世界最长恐龙粪便化石 拍价1万美元

A fossilised piece of million-year-old animal dung more than a metre in length is set to go on auction tomorrow in the US.

明天，一块长度超过1米的动物粪便化石将在美国拍卖。这块化石已经有上百万年历史。

It’s not clear what beast produced the sample (technically known as a coprolite) but it’s expected that it will fetch between $8,000 and $10,000 when it goes under the hammer.

目前尚不清楚这块化石（专业术语叫粪化石）是哪种动物留下的。但预计它的拍出价在8千至1万美元之间。

The clay-coloured sample is thought to date back to the Oligocence and Minocene Epochs, making it between 5.3 and 33.9 million years old.

这块粘土色的标本被认为来自渐新世或中新世，也就是530万到3390万年前。

“This truly spectacular specimen is possibly the longest example of coprolite - fossilised dinosaur feces - ever to be offered at auction,” reads the auction description from I.M. Chait. “It boasts a wonderfully even, pale brown-yellow colouring and terrifically detailed texture to the heavily botryoidal surface across the whole of its immense length.”

“这块吸引眼球的标本可能是有史以来被拍卖的最长的一块粪化石（化石化的恐龙粪便），”I.M.Chait拍卖行的拍卖品描述中写道，“这块极长的葡萄状化石拥有浅棕黄色的外表和非常细致的纹理。”

For those of you who have never had to describe fossilized, possibly-dinosaur poo, ‘botryoidal’ means globular and comes from the Greek word ‘botrus’ – meaning a ‘bunch of grapes’.

如果你从未描述过这块可能是恐龙粪便的化石，“botryoidal”这个词的意思是球形的。它来自希腊语“botrus”，意思是一串葡萄。

The specimen will be “presented in four sections, each with a heavy black marble custom base, an eye-watering 40-inches in length overall.”

这块标本将被“分成四份展出，每份都会放在定制的黑色大理石底座上，总长40英寸，令人瞩目。”

Despite their innate weirdness, coprolites and paleofeces (fossilized human faeces) are rich sources of information for archaeologists and were also invaluable at the time of their creation: dinosaur droppings provided the fertilizer necessary to keep those prehistoric jungles looking green and lush.

除了本身的奇异，粪化石和远古人类粪便化石能够为考古学家提供大量信息。此外，它们在远古时代也是无价之宝：恐龙粪是让史前丛林茂密生长的肥料。

Coprolites have been used for everything from dating the timeline of certain species to proving the existence of cannibalism in ancient human cultures (thanks to the discovery of human proteins in unearthed paleofeces).

从确定物种的生存年代到发现古人类的食人习俗（感谢出土的远古人类粪便化石中发现的人类蛋白质），粪化石的用处非常广泛。

The 40-inch sample seen above will actually go on sale alongside five other stool-shaped specimens that to have come from a Miocene-era turtle, each of which is estimated to sell for $4,000 to $6,000.

上述的40英寸标本会和其它5块中新世龟的粪便状标本一起出售，这5块标本的售价为每块4千至6千美元。