悬崖上发现的两个无名新物种

科学家鉴定出了两种此前从未被命名的动物。在黑山共和国的群山中,研究人员在石灰岩悬崖上仔细搜寻时,发现了两种极其微小的蜗牛,经过检验,证实它们是科学界从未记录过的新物种。

Scientists have identified two animals never before named. In the mountains of Montenegro, researchers combing limestone cliffs came across two minuscule snails that turned out, on inspection, to be new to science.

每只蜗牛大约只有指甲那么宽,外壳呈小小的锥形,专为挤进岩石狭缝里的生活而生。它们的尾部各有一个圆形的小盖,不是简单的一片薄皮,而更像一扇小门,动物一缩回壳里,它就立刻把壳口封住。这两个物种中的一个,只存活在一条狭窄的峡谷里,而一项计划中的水坝工程可能会在研究人员来得及记录这片悬崖上还有哪些未知生物之前,就将这条峡谷淹没。

Each snail measures roughly the width of a fingernail and carries a small, cone-shaped shell built for a life spent wedged into narrow cracks in the rock. Rather than a simple flap, each one has a round disk on its tail that functions like a tiny door, sealing the shell shut the instant the animal withdraws inside. One of the two species survives only within a single narrow canyon that a planned dam could submerge before researchers finish cataloguing whatever else lives there, unseen, on the same cliffs.

研究团队用发现地本身给这两种蜗牛命名:一种以那条峡谷命名,另一种则以附近一处高原命名。研究人员指出,这一发现说明,即便在欧洲这样地图早已绘制详尽的角落,依然可能有完整的物种,未被命名,静静地等在某一面悬崖上。

The team named the two snails after the very places where they were found: one after the canyon itself, the other after a nearby high plateau. Researchers note that the discovery shows how, even in well-mapped corners of Europe, whole species can still be waiting, unnamed, on a single cliff face.