[BBC NEWS] First oxygen-free animals found 首次發現無需氧氣的動物

First oxygen-free animals found

By Patrick Jackson  BBC News 首次發現無需氧氣的動物 外電：BBC 派屈克．傑克森  The creatures are covered in a thick, protective layer or lorica此生物由一層厚的外殼所保護 Scientists have found the first animals that can survive and reproduce entirely without oxygen, deep on the floor of the Mediterranean Sea.科學家首次發現此動物可以在完全無氧的狀況下，依賴地中海的海床生存並繁殖，The team, led by Roberto Danovaro from Marche Polytechnic University in Ancona, Italy, found three new species from the Loricifera group.由位於義大利，安扣娜的馬切工藝大學的羅蔔特．丹歐羅所領導的小組, 找到了屬於鎧甲動物門的三種新品種。 He told BBC World Service they were about a millimetre in size and looked like jellyfish in a protective shell. "We plan to go back and see if there are new surprises for us," he added. 他告訴BBC全球組，這些生物太約一毫米大小並且看起來就像有著甲殼的水母。"我們打算回去再檢查這些生物，對我們來說是否是新的驚喜"，他補充說明。  It is a real mystery how these creatures are able to live without oxygen because until now we thought only bacteria could do this  Professor Roberto Danovaro One of the three new Loriciferans (so-called because of their protective layer, or lorica) has already been officially namedSpinoloricus Cinzia, after the professor's wife.其中之一的新鎧甲動物（因其有保護層或外殼，故稱之）已經被正式地以教授的妻子之名Spinoloricus Cinzia命名。 The other two, currently designated Rugiloricus and Pliciloricus, have still to be formally described.另外兩種，目前分別命名為Rugiloricus和Plicioricus，但仍需正式詳述。 They were discovered in the course of three oceanographicexpeditions conducted over a decade in order to search for living fauna in the sediment of the Mediterranean's L'Atalante basin.牠們是在一個進程裡，已執行超過十年的三個海洋地質探索為了研究地中海L'Atalante海底沉積物中的存活動物誌，中所發現。 The basin, 200km (124m) off the western coast of Crete, is about 3.5km (2.2m) deep and is almost entirely depleted of oxygen, or anoxic.此海底盆地，離西岸克里特200公里遠，太約2.2公里深並且幾乎是氧氣耗盡甚至無氧的狀況下。 Eggs included Bodies of multicellular animals have been found previously in sediment taken from an anoxic area - or "dead zone" - of the Black Sea, Professor Danovaro told BBC News. But these were believed at the time to be remains of organisms which had sunk there from adjacent oxygenated areas. 這些多細胞生物的屍體早先被發於從無氧區(死亡區)帶回的沉積物裡，教授對BBC新聞說。但是之前被認為這些有機遺體是從鄰接的有氧地帶所沉入。  What the team found in the L'Atalante dead zone was three species of living animals, two of which contained eggs. Although it was not possible to extract the animals alive in order to show that they could live without oxygen, the team was able to incubate the eggs in anoxic conditions aboard on the ship. The eggs hatched successfully in a completely oxygen-free environment.小組在L'Atalante死亡區所發現的三種存活的動物，其中二種抱著卵。儘管無法可以讓這些生物存活以展示牠們如何存活於無氧的狀況下，但小組成功地於船上無氧的環境下孵育出這些卵。  The eggs hatched successfully in a completely oxygen-free environment. "It is a real mystery how these creatures are able to live without oxygen because until now we thought only bacteria could do this," said Professor Danovaro, who heads Italy's Association of Limnology (the study of inland waters). "We did not think we could find any animal living there. We are talking about extreme conditions - full of salt, with no oxygen."這些卵完全成功於無氧的環境下孵育而出。"這真是個謎，這些生物如何在無氧的狀況下生存，因為目前為我們認為只有細菌可以做到"，義大利淡水生物學協會首席教授如是說。我們之前並不認為我們能發現任何動物存活於此。這是非常嚴苛的環境，完全是鹽，並且沒有氧氣。 The discovery of the new Loriciferans represents, he said, a "tremendous adaptation for animals which evolved in oxygenated conditions". Dead zones in the world's oceans, he added, were expanding all the time.這些新鎧甲門生物的發現展現了在這種無氧情況下"動物極其驚人的適應性"，教授說。在世界上各大洋的死亡區，一直在擴大中，他補充道。