時(shí)差N小時(shí):恐龍也會(huì)得癌癥?

If you think that cancer is only found in humans, orthat it's a modern disease, think again. Scientistshave not only found cancer in many other animals,they have found it in dinosaurs that lived more than65 million years ago. Wondering if fossils could tellus something about ancient cancer, scientiststraveling with a portable x-ray machine scanned ten-thousand dinosaur vertebrae of over 700 museumspecimens.

如果你認(rèn)為癌癥只會(huì)出現(xiàn)在人類(lèi)身上，或者它只是一種現(xiàn)代疾病，那么你需要從新審視一下這個(gè)問(wèn)題了?？茖W(xué)家不僅發(fā)現(xiàn)其它很多動(dòng)物患有癌癥，而且還發(fā)現(xiàn)生活在距今6500萬(wàn)年前的恐龍也有癌癥?？紤]到能夠通過(guò)化石來(lái)了解古代癌癥，科學(xué)家用便攜式X光儀對(duì)700個(gè)博物館標(biāo)本近1萬(wàn)件恐龍脊椎骨進(jìn)行了掃描。

These included many popular dinosaurs such as Stegosaurus, Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus.Much to their surprise, they found that only one group suffered from cancer-the hadrosaurs, or“duck-billed” dinosaurs. 29 benign tumors were found in the tail bones of 97 animals. Thesewere mostly hemangiomas or tumors of the blood vessels.

經(jīng)過(guò)掃描的恐龍化石包括許多我們比較熟悉的恐龍，比如劍龍，三角恐龍和暴龍。另科學(xué)家十分驚奇的是，僅有一組恐龍是癌癥的受害者——它就是鴨嘴龍。研究人員在97個(gè)恐龍的尾骨里發(fā)現(xiàn)了29個(gè)良性腫瘤塊。它們大多是血管瘤或是脈管瘤。

Doctors find the same type of tumors in humans today. One Edmontosaurus also had amalignant tumor. Why did duck-Billed dinosaurs have cancer and not the others? Scientistsaren't sure. They thought that if hadrosaurs were long-lived, they would have a greater chanceof developing cancer, but they lived relatively short lives. These twenty-five foot long herbivoresneeded plenty to eat, so diet was another thing scientists considered.

醫(yī)生們?cè)诮裉斓娜祟?lèi)身上也發(fā)現(xiàn)了這類(lèi)腫瘤。在一個(gè)愛(ài)德蒙托龍身上還發(fā)現(xiàn)了惡性腫瘤。為什么鴨嘴龍會(huì)患上癌癥，而不是其它的恐龍呢?這一點(diǎn)科學(xué)家也不得而知?？茖W(xué)家認(rèn)為，如果鴨嘴龍存活的時(shí)間很長(zhǎng)，那么它們患癌癥的幾率會(huì)很大，但它們存活的時(shí)間相對(duì)較短。這些25英尺長(zhǎng)的草食動(dòng)物需要吃很多東西，因此科學(xué)家把它們的飲食作為另一個(gè)考慮因素。

Maybe conifers were to blame. Hadrosaurs ate plenty of them and they did contain knowncarcinogens. The trouble is, other conifer eaters didn't exhibit the same cancer. The cause ofhadrosaur cancer remains a mystery today, but dinosaur fossils are helping unlock secrets ofdiseases millions of years old. Who knows what else they'll reveal.

也許罪魁禍?zhǔn)资轻樔~樹(shù)。鴨嘴龍要吃很多針葉樹(shù)葉，這些針葉樹(shù)確實(shí)含有已知的致癌物。但問(wèn)題是，其它吃針葉樹(shù)的恐龍并沒(méi)有患同樣的癌癥。鴨嘴龍的癌癥病因至今還是個(gè)謎，但恐龍化石幫助我們揭開(kāi)了隱藏了百萬(wàn)年之久的秘密. 誰(shuí)知道它們還會(huì)揭示什么呢?