第3106期:First dinosaur bone from Antarctica found in a drawer

The ten-centimetre-wide fossil was unearthed during an expedition to James Ross Island four decades ago.这块宽约 10 厘米的化石，是在四十年前一次对詹姆斯·罗斯岛的科学考察活动中出土的。Its discovery was recorded in a field notebook with a tiny sketch of the fossil and a note saying vertebra from a large reptile. But that was as far as the identification went, until the fossil was spotted amongst the thousands of specimens stored at the British Antarctic Survey.一本野外考察笔记记录了这块化石的发现，里面附有一幅简略的化石手绘草图，并写着这是一种大型爬行动物的椎骨。不过，对这块化石的鉴定工作当时仅止步于此，直到最近，有人在英国南极调查局保存的数千份样本中重新注意到了它。Its distinctive shape revealed it was part of the tail of a titanosaur, the largest dinosaurs ever toroamthe Earth. It dates to 82 million years ago, when Antarctica was very different to how it is today.它独特的形状显示，这块骨骼属于一只泰坦巨龙的尾部。泰坦巨龙是地球历史上已知体型最大的恐龙。这块化石距今约 8200 万年，当时的南极和它如今的面貌完全不同。It would have been covered inlushforest, providing ample food for this four-legged, long-necked dinosaur.那时的南极大陆覆盖着茂密的森林，为这种四足、长颈的巨型恐龙提供了充足的食物来源。