7.Komodo Dragons And Allosaurus
7.科摩多龙和异特龙
Nothing matches the cool factor when it comes to the largest lizard currently scaring the planet. The Komodo dragon looks intimidating, has toxic venom, and hunts prey bigger than itself. Now, raise this 3-meter (10 ft) reptile on its hind legs, give it horns, make it dinosaur-sized, and say hello to its cousin, the allosaurus.
说到目前世界上最大的蜥蜴，没有什么比科摩多龙更酷的了，它每时每刻都在“恐吓着”地球上的其他生物。科摩多龙看起来很吓人，它会分泌毒液，捕食的动物比自身还大。现在，让这个3米高（10英寸）的爬行动物站起来，给它两个角，再放大到恐龙的大小，然后给科摩多龙的近亲——异特龙打声招呼吧。
One shared family trait is rather startling: These two super-predators have surprisingly weak jaws for their size. The Komodo's chomping power falls in the range of the domestic house cat, and the ferocious allosaurus most likely had to hack and strip meat out of its living victims, rather than deliver crushing bites. However, dainty jaws weren't a disadvantage during hunting, since evolution endowed them with specialized skulls, strong neck muscles, and cutthroat teeth. In short, they became lethal slashers.
它们有一个令人惊奇的共同点：相比于身型，这两种巨型食肉动物的下颌都很羸弱。科摩多龙的咀嚼力几乎和家猫一样，而凶猛的异特龙不得不把肉从活着的猎物身上撕扯下来，而不是直接一口咬碎猎物。然而，娇弱的下颌在捕猎过程中并非劣势，因为自然进化赋予了它们与众不同的头骨、强壮的颈部肌肉和锋利的牙齿。简言之，它们就是致命的断木机。
Causing prey to die from large wounds and blood loss is called inertia eating, and the Komodo also uses this tactic, along with poisoning its prey during bites. The Komodo, whom researchers recently discovered originated in Australia as opposed to the Indonesian island of Komodo, even has a mouth with snake-like flexibility, allowing it to cause traumatic damage to a bigger area. Unfortunately for the extreme pet owner, neither is up for regular adoption. The dangers of keeping a Komodo ensure that dogs won't be replaced anytime soon, and cousin Al left the scene around 150 million years ago.
惯性捕食是指让猎物因伤口较大、失血过多而死亡。科摩多龙用的就是这种战术，同时还会向猎物的伤口注射毒液。近年来研究人员发现，科摩多龙起源于澳大利亚，而不是印度尼西亚的科摩多岛（Komodo）。科摩多龙的嘴甚至能像蛇一样灵活，这使得它给猎物造成的创伤范围更大。不幸的是，这对于那些极端的宠物主人来说，将无法正常饲养科摩多龙。养科摩多龙的危险性确保了狗还不会那么快被取代，而科摩多龙的近亲早在1.5亿年前就灭绝了。
6.Meerkats And Civet Cats
6.麝香猫和猫鼬
They may have similar names and superb, feline-like agility, but neither meerkats nor civet cats are remotely related to cats. These African carnivores are related to mongooses and weasels, noted for their long, elastic bodies.
虽然麝香猫及猫鼬和猫有相似的名字，也有同样机灵、敏捷的身形，但其实麝猫和猫鼬都不是猫科动物。这些非洲食肉动物分别属于灵猫科和獴科动物，以它们长而灵活的小身躯著称。
Meerkat and civet mothers both give birth in underground dens, but their commonalities end there. Meerkats believe that it takes a village to raise a pup, but civets are single mothers who only group together with others during mating season. Civet babies are born rough and ready for the world, fully furred and able to move around. Meerkats are born naked and without their senses.
麝香猫和猫鼬妈妈都喜欢在地下洞穴生宝宝，但它们的共同点也仅此而已。猫鼬认为它需要其他猫鼬跟它一起养育宝宝，但麝香猫是只在交配季节才和其他同类生活在一起的单身母亲。麝香猫宝宝天生比较粗野，适应性好，一身茸毛，还喜欢四处打滚。猫鼬宝宝出生时却是光秃秃的没有毛发，而且没有感官。
Meerkats, who are noted for scanning their environment while standing on their hind feet, as well as a degree of immunity to scorpion venom, are smaller and dull-colored. The nocturnal civet grows more than three times a meerkat's length at about 1.4 meters (4.6 ft) and is a beautifully patterned animal with a bandit face mask and a jaguar-like pelt, which unfortunately makes it a regular hunting target. Meerkats can live up to 13 years, and Civets can live up to 20.
猫鼬因其后脚站立时会扫视周围的环境，并且对蝎子毒有一定程度的免疫力而闻名，相比麝香猫，它的身形更小，颜色更深。夜间出没的麝香猫身长是猫鼬的三倍多，约 1.4 米 (4.6 英尺)，长得很漂亮，有一张英气的脸和一副美洲虎般的毛皮，很不幸这使它成为狩猎目标。猫鼬可以活到13岁，而麝香猫能活到20岁。
5.蚂蚁和蜜蜂
If bees were to attend some kind of taxonomic family reunion, they wouldn't be hanging out with wasps but rather ants. The family line was rearranged when scientists sequenced the insects' genetic material to answer an old question about how they evolved as a group. This group, called the aculeate (stinging) Hymenoptera clade, holds bees, ants, and stinging wasps. The results refuted the belief that ants were more closely related to certain wasps and only a far-off cousin to bees; the reverse turned out to be true, with the exception of digger wasps and mud daubers.
如果蜜蜂参加某种分类学意义的家庭团聚，它们应该和蚂蚁，而不是和黄蜂一起。当科学家测出这些昆虫的遗传基因，并回答了一个关于它们如何演变成同类这种古老的问题时，它们的家族线已被重新排列。这一类，称为膜翅目，包含了蜜蜂、 蚂蚁和刺人黄蜂。该结果推翻了原先的理论——蚂蚁和某类黄蜂有亲属关系，与蜜蜂仅是远方亲戚；事实上，蚂蚁和蜜蜂更亲近（除了喜欢“挖洞”和“建房”以外）。
This new family tree now allows insect-loving scientists to study with more accuracy how reproduction, feeding, and social behavior have evolved within this stinging group, as well as their differences as separate species. The discovery also clarified a fossil that had been hard to place and, as it turned out, was wrongly classified. The Cretaceous Cariridris bipetiolata was thought to be the world's most ancient fossilized ant, but with a new and better understanding of these insects' family placement, it was reassigned as a type of ancestral wasp.
这个新族谱让喜爱昆虫的科学家们开始研究它们的繁殖、饲养、社会行为是如何进化成刺人昆虫的，以及它们作为独立物种之间的分歧。这一发现也阐明了那块不知如何归类的化石原来被错误地分了类。白垩系（Cariridris Bipetiolata）被认为是世界上最古老的蚂蚁化石，但随着对这些昆虫家族关系有了更新更好的理解后，它被重新定义为古黄蜂的一种。
4.对虾和鼠妇
Woodlice are small, armadillo-like bugs sometimes kept as pets. Only, they're not bugs at all. They are the land-bound cousins of prawns and crabs. Around 3,500 different types of woodlice scuttle around the planet, making them almost literally a fish out of water—a successful crustacean on land. All they have in common with insects is a tough exoskeleton and that their 14 limbs are jointed.
鼠妇身形娇小，貌似犰狳，有时也会被当作宠物来养。但有一点，它们根本不是虫子。鼠妇是对虾和螃蟹的陆系表亲。大概有3500种不同的鼠妇“急速奔跑”在神州大地上，它们如生活在陆地上的鱼一般来去自如，是甲壳纲在陆地上的佼佼者。它们与昆虫唯一的相同之处便是都身披坚硬的“盔甲”，同时又有7对足相连。
These “penny pigs” still need constant moisture to survive, perhaps because of their aquatic origins. That's why they are so often found in rotting plant matter. Most species are herbivores, but sometimes one might snack on its own shed skin and excrement, or that of other shedding woodlice. Like most crustaceans, woodlice are edible and have been consumed alive by people who believe that they help with liver diseases. They also contain quite a large amount of calcium carbonate, which makes them a gross sort of antacid if the pharmacy's closed and you really need some.
可能是因为祖先原是水生动物，这种“袖珍虫”只能生活在潮湿的环境下。这也是为什么我们常会在朽木下发现它们的身影。大部分种类的鼠妇属食草动物，但是有些品种则会吃掉自己的褪壳、粪便，或者吃掉其他鼠妇的褪壳。跟其他甲壳纲动物一样，鼠妇也可食用，并且很多人因为相信鼠妇对治疗肝病有疗效而生吃鼠妇。不仅如此，它们富含碳酸钙，可以让你在出现紧急情况又无药可买时，用来做抗酸药。
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