中國發現的250萬年鱷魚祖先化石表明鱷魚也胎生

It was thought to only lay eggs but experts have provided the first ever evidence that an ancient ancestor of the crocodile also had live births.A remarkable 250 million-year-old fossil has been discovered which contains an embryo inside the mother.

鱷魚一般被認爲是隻下蛋的，但專家提供了一個遠古鱷魚胎生的證據-----一個兩億五千萬年前含有胚胎的母鱷魚化石被發現。

The new fossil is from a distant ancestor of the crocodile that flourished in shallow seas of South China in the Middle birth is well known in mammals where the mother has a placenta to nourish the developing is also very common among lizards and snakes where the babies sometimes 'hatch' inside their mother and emerge without a shelled egg.

新化石來自一個生活在三迭紀華南淺海的遠古鱷魚。胎生在哺乳動物中是衆所周知的，哺乳動物母親具有滋養胚胎髮育的胎盤。蜥蜴和蛇中也非常普遍有時嬰兒在他們的母親體內“孵化”而沒有殼蛋的出現（蝮蛇等，也叫卵胎生）。

Until recently the third major group of living land vertebrates the crocodiles and birds only laid eggs.

直到最近，作爲第三種主要的陸生脊椎動物：鱷魚和鳥類都被認爲是隻下蛋的。

Researchers from Hefei University of Technology in China discovered the new fossil of an unusual long-necked animal called Dinocephalosaurus - a creature that flourished in shallow seas of South China in the Middle Triassic.

來自中國合肥工業大學的研究者們發現了新的化石——一種罕見的叫做“東方恐頭龍”的長頸動物，這一生物在三疊紀中期時在華南淺海曾經大量繁衍。

An embryo was found inside the rib cage of the mother and facing forwards.

在恐頭龍媽媽的胸腔裏面發現了一個面朝前方的胚胎。

This suggests that the animal was not eaten - as swallowed animals generally face backwards because the predator swallows its prey head-first to help it go down its throat.

這表示這個動物可能不是被捕食的。通常被吃下的動物是面朝後的，因爲食肉動物爲了順利吞嚥那些被捕食的動物，經常先從腦袋吞起。