2015考研英语阅读蛇颈龙的家族生活_大学英语阅读

2015考研英语阅读蛇颈龙的家族生活

　　Instead, Dr O Keefe believes he has discovered evidence that plesiosaurs, too, gave birth tolive young.

　　反过来，奥基夫博士相信他已发现了蛇颈龙同样靠胎生繁殖的证据。

　　What is more, all the baby bones come from a single individual, estimated to have been 1.5metres long.

　　此外，所有幼蛇颈龙的骨骼皆来自于单一的个体，身长估计有1.5米。

　　Ichthyosaurs and other contemporary viviparous species, by contrast, gave birth tomultiple offspring.

　　对比之下，鱼龙和其它现代胎生物种可以生育多个后代。

　　The fetus s level of development indicates that it was at most two-thirds mature.

　　从蛇颈龙幼胎的发育水平来看，它最多有三分之二的成熟度。

　　Had it survived to birth it would have been about 1.8 metres in length, and about one and ahalf times as heavy as the offspring of other viviparousspecies of the time.

　　如真能够成功分娩，幼蛇颈龙的身长可能为1.8米左右，体重大约是同时期其它胎生物种后代的1.5倍。

　　That it was so heavy, and also alone, is of great interest.

　　蛇颈龙幼胎超重且单独的个体引起了古生物学家的极大兴趣。

　　Georges Cuvier, an early palaeontologist, made his reputation by predicting the anatomiesof newly discovered fossil species from scant evidence, such as single bones.