Episode Details

An ancient fossil found by a girl and her father on a beach in England belongs to a creature that might have been among the largest animals ever on Earth.

一个女孩和她的父亲在英格兰的海滩上发现了一块古老的化石，属于一种可能是地球上最大的动物之一的生物。

Researchers said in a recent study that the fossilized bone, called a surangular, was from a reptile called an ichthyosaur that lived in the sea. Based on its size, compared to the same bone in closely related ichthyosaurs, the researchers estimated that the creature was between 22 and 26 meters long. They named it Ichthyotitan severnensis.

研究人员在最近的一项研究中表示，这块被称为“苏拉格”的骨骼化石来自一种生活在海中的鱼龙爬行动物。 根据其大小，与密切相关的鱼龙的同一块骨头相比，研究人员估计该生物的长度在 22 至 26 米之间。 他们将其命名为 Ichthyotitan severnensis。

That would make it possibly the largest known marine reptile. Its size would be close to the largest whales alive today. The blue whale, considered the largest animal ever to have lived, can reach about 30 meters in length.

这将使它可能成为已知最大的海洋爬行动物。 它的大小接近当今现存最大的鲸鱼。 蓝鲸被认为是有史以来最大的动物，体长可达 30 米左右。

Marine reptiles lived in the world's oceans at the same time that dinosaurs lived on the land. Ichthyosaurs disappeared 90 million years ago. They came in several sizes. The creatures ate fish and other sea animals.

海洋爬行动物生活在世界各地的海洋中，同时恐龙生活在陆地上。 鱼龙在九千万年前就消失了。 它们有多种尺寸。 这些生物吃鱼和其他海洋动物。

Ichthyotitan, however, is known only from two jawbones. The jaw forms the lower part of the mouth.

然而，鱼泰坦仅通过两块颌骨而被了解。 下颌形成嘴的下部。

Ruby Reynolds and her father Justin Reynolds found one of the bones in 2020 at Blue Anchor in Somerset. The other bone is from a different Ichthyotitan individual found in 2016, along the Somerset coast at Lilstock.

鲁比·雷诺兹 (Ruby Reynolds) 和她的父亲贾斯汀·雷诺兹 (J