paleontology
中国で、ダイナマイトを使って恐竜の化石が発掘されました。
'Mud dragon' dinosaur unearthed by dynamite at Chinese construction site
The fossilized remains of a new species of winged dinosaur have been discovered in southern China by construction workers, who almost destroyed it with dynamite. The fossilized corpse was unearthed at a construction site in the city of Ganzhou when workers blasted away surrounding rock with TNT. Named Tongtianlong limosus, the dinosaur was a winged and feathered ancient ancestor to modern birds. The fossil is estimated to be from the Cretaceous period, making it between 66 and 72 million years old. The discovery was originally reported by the journal Nature Scientific Reports on Thursday. The report said that the dinosaur died trapped in mud with its beaked head titled upwards and wings extended, where it remained frozen in time until it was exposed by dynamite. China is enjoying a golden age of paleontology and has been at heart of many of the latest discoveries, particularly of feathered fossils that have shown a direct link between dinosaurs and birds.
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/11/world/dinosaur-china-dynamite-construction-workers/index.html
今回取り上げるのはpaleontologyです。
Oxford dictionaries.com.では“The branch of science concerned with fossil animals and plants.”と定義されているように、『ジーニアス英和辞典』(大修館書店 第五版)では「古生物学」とありました。
paleo-には「古い、古代の」という意味があり、そこにギリシャ語の“being”を表す“onta”がくっついて出来た言葉のようです。
よって、“a golden age of paleontology”で、中国は今「古生物学の(発見の)黄金期」であることがわかります。(flyingbird)
