侏罗纪海洋的统治者

鱼形爬行动物,被称为鱼龙,统治着海洋的时间与恐龙漫步陆地之时一样长,但直到最近古生物学家才发现这些生物如此成功的原因

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RYOSUKE MOTANI, who was born in Tokuyama, Japan, is a researcher in the department of paleobiology at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. As a child he found ichthyosaurs uninteresting. (¿They looked too ordinary in my picture books,¿ he recalls.) But his view changed during his undergraduate years at the University of Tokyo, after a paleontology professor allowed him to study the only domestic reptilian fossil they had: an ichthyosaur. ¿I quickly fell in love with these noble beasts,¿ he says. Motani went on to explore ichthyosaur evolution for his doctoral degree from the University of Toronto in 1997. A fellowship from the Miller Institute then took him to the University of California, Berkeley, for postdoctoral research. He moved back to Canada in September 1999.

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大众科学 Magazine Vol 283 Issue 6This article was originally published with the title “Rulers of the Jurassic Seas” in 大众科学 Magazine Vol. 283 No. 6 ()
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican122000-522jIEJoKgrET9iinwwFFn
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