英语听力精选进阶版 13593

（单词翻译）

Jurassic bugs¹

Summary

30 August 2012

Scientists say they've found the oldest bugs of their type ever preserved in fossilised tree resin², in the Alps of northern Italy. The finding by an international team of researchers has been published in the Proceedings³ of the National Academy of Science.

Reporter:

Mark Duff

Report

High in the Dolomites of northeastern Italy, Italian researchers chipping away at rocks formed more than 200 million years ago found two miniscule mites⁴ and a fly preserved in tiny drops of amber⁵. Highly-magnified photographs of the creatures show the mites, in particular, to be perfectly⁶ preserved. At 230 million years old, they're about 100 million years older than the oldest previous find of their kind.

The bugs probably fed off the leaves of the tree in whose resin they were eventually preserved. Researchers say the discovery shows the mites' ability to adapt to changing evolutionary⁷ conditions. For film lovers, though, it has striking echoes of the Stephen Spielberg blockbuster, Jurassic Park, in which a team of scientists use the DNA⁸ of a mosquito preserved in amber to recreate dinosaurs⁹ with predictably terrifying results.