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BBC News –A crocodile-sizedcreature that lived 242 million years ago was the first known vegetarian marinereptile, according to new fossil evidence.
BBC新闻 – 一种生活在2.42亿年前鳄鱼大小的生物，是已知最早的海洋爬行类食草动物，新的化石证据显示。
Two specimens unearthed in China revealdetails of the animal's skull and how it fed.
在中国出土的两个标本显示了这种动物的颅骨和进食方式的细节。
Named Atopodentatus, scientists say itshammer-shaped skull helped it to feed on underwater plants.
科学家说，这种名为须齿龙的动物有着锤形颅骨，可帮助它以水下植物为食。
Only a handful of marine reptiles, livingor extinct, are known to be herbivores.
众所周知只有一小部分现存或灭绝的海洋爬行动物是食草动物。
Dr Nick Fraser of National MuseumsScotland, who worked on the fossil, said it belongs in the pages of achildren's storybook by Dr Seuss, which depicts animals with a strange jumbleof features.
研究这个化石的苏格兰国家博物馆的弗雷泽博士说，这种动物应该存在于瑟斯博士写的儿童故事书中，这些书描绘的动物混杂了一堆奇怪的容貌特征。
The reptile was "a bizarre, bizarreanimal", he explained. "We envisage it scraping algae and the likeoff rocks underwater. " "Herbivorous marine reptiles are very rare -this is the oldest record that we know of."
这是一种“奇形怪状的爬行动物”，他解释说。“我们认为它刮下水底岩石上海藻之类的东西为食。”“食草类海洋爬行动物非常罕见– 这是我们所知的最古老记录。”
The first fossils of the creature werediscovered a few years ago. It was named Atopodentatus unicus, which is Latinfor "unique strangely toothed".
这种动物的第一个化石于几年前发现，被命名为独特齿须龙，拉丁文意为“独特的长着奇怪牙齿的动物”。
New fossils unearthed in China's YunnanProvince by Chun Li of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology andPaleoanthropology in Beijing give a detailed picture of the animal's skull.
由北京“古脊椎动物与古人类研究所”的李春在云南省出土的新化石，提供了独特齿须龙颅骨的详图。
The discoveries, unveiled in the journal,Science Advances, show that rather than having a zipper-like snout aspreviously thought, the animal had a wide hammer-headed jaw filled with peg-likefront teeth.
公布在《科学进展》上的这个发现，显示了独特齿须龙并没有以前认为的那样有着像拉链一样的口鼻部，而是有着长满了钉子样前牙的宽大的锤头状颌骨。
He said Atopodentatus helps tell a biggerstory about the world's largest mass extinction 252 million years ago.
他说，齿须龙有助于帮助讲述更大的有关2.52亿年前世界最大规模物种灭绝的故事。
It lived at a time when the Earth wasrecovering from the loss of 90% of all marine mammals. "The existence ofspecialised animals like Atopodentatus unicus shows us that life recovered anddiversified more quickly than previously thought," he said.
齿须龙生活的时期，是地球从损失了90%的海洋哺乳动物中恢复元气的时期。“像独特齿须龙这样的特别动物的存在，向我们展示了生命恢复和变得多样化比以前认为的要快。”
