Long before the time of the dinosaurs, an unusual creature called Whatcheeria was a top predator.
早在恐龙时代之前，一种名为 Whatcheria 的不寻常生物就是顶级捕食者。
 
New research is providing a deeper understanding of Whatcheeria, which lived around 330 million years ago during a time known as the Carboniferous period.
新的研究使人们对Whatcheeria，生活在大约 3.3 亿年前的石炭纪时期。
 
After a close examination of the creature's ancient bones, scientists were surprised to find that Whatcheeria did not grow slowly and continuously like modern reptiles and amphibians. Instead, the creature grew quickly while young, like birds and mammals.
在仔细检查了这种生物的古老骨骼后，科学家们惊讶地发现，Whatcheria 并不像现代爬行动物和两栖动物那样缓慢而持续地生长。取而代之的是，这种生物在年轻时生长迅速，就像鸟类和哺乳动物一样。
 
Whatcheeria was an early tetrapod, as the first land animals with backbones were known. These were the ancestors of today's land vertebrates – animals such as amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.
Whatcheria 是一种早期的四足动物，因为人们知道第一批有脊椎的陆生动物。它们是当今陆地脊椎动物——两栖动物、爬行动物、鸟类和哺乳动物等动物的祖先。
 
Spending much of its time in lakes and rivers, Whatcheeria reached about 2 meters long, making it the biggest predator at the time.
大部分时间都在湖泊和河流中度过，Whatcheria 身长约 2 米，是最大的捕食者当时。
 
Megan Whitney of Loyola University in Chicago was the lead writer of the study that recently appeared in Communications Biology. She said, "Whatcheeria was not a slow... oversized amphibian." It was, she added, an active predator that grew quickly in the early part of its life.
芝加哥洛约拉大学的梅根·惠特尼 (Megan Whitney) 是该研究的主要作者，该研究最近发表在通讯生物学杂志上。她说，“Whatcheria 不是一种缓慢的……超大的两栖动物。”她补充说，它是一种活跃的捕食者，在其生命的早期阶段生长迅速。
 
Whatcheeria's name comes from the nearly 400 fossils found near the small Iowa town of What Cheer. The creature had a large skull filled with teeth as well as large limbs. Whitney said it was the top "predator of its environment that included different kinds of ancient fish and sharks as well as other, smaller early tetrapods."
Whatcheria 的名字来源于在爱荷华州 What Cheer 小镇附近发现的近 400 块化石。这个生物有一个长满牙齿的大头骨和粗壮的四肢。惠特尼说，它是“其环境中的顶级捕食者，包括不同种类的古代鱼类和鲨鱼以及其他较小的早期四足动物。”
 
Unlike many early tetrapods, bones of Whatcheeria have been discovered from different points in the animal's life. "Bones act as storybooks, recording information about animals while they're alive. And one of the important pieces of information that is recorded in bone is how fast the animal is growing," Whitney said.
与许多早期的四足动物不同，Whatcheria 的骨骼是在动物生命的不同阶段被发现的。 Whitney 说：“骨头就像故事书，记录了动物活着时的信息。骨骼中记录的重要信息之一就是动物的生长速度。”
 
A careful study of pieces of thigh bones from nine Whatcheeria individuals showed bone growth over time.
A仔细研究 9 个 Whatcheeria 个体的大腿骨碎片表明，骨骼会随着时间的推移而生长。
 
"A key finding of this research is that we identified fast-growing bone in juveniles of Whatcheeria. This is important because it indicates that the growth strategy of this animal was similar to ours: grow fast while young and then slow down growth as you become an adult," Whitney said.
“这项研究的一个重要发现是，我们在 Whatcheeria 的幼鱼中发现了快速生长的骨骼。这很重要，因为它表明这种动物的生长策略与我们的相似：在年轻时快速生长，然后随着年龄的增长而减慢生长速度惠特尼说。
 
She added that this kind of growth has long been considered special to warm-blooded animals like mammals and birds. However, Whitney added, "what we were able to show here is that this strategy was used even at the earliest stages of our evolutionary history."
她补充说，长期以来，这种生长一直被认为是哺乳动物和鸟类等温血动物所特有的。然而，惠特尼补充说，“我们在这里能够展示的是，这种策略甚至在我们进化史的最早阶段就被使用过。”
 
As a predator, Whitney said, Whatcheeria could have used a number "of hunting techniques." Researchers were not sure how much time the creature spent hunting on land or water. But the study showed that the animal could walk on land.
研究人员不确定这种生物花了多少时间在陆地或水上狩猎。但研究表明，这种动物可以在陆地上行走。
Ben Otoo is a co-writer of the study. He added that "Whatcheeria is a really nice demonstration
that evolution isn't linear."
Ben Otoo 是该研究的合著者。他补充说，“Whatcheria 很好地证明了进化不是线性的。”