很多物种已经从地球上消失达数百万年。
|
Different types of animals have been disappearing from view on the earth for millions of years.
|
感谢人类与生俱来的求知欲,如今,他们中的一员又再次出现了。
|
Now, one of them keeps popping up again, thanks to natural human curiosity.
|
或许,猛犸象又可以在地球上散步了。
|
Mammoths could walk the earth again.
|
猛犸肩高5米,长着长牙,圆圆的头颅高高耸起。
|
With large tusks and a high rounded head, mammoths were up to 5 meters tall at the shoulder.
|
它们全身披着深色长毛,体重在6至12公吨不等。
|
They were covered with long, dark hairs and probably weighed from 6 to 12 tonnes.
|
4月28日至7月10日,北京自然博物馆将展出两具猛犸的冰冻标本。
|
Two mammoths dug up are on display in Beijing Museum of Natural History from April 28 to July 10.
|
猛犸和现代大象是近亲,起源于400万年前的非洲,后迁移至欧亚。
|
Mammoths are close relatives of modern elephants. Mammoths first appeared in Africa about four million years ago and spread out across Europe and Asia.
|
慢慢地,它们进化成了多个种类,以适应各自的生存环境。
|
They slowly evolved into several different species, each adapting to their environment.
|
例如:毛猛犸(长毛象)就生活在西伯利亚极冷的环境下。
|
For example the hardy woolly mammoths lived in the extreme cold of Siberia.
|
大多数科学家认为,大约10000年前,由于气候变暖导致食物数量减少,毛猛犸才因此灭绝。
|
Most scientists think that about 10,000 years ago, woolly mammoths died out as a result of warmer weather reducing their food sources.
|
人们相信,在西伯利亚冻土下埋藏着近千万的猛犸。
|
It is believed that 10 million mammoths are buried under the frozen soil of Siberia.
|
2007年.一位俄罗斯猎人在冰雪中发现一具动物尸体,起初他还以前这是一头冻死的驯鹿。
|
In 2007, a Russian hunter came across what he thought was the body of a reindeer sticking out of the snow.
|
仔细一看,才发现这只"驯鹿"原来是一头4万年前的猛犸。
|
With a closer look, the "reindeer" turned out to be a 40,000-year-old baby mammoth.
|
在脑海中想象一下:毛猛犸曾在我们现在的居住地附近吃草。
|
Picture it in your mind. Woolly mammoths eating grass around the places we are living in right now.
|
俄罗斯首都莫斯科Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution的猛犸专家Andrei Sher表示:"我们的祖先可能见过它们,和它们居住在一起,甚至有可能捕猎过它们。"
|
"Our ancestors might have seen them, lived with them, and even hunted them," said Andrei Sher, a mammoth expert at the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution in Moscow, Russia.
|
你或许已经在电影中见过猛犸。
|
You might already have seen a mammoth in the movies.
|
在电影《冰原历险记2》中,一对猛犸配偶显示了它们的力量:公猛犸从即将塌陷的山洞里救出了母猛犸。多么浪漫的史前故事啊!
|
In Ice Age 2, the mammoth couple showed off their power, with the male saving the female from a damaged cave. What a prehistoric romance!
|
但是,科学家们仍渴望看到真正的猛犸。
|
But scientists are dying to see real mammoths.
|
猛犸标本的表皮和肉身都保存完好。研究猛犸的专家们希望能破解猛犸的基因秘密,让它们获得重生。
|
The skin and flesh of those dug up are well preserved. Experts studying them hope to find the genetic secrets of the mammoth and bring them back to life.
|