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Millions of years ago, a huge and powerful hunter flew in the skies above a former sea in what is now Australia.
数百万年前，一个巨型而强大的猎手在位于现在的澳大利亚的一片海洋上空飞翔。
Its large mouth and long, pointed teeth captured fish and other sea life.
它的大嘴巴和又长又尖的牙齿能捕捉鱼和其他海洋生物。
Scientists in Australia recently announced the discovery of fossil remains of the animal, named Haliskia peterseni.
澳大利亚的科学家最近宣布发现了一种名为海影翼龙的动物化石遗骸。
They said the fossils are the most complete remains of any pterosaur ever unearthed in Australia.
他们表示，这些化石是澳大利亚出土的所有翼龙化石中最完整的。
The creature lived alongside dinosaurs during the Cretaceous Period, the researchers said. Haliskia means "sea phantom."
这种生物在白垩纪时期与恐龙生活在一起，研究人员称，Haliskia的意思是“海幽灵”。
The researchers said Haliskia’s wings measured 4.6 meters across from end to end. The animal lived about 100 million years ago.
研究人员表示，海影翼龙的翅膀从头到尾测量长4.6米。这种动物生活在大约1亿年前。
"The Eromanga Sea was a massive inland sea covering large parts of Australia when this pterosaur was alive," said Adele Pentland, a doctoral student in paleontology at Curtin University in Australia.
“当这只翼龙活着的时候，埃罗曼加海是一个巨大的内陆海，覆盖了澳大利亚的大部分地区，”澳大利亚科廷大学古生物学博士生阿黛尔·彭特兰说道。
Pentland was the lead writer of a study, which appeared recently in the publication Scientific Reports.
该研究最近发表在《科学报告》上，而彭特兰是研究的主要作者。
The thin bones of pterosaurs do not easily turn into fossils.
翼龙的细骨头不容易变成化石。
For Haliskia, only 22 percent of the skeleton was unearthed.
海影翼龙的遗骸仅有百分之二十二被挖掘出土。
The bones included complete lower jaws, part of the upper jaw, throat bones, 43 teeth, vertebrae, ribs, bones from both wings and part of one leg.
这些骨头包括完整的下颌、部分上颌、喉部骨骼、43颗牙齿、脊椎骨、肋骨、双翅骨骼和一条腿的部分骨头。
Pentland said the researchers believe the muscle in the animal’s mouth, called the tongue, was very strong, based on the length of its throat bones.
彭特兰谈到，研究人员根据其喉骨的长度认为，这种动物嘴里的肌肉，也就是舌头，非常强壮。
"In many other pterosaurs, the throat bones are 30 percent or 60 percent the length of the lower jaw, whereas in Haliskia the throat bones are 70 percent the length of the lower jaw,” Pentland said.
彭特兰表示：“在许多其他翼龙中，喉骨长度是下颌骨长度的30%或60%，而海影翼龙喉骨长度是下颌骨长度的70%。”
Haliskia is a little larger and older, by about 5 million years, than the closely related Australian pterosaur Ferrodraco. Scientists announced its discovery in 2019.
海影翼龙生活在其近亲澳大利亚铁翼龙大约500万年前，也更古老一些。科学家在2019年宣布了它的发现。
Haliskia's remains are more complete than those of Ferrodraco.
海影翼龙的遗骸比铁翼龙的更完整。
Both animals belong to a pterosaur group called anhanguerians known from remains found in China, the United States, Brazil, Britain, Spain and Morocco.
这两种动物都属于一个名为“古魔翼龙”的翼龙类群，该类群的化石在中国、美国、巴西、英国、西班牙和摩洛哥都有发现。
The three other named Australian pterosaurs are known only from partial jaw bones, Pentland said.
彭特兰表示，其他三种被命名的澳大利亚翼龙只能从部分颚骨中得知。
The Haliskia individual's body ended up buried under sediment at the bottom of the Eromanga Sea.
海影翼龙的尸体最终被埋在了埃罗曼加海底部的沉积物下。
Pterosaurs were the first of three vertebrate groups to fly, appearing about 230 million years ago.
翼龙是三种会飞的脊椎动物中的第一种，出现于大约 2.3 亿年前
Birds appeared about 150 million years ago and bats appeared around 50 million years ago.
鸟类大约出现在1.5亿年前，而蝙蝠大约出现在5000万年前。
Pentland said the Haliskia discovery is also important because for many years experts believed Australia had very few fossils from the age of dinosaurs.
彭特兰表示，海翼龙的发现也很重要，因为多年来专家们认为澳大利亚恐龙时代的化石非常少。
I’m Caty Weaver.
我是凯蒂·韦弗。
