[ti:Scientists Find Dinosaur Fossils in Patagonia] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.04]Scientists in Chile's Patagonia area [00:03.60]have found the southernmost dinosaur fossils [00:07.68]recorded outside Antarctica. [00:10.44]The fossils include remains of megaraptors [00:15.24]that would have controlled the area's food chain [00:18.48]before their mass extinction. [00:21.88]Megaraptors were carnivorous, or meat-eating, dinosaurs [00:27.32]that lived in parts of South America [00:30.24]during the Cretaceous period [00:32.08]some 70 million years ago. [00:35.20]The fossils were found in sizes up to 10 meters long, [00:39.88]said the Journal of South American Earth Sciences. [00:44.88]Marcelo Leppe is director of [00:47.48]the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH). [00:51.00]"We were missing a piece," he told Reuters. [00:55.40]"We knew where there were large mammals, [00:58.08]there would also be large carnivores, [01:00.80]but we hadn't found them yet." [01:04.12]The remains were found in Chile's [01:06.48]far south Rio de las Chinas Valley [01:09.88]in the Magallanes Basin between 2016 and 2020. [01:15.56]The scientists also found some unusual remains of unenlagia, [01:21.16]a velociraptor-like dinosaur which was likely covered in feathers. [01:28.28]The fossils, said University of Chile researcher Jared Amudeo, [01:33.88]had some qualities not present [01:36.48]in similar remains found in Argentina or Brazil. [01:41.72]"It could be a new species, which is very likely, [01:45.08]or belong to another family of dinosaurs [01:48.44]that are closely related," he said. [01:50.80]He added that more evidence is needed. [01:56.24]The studies also provide more information [01:59.36]on the conditions of the meteorite impact [02:02.28]on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. [02:05.28]That meteorite may have led to the dinosaurs' extinction [02:09.92]some 65 million years ago. [02:13.32]Leppe pointed to a large decrease in temperatures [02:17.40]over present-day Patagonia [02:19.64]and waves of severe cold lasting up to several thousands of years. [02:25.00]The climate, however, was very warm [02:28.40]for much of the Cretaceous period. [02:32.04]"This world was already in crisis before (the meteorite) [02:36.00]and this is evidenced in the rocks [02:38.80]of the Rio de las Chinas Valley," he said. [02:42.12]I'm Dan Novak. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM