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Mammals Might Have Slept Through Dino Destroyer
【科学60秒】冬眠的意外功效
You’d think that the asteroid that hit Earth 66 million years ago with enough force to wipe out the dinosaurs would be tough to sleep through. But a new study suggests that the ability to engage in extended hibernation might be what saved ancestral mammals from extinction at the end of the Cretaceous. The hypothesis is in the Proceedings of the Royal Society (B). [Barry G. Lovegrove, Kerileigh D. Lobban and Danielle L. Levesque, Mammal survival at the Cretaceous–Palaeogene boundary: metabolic homeostasis in prolonged tropical hibernation in tenrecs]
你会觉得6千6百万年前小行星撞击地球产生的力量足以使恐龙灭绝，就凭这点就很难睡的安稳了吧。但是一项最新的研究提示我们，延长冬眠的能力也许就是白垩纪末期哺乳动物祖先们免于灭绝的法宝。这个假说日前发表在《皇家科学研究进展B》杂志上。
It’s thought that global wildfires engulfed the planet for a year or more after the Chicxulub impact. That’s a long time to stay out of harm’s way. Small mammals most likely burrowed underground.
据说，在希克苏鲁伯陨石撞击事件之后一年或者更长时间里，全球范围爆发了大规模的野火灾害。 这种破坏影响在野外持续了很长一段时间。小型哺乳动物大多喜欢在地下挖洞。
But could they last that long without coming up for air? Yes—if they were hibernating.
但它们可否坚持很长时间都不出来呼吸新鲜空气呢？没错，如果它们正在冬眠，就可以。
We know that bears can sleep through winter. But rabbit-sized Madagascar mammals called tenrecs have got that beat. Researchers tagged two dozen tenrecs with devices that recorded their body temp. And then released ‘em back in the wild.
我们知道熊能够整个冬天一直睡。而野兔般大小的马达加斯加哺乳动物马岛猬貌似就有这技能。研究人员们用仪器探测记录了24只马岛猬 的体温。然后就放回野外。
Most of the tenrecs got killed by dogs or snakes or poachers. But a couple tunneled into the sand where they proceeded to snooze until the researchers dug them up nine months later.
它们 大部分会死于野狗或者毒蛇或者盗猎。但是有一对遁入沙地下面进行沉睡知道研究者们在9个月之后把它们挖出来。
The findings reveal that on occasion the best way to make it through a crisis is to just take a long nap.
这项研究发现的结果反映了，在偶然情况下，度过危机的最好办法就是稍微延长一下打盹时间呢。
