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This is Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin.
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The Explorers Club in New York City—whose members have included Neil Armstrong, Teddy Roosevelt, and the first men to reach both the North and South poles—has a reputation for serving exotic entrees, like fried tarantula and goats' eyeballs. In 1951 the dinner menu featured Pacific spider crabs, turtle soup, bison steak and—allegedly scavenged from glacial ice off the coast of Alaska—a mound of mammoth meat.
One club member who couldn't make the dinner asked to be sent a doggie bag, which he promptly donated to the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut. What was particularly odd—odder than displaying leftovers in a museum—was that the mammoth meat was labeled Megatherium, a giant extinct ground sloth native to South America.
So which was it: mammoth or monster sloth? To find out 64 years later, researchers sequenced some mitochondrial DNA they extracted from the preserved prehistoric takeaway. What they found is that the source of the sample was neither mammoth nor sloth. It was actually sea turtle—meat that likely contributed to both the main course and that turtle soup appetizer.
That's the forensic finding served up in the journal PLoS ONE.
Of course, a double order of sea turtle might not be as exciting as a mouthful of mammoth or a soupçon of sloth. But it may be easier to swallow.
Thanks for listening for Scientific American — 60-Second Science Science. I'm Karen Hopkin.
参考译文
这里是科学美国人——60秒科学。我是凯伦·霍普金。
有一分钟时间吗？
纽约市的探险者俱乐部因提供炒狼蛛和油炸山羊眼球等具有异国情调的主菜而著称，该俱乐部成员包括尼尔·阿姆斯特朗、泰迪·罗斯福以及第一批到达北极和南极的人。1951年，俱乐部的晚宴特色菜是太平洋蜘蛛蟹、 海龟汤、 野牛牛排以及据说来自阿拉斯加海岸冰川的猛玛象肉。
一名没能参加晚宴的俱乐部成员被要求交出打包袋，他马上将这个打包袋捐赠给康涅狄格州格林威治的布鲁斯博物馆。特别奇怪的是——比在博物馆中展示剩菜还要奇怪的是，猛犸象肉被标记为“大地懒属”，大地懒是一种巨型绝种地懒，原产于南美洲。
那它到底是什么呢？是猛犸象还是怪物树懒？64 年后，为了找出答案，研究人员从保存完好的史前外卖中提取出了一些线粒体DNA，然后对这些DNA进行排序。他们发现，样本的来源既不是猛犸象，也不是树懒。它实际上是海龟，海龟肉很可能用来做主菜和龟汤开胃菜。
这项法医发现发表在《公共科学图书馆·综合》期刊上。
当然，双份海龟肉可能不像一口猛犸象肉或一点树獭肉那样令人振奋。但它可能更易下咽。
谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是我是凯伦·霍普金。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
重点讲解
重点讲解：
1. be native to (动植物)当地土生的，原产地的；
例句：Chipmunks are native to America.
花栗鼠产于美洲。
2. find out (尤指特意通过努力)发现，找出，查明；
例句：We must find out a way to get over the difficulty.
我们必须找出克服这一困难的方法。
3. contribute to (为…)做贡献；
例句：Everyone was asked to contribute to the project.
要求所有的人都要为这个项目出主意。
4. serve up 提供；提出；
例句：They served up the same old excuse for their slackness.
他们提出老一套的借口为自己的懈怠辩解。
