关于鸟的英语文章阅读
鸟信仰是中国原始社会先民的主要信仰之一。在原始社会,东夷、百越、荆楚等民族都信奉鸟图腾,对鸟类抱有特殊的崇拜和信仰。本文是关于鸟的英语文章，希望对大家有帮助!
关于鸟的英语文章篇一
Fossil feathers
羽毛化石
Not just for the birds
并非鸟类独有
A trove of fossils sheds light on the evolution of feathers
珍贵羽毛化石的发现能够更好地阐释羽毛的进化过程
THE fossil record is, famously, full of holes.
众所周知，化石记录总是漏洞百出。
One such lacuna has been the absence of well-preserved feathers from the Cretaceous-the period between 145m and 65m years ago that ended with the mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs.
一个漏洞就是由于人们无法找到白垩纪时期保存完好的羽毛，因而该时期羽毛化石的记录一直处于空白状态。白垩纪是距今1.45亿年到6500万年的一段时期，末期发生了导致恐龙消失的物种大灭绝。
Now, this gap has been partly filled.
如今，这段空白得到了部分填充。
In this week's Science, a team led by Ryan McKellar from the University of Alberta report the discovery of eleven feathers preserved in amber from the latter part of the Cretaceous, about 70m-85m years ago.
本周，瑞安?麦凯乐领导的研究小组在《科学》杂志上发表报告称，他们发现了11种白垩纪后期(距今约7000至8500万年)封存在琥珀里的羽毛。
Intriguingly, not all of them seem to come from birds.
有趣的是，这些羽毛并不都属于鸟类。
The origin of feathers is a mystery.
羽毛的起源一直是个谜。
The earliest known bird, Archaeopteryx, lived during the Jurassic, the period before the Cretaceous.
人类所熟知的最古老鸟类始祖鸟生活在白垩纪时期之前的侏罗纪时期。
But fossils from China suggest the precursors of feathers-simple, filament-like structures possibly used for insulation-evolved in land-lubbing dinosaurs and were only later adapted for flight.
中国出土的化石表明羽毛的前身呈简易的丝状结构，可能具有隔离热量的功用，这些简易丝状羽毛在陆地恐龙身上不断进化，直至后来才具备了飞行功能。
The top picture shows similar filaments discovered by Dr McKellar and his team, suggesting flightless dinosaurs sporting such protofeathers were still around in the late Cretaceous.
上图所示为麦凯乐博士及其研究小组发现的类似丝状的羽毛，表明长有这些原生羽毛的“非鸟”恐龙在白垩纪后期仍然存活着。
Not all the feathers found by Dr McKellar were so primitive, though.
不过，McKellar博士发现的羽毛并不都是远古时代的。
The second picture shows one similar in shape to those sported by modern birds.
第二幅图显示的羽毛形状与现代鸟类羽毛相似。
Modern feathers consist of thousands of fibres held together by tiny hooks.
现代鸟类羽毛由成千上万束靠细钩聚拢在一起的纤维构成。
The details of that design can be tweaked to change a feather's characteristics, offering waterproofing, insulation, streamlining and so on.
通过改进羽毛构造的细节可改变它的特性，如防水、隔热、流线造型等功能。
The third picture shows feathers that have just such a specialisation: coiling reminiscent of that seen in the feathers of modern divers.
第三幅图显示的羽毛就具备这样的特殊功能：螺旋造型与现代潜鸟的羽毛相似。
Such coiling allows a feather to absorb water, which streamlines and insulates the owner.
这种螺旋形状的羽毛能够吸水，并使该鸟类身形更加精巧同时起保温作用。
These feathers, then, presumably adorned a diving bird-perhaps Hesperornis, a flightless North American diver from precisely this period.
这些羽毛想必当时是归潜鸟所有——也许是“黄昏鸟”，一种恰好生活在这一时期不会飞翔的北美潜鸟。
The final picture shows pigmentation preserved in a fossil feather.
最后一幅图显示了封存在羽毛化石里的色素沉着。
Different feathers have different patterns of colour, suggesting that Cretaceous dinosaurs-flying or otherwise-used their feathers for display.
不同的羽毛有不同的颜色样式，这表明白垩纪时期的会飞恐龙和陆地恐龙都利用羽毛来炫示自己。
Charles Darwin once said that contemplating a peacock's tail made him sick, such was the difficulty of explaining its complexity.
查尔斯?达尔文曾说过研究孔雀尾让他有头晕的感觉，可见想解释清楚其复杂性有多难了。
Dr McKellar's finds suggest, at least, that that complexity began to evolve a long time ago.
不过，麦凯乐博士的发现至少表明这种复杂性在很久以前就开始进化了。
关于鸟的英语文章篇二
禽虐与气候变化 鸟类受害
Malaria among birds is becoming more prevalent
鸟类中的疟疾感染越来越多
MOSQUITOES, which carry malaria parasites, like the warm and wet conditions that are expectedto become more common with climate change.
携带疟原虫的蚊子喜欢温暖潮湿的环境，由于气候变化的影响这种环境可能会越来越普遍。
This has led many to reason that malarial infections will increase.
因此很多人推论，疟疾感染将会增加。
Yet studies run into the unreliability of modelling future climatic effects and sometimes ignorechanges in land use and health care.
但是很多研究遇到了未来气候效应模型不可靠的问题，而且有时忽视了土地使用和健康保健方面的变化。
However, a new analysis of the spread of avian malaria shows that for the birds, at least,there is a real worry.
然而，一项新的对禽虐传播的分析显示，至少对于鸟类而言，真正令人担忧的状况已经出现。
Laszlo Garamszegi, of the Do?ana Biological Station in Spain, studied patterns of malarialinfections in birds to avoid confounding human factors in determining the epidemiology of aclosely related parasite.
在对一种有密切关系的寄生虫进行流行病学鉴定时，为避免混入人为因素，西班牙多尼亚纳生物站的喇撒?噶母赛棘研究了在鸟类中疟疾感染的模式。
He looked at 43 previous studies that had carefully screened 3,000 bird species for malaria indifferent locations over the past 70 years.
他察