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Hidden inside this unassuming piece of limestone are the remnants of a creature
这块不起眼的石灰石中藏着一种生物的残骸，
that reveals an extraordinary link between the age of dinosaurs and the present day.
正是这一残骸揭示了恐龙时代和当今社会之间的非凡联系。
Meet the wonderchicken.
下面，有请“神奇鸡”登场。
"All of a sudden we saw this incredible skull staring out at us,
“我们突然就看见这个令人难以置信的头骨正盯着我们，
once we caught our breath and actually took a close look,
缓过神来，仔细观察之下我们发现，
we realized that some structures of the skull,
这个头骨的某些结构，
were very similar to what you see in living chicken-like birds.
与我们现在能看到的和鸡长得比较像的鸟类头骨的结构非常相像。
And so the name "wonderchicken" just materialized then and there."
于是，“神奇鸡”这个名字随即就诞生了。”
The wonderchicken isn't just a well-preserved fossil;
神奇鸡不止是一块保存完好的化石，
it's also a missing piece to the puzzle of how modern birds came to be.
它也是现代鸟类起源之谜缺失的那块拼图。
And this discovery might just change everything we thought we knew about their dino-heritage...Again.
这一发现可能会再次彻底改变我们对有关它们与恐龙的关系的现有认知。
It all starts some 66 million years ago,
一切还要从大约6600万年前开始说起，
when we think a meteorite or comet hit Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs,
我们认为，地球就是在那时候遭到了陨石或彗星的撞击，导致恐龙灭绝，
bringing an end to the Cretaceous period.
白垩纪时期也跟着戛然而止的。
That moment in time is now permanently marked in our geological record
这段历史如今已经永久地雕刻在了我们的地质记录里，
by a thin layer of rock referred to as the K-T boundary.
变成了被称之为“K-T边界”的一层薄薄的岩层。
"And within that clay you see a geochemical signature of a giant space rock hitting the earth."
“我们可以在这层里看到巨大的太空岩撞击地球的地球化学特征。”
We have scant fossil evidence of birds from the Cretaceous period
我们几乎没有任何有关白垩纪时期鸟类的化石证据
(you know, around the time a giant space rock hit the Earth),
(大家也知道，白垩纪就是一块巨大的太空岩撞击地球前后的那段时间)，
which is why it's incredible to think that when an amateur fossil hunter
这也是为什么我们会难以想象一个业余化石猎人
picked up this hunk of rock near the border of Netherlands and Belgium,
在荷兰和比利时边境附近捡到这块岩石以后，
it sat unexamined in the back of a Dutch museum for twenty years.
这块化石竟然在荷兰的一家博物馆展厅后面放了20年都没被研究过。
But this year, Daniel and his team used Computed Tomography,
不过，今年，丹尼尔和他的团队使用计算机断层扫描技术获得了该化石更为详细的外观资料，
a kind of x-ray sampling that rotates around a sample
计算机断层扫描技术是一种围绕样本旋转的X射线采样
to create cross-sectional, 3D images without damaging it, to take a more detailed look.
并在不损坏样本的情况下创建横截面的3D图像的技术。
"It was amazing, right at the outset we discovered
“结果真是太棒了，因为我们一开始就发现，
that these not-very-pretty fossils were actually much more important than they initially appeared."
这些看上去不太漂亮的化石实际上比我们想象的重要得多。”
So, what can the wonderchicken's skull tell us
那么，有关小行星时代及鸽子与其他现代鸟类的起源，
about the era of the asteroid and the origin of pigeons and other modern birds?
神奇鸡的头骨究竟能告诉我们些什么呢？
The first clue is that frontal bone in pink.
第一条线索就是它那粉红色的额骨。
Equivalent to the forehead bone in you and me,
这块头骨就相当于你我的前额骨，
this bone's hourglass shape suggests a similarity in form,
这块骨头沙漏形的形状表明
and maybe function, to modern-day ducks.
它在形态上，甚至可能在功能上都与现代的鸭子有相似之处。
And that yellow bone connected to it is the nasal bone.
与之相连的黄色骨头是鼻骨。
"The shape of the nasal bones are very interesting
“神奇鸡鼻骨的形状是非常有意思的，
because their general profile and architecture are very similar to what we see in living relatives of chickens.
因为这些骨头的外形和结构与我们在鸡的亲属身上看到的外形和结构非常相似。
And, in the turkey skull, if you can see, this bone here bounding the back of the nostril is the nasal.
而且，火鸡的头骨，看见没，这里，环绕鼻孔后部的骨头就是它们的鼻骨。
The general shape and architecture is very similar."
大致的形状和结构和神奇鸡非常相似。”
Finally, the dead ringer is the bone in red, called "the premaxilla".
最后，两者长相十分相似的这块红色的骨头叫“前颌骨”。
"The fact that the beak is very prominent
“神奇鸡的喙非常突出，
and it's composed entirely of the premaxilla tells us that yes, this is a modern bird."
而且全部由前颌骨组成，这一事实告诉我们，是的，神奇鸡就是一种现代鸟。”
It's been thought that the birds that exist today descended from early ancestors
人们认为，现存鸟类的祖先
that somehow managed to survive the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event.
不知怎么的在白垩纪-第三纪灭绝事件中幸存了下来。
But up until now, we hadn't found much clear evidence
然而，截至目前，我们还没有找到许多明确的证据，
that modern birds and dinosaurs like T-rex and Triceratops coexisted.
表明现代鸟类和像霸王龙、三角龙这样的恐龙共存过。
"The fact that we have a modern bird from
“有一种现代鸟刚好生活在小行星撞击地球，
just before this asteroid struck the earth and wiped out the giant dinosaurs
灭绝了所有巨型恐龙之前那个时代这一事实
tells us that the earliest stages of modern bird evolutionary history
告诉我们，现代鸟类进化史的最早阶段
overlapped with the very final stages of the giant dinosaurs occupying the Earth."
与巨型恐龙占领地球的最后阶段是重叠的。”
So how did this little guy survive the mass extinction while his enormous compatriots were wiped out?
那么，庞大的同伴都被消灭了的时候，这个小家伙是如何在大灭绝中幸存下来的呢？
Well, we don't quite know for sure.
这个嘛，我们还不太确定。
But it could be that the wonderchicken's small size saved its life.
但可能是娇小的体型救了神奇鸡的命。
This phenomenon is called "the Lilliput Effect",
这种现象被称为“小人国效应”，
which states that smaller-bodied species
意思就是身体较小、
which have lower total metabolic requirements are more likely to survive harsh conditions.
总新陈代谢需求较低的物种更有可能在恶劣的条件下生存下来。
It also helps not to be too picky of an eater.
不挑食可能也是一方面的原因。
"If you think of a normal barnyard chicken,
“想象一只普通的谷仓鸡，
they will be generally pretty happy to eat almost anything that's put in front of you(them).
无论你在它们面前放什么食物，它们都会吃得很开心。
It has a generalist diet that may have made organisms perhaps better-suited
什么都吃可能也让它们这种生物
to surviving the mass extinction event than organisms with highly specialized diets."
相比饮食高度专一的生物更适宜在大灭绝事件中幸存下来。”
But for Daniel and his team, this amazing discovery might just spin up more questions than answers.
但对丹尼尔和他的团队来说，这一惊人的发现引发的更多的可能是问题，而不是答案。
"What kind of birds actually managed to survive the extinction event that wiped out the giant dinosaurs?
“到底是哪种鸟类在巨型恐龙灭绝事件中幸存了下来？
Were birds actually rare for a period of time after that extinction event?
那次灭绝事件之后的一段时间里，鸟类是不是变得比较稀有了？
So we're hopeful that we'll be able to shed more light on these questions
我们希望，我们能够更好地阐明这些问题，
by finding new fossil evidence of birds from these periods of time."
借助有关这些时期鸟类的新化石证据。”
Fun fact: based on its long, narrow hind limbs, the scientists think that this wonderchicken may have been a shorebird.
有趣的事实：鉴于神奇鸡的后肢又长又窄，科学家们认为它可能是一种滨鸟。
So, the researchers gave the new species the genus name "Asteriornis,"
所以，研究人员将这个新物种命名为了“阿斯忒里亚鸟”，
after the Greek goddess of falling stars,
灵感来源于希腊希腊星夜女神阿斯忒瑞亚的名字，
who transformed herself into a quail and threw herself into the ocean to escape an amorous Zeus.
她为了躲避多情的宙斯把自己变成了一只鹌鹑跳入了大海。
For more on dinosaur history, check out this episode here.
想了解更多有关恐龙历史的信息，请点击此处查看另一期节目。
If you have any other prehistoric science you want us to cover,
如果您有任何其他史前科学的话题想要我们介绍，
let us know in the comments below.
可以在视频下方的评论里告诉我们噢。
Make sure to subscribe, and thanks for watching.
记得订阅噢，感谢大家的收看。
