the extinction that is best known for killing off dinosaurs, he said.

　　卡瑟普卡告诉美联社说，新发现表明企鹅曾经可以很快长到很大。6600万年前的大灭绝之后他们又再次壮大——当时的那场灭绝主要是以恐龙的灭绝闻名，他说。

　　The event played a role in penguin history, as well. Before that, a non-flying seabird like the penguin would have been threatened by larger animals living in or near the water, as they competed for the same food. But after the extinction killed most of the larger animals, the ability to fly became less important.

　　那次事件在企鹅发展史中非常重要。在那之前，像企鹅这样无法飞行的海鸟，一定会受到居住在水里和附近更大型动物的威胁，因为他们需要为同样的食物竞争。但是大灭绝屠杀大多数大型动物后，飞行能力就不那么重要了。

　　This helped penguins survive and grow.

　　这帮助企鹅存活下来，并发展壮大。

　　The question that remains, however, is what happened to the giant birds?

　　然而问题是，这些巨型企鹅身上又发生了什么呢?

　　Mayr said researchers believe they died out when large marine mammals, such as toothed whales and seals, showed up and started competing with the penguins for food and safe breeding places.

　　迈尔说，研究人员认为，大型哺乳动物，如齿鲸和海豹出现后，它们开始与企鹅竞争食物和安全的哺乳地，所以这些巨型企鹅就灭绝了。

　　These newer animals may also have hunted the giant penguins.

　　这些新型动物可能也捕杀过这些巨型企鹅。