Did Dinosaurs Have Feathers

Did Dinosaurs Have Feathers？

恐龙有羽毛吗

All birds have feathers. They have short, fluffy feathers. And they have feathers that are smooth and long. On chilly days, fluffy feathers keep birds warm. Long, smooth flight feathers on their wings help birds get off the ground. They flap their feathered wings to fly and stretch them out to soar. Bright, colorful feathers help birds know each other. Quiet colors can help them hide themselves from enemies.

鸟身上都有羽毛，有的很短,毛茸茸的，有的很长，很光滑。天气寒冷时，毛茸茸的短羽毛有助于鸟的身体保暖。又长又光滑的飞行羽毛有助于鸟飞离地面。在起飞或高空翱翔时鸟拍打着满是羽毛的翅膀。鲜艳多彩的羽毛有助于鸟彼此识别,朴素的羽毛则有助干它们隐藏起来，躲过天敌。

Birds are the only living animals with feathers. But there was a time in Earth's history when there were no birds. Two hundred thirty million years ago, the first dinosaurs began to appear on Earth. There were no birds then, and no animals with feathers. So where did birds come from? And how did their amazing feathers develop?

鸟是当今世界上唯一有羽毛的动物。然而 ,鸟不是自古以来就存在的。两亿三千万年前当恐龙开始出现时,地球上没有鸟,也没有其他有羽毛的动物。那么,鸟从哪里来的?它们身上那神奇的羽毛又是怎样进化来的呢?

One of the oldest feathers we know about belonged to a creature that lived 145 million years ago-about 85 million years after the earliest dinosaurs. All feathers are delicate. None can last for 145 million years. But long ago, this feather fell into fine, grained mud. As the mud hardened into rock, it preserved a perfect print of the feather. This beautiful two-and a half inch fossil print was discovered in 1860 in Solnhofen, Germany, The German scientist Hermann von Meyer named the creature the feather came from. He called it Archaeopteryx, or “ ancient wing” .

据文献记载 最远古的有羽毛的动物出现在 1.45 亿年前 比最早的恐龙晚了 8500 万年所有的羽毛都纤细易碎,无法保留到 1.45 亿年后的现在。不过,在很久以前,有一片羽毛掉入了细腻的淤泥里,泥巴慢慢硬化以后,变成了岩石,从而保存了羽毛完美的印迹。1860年，那片薄薄的漂亮的羽毛化石印迹在德国索伦霍芬首次被人类发现,德国科学家赫尔曼冯·迈尔命名了这种生物,称之为始祖鸟，或古翼鸟。

Very soon after that, an Archaeopteryx skeleton was found, complete with prints of feathers on its wings and tail. Since von Meyer's time, six more Archaeopteryx fossils have been discovered. Archaeopteryx had feathers. But was it a bird? Archaeopteryx does not look quite like the birds we know! For one thing, it had teeth, No living birds have teeth. And it had a long, bony tail. Today's birds have short tails. Some may have long tail feathers, but their tailbones are small and stubby.

不久后,一副始祖鸟骨骼被挖掘出来,它翅膀和尾巴上羽毛的印迹很完整。从冯·迈尔开始,已发现的始祖鸟化石超过了6种。始祖鸟有羽毛,但它是鸟吗?始祖鸟和我们所熟悉的鸟长得不太一样。其一,始祖鸟有牙齿,还有一条长着多块尾骨的长尾巴。现代鸟类没有牙齿，长着短尾巴。有些鸟长着长长的尾羽，但是它们的尾骨很小，又短又粗。

Archaeopteryx's wings and feathers looked like those of modern birds. In fact, many scientists think Archaeopteryx was able to fly. But unlike birds, Archaeopteryx had three long, clawed fingers on the front edge of each wing. Archaeopteryx had the wings and feathers of a bird, but its sharp teeth, long tail, and clawed hands were very much like a dinosaur's. So what was this newly discovered feathered creature? Dinosaur or bird? In the 1860s, scientists decided to call Archaeopteryx Earth's oldest, or first, bird, Nevertheless, many believed that this weird bird must have developed from dinosaur ancestors.

始祖鸟的翅膀和羽毛与现代鸟类确实有许多相似之处。事实上,许多科学家都认为始祖鸟有飞行能力。与现代鸟类不同的是，它们每个翅膀前端有 3 个长长的带爪的趾头。始祖鸟与鸟一样,有翅膀和羽毛。它们还有尖利的牙齿、修长的尾巴、带爪的前肢,这些特征很像恐龙。那么，这个新发现的长着羽毛的动物到底是什么呢?恐龙?还是鸟?19 世纪 60年代,科学家正式将始祖鸟称为地球上最古老或最早出现的鸟。然而,许多科学家相信,这种奇怪的鸟很可能是从恐龙进化来的。