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Boophis ulftunni 乌氏树蛙（Photograph courtesy Franco Andreone 图片来自Franco Andreone）

Highlighting a "vast underestimation" of Madagascar's natural riches, up to 221 new species of amphibians have been found on the island country, including the frog Boophis ulftunni, pictured. The find nearly doubles the number of known amphibians in Madagascar, a new study says.

一项新的研究发现称：被“过分低估”的马达加斯加的自然财富资源应该引起人们的注意，包括上图的乌氏树蛙，多达221种新两栖生物在这个岛国上被发现。这个发现几乎是马达加斯加已知两栖生物种类的两倍之多。

An international team of scientists discovered the new species after collecting 2,850 specimens from more than 170 sites, including the country's most visited and studied national parks.

一个国际科研小队在170多个不同地区包括人们常去的国家公园考察收集了2850个标本，发现了这些新的物种。

The work suggests that tropical amphibian diversity has been underestimated at an "unprecedented level" worldwide, the study authors write in the May 4 online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

学术研究作者5月4日在《美国科学院院刊》的在线杂志上表示：这项研究意味着人们对热带两栖物种多样性的低估处于一种“空前水平”。

"People think that we know which plant and animal species live on this planet," team member Miguel Vences, of the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany, said in a statement.

科研小队成员——来自德国布伦瑞克技术大学的Miguel Vences在一份研究声明中称：“人们认为自己已经知道在这个星球上的动植物的种类，

"But the century of discoveries has only just begun—the majority of life-forms on Earth is still awaiting scientific recognition."

但这一个世纪的研究发现仅仅是个开始，地球上大多数的生命形态还等待着科学的研究识别。”

Boophis 乌氏树蛙（Photograph courtesy Miguel Vences  图片来自Miguel Vences ）

This frog in the Boophis genus was among more than 200 new species of amphibian discovered in Madagascar, one of the most biologically diverse regions on the planet, experts said in May 2009.

专家表示：这种乌氏种类的青蛙是在马达加斯加新发现的200多种两栖动物之一，马达加斯加是地球上物种多样性最丰富的地区之一。

In the previous 15 years, scientists had found more than a hundred new frog species in the island country, "which led us to believe that our species inventory is almost complete," team member Frank Glaw, herpetology curator at Munich's Zoologische Staatssammlung, said in a statement.

在之前的十五年里，科学家们在这个岛国上发现了100多种新的青蛙种类，“这让我们以为物种编类已经差不多完整勒”，科研队成员Frank Glaw——来自德国慕尼黑Zoologische Staatssammlung两栖爬虫馆长在一份声明中表示。

"But as our new surveys show, there are more species than we suspected."

“但是我们新的研究表示，还将有比我们猜想的多的多的物种。”

 Boophis bottae vences博氏树蛙（Photograph courtesy Miguel Vences 图片来自 Miguel Vences ）

Of the more than 200 new species of amphibian found scattered throughout Madagascar (including the frog Boophis bottae vences, pictured) more than 40 were discovered in two well-known national parks, Ranomafana and Mantadía/Analamazaotra.

超过200多种两栖动物在马达加斯加被零散的发现（包括上图的博氏树蛙），其中有40多种是在两座著名的国家公园Ranomafana和Mantadía/Analamazaotra中发现的。

Though many nature parks have been set aside in Madagascar during the past decade, the country's political instability has led to illegal logging in the parks—"generating a lot of uncertainty about the future of the planned network of protected areas," team member David Vieites, of Madrid's Spanish National Natural Sciences Museum, said in a statement.

尽管在过去的十年里马达加斯加有多座自然公园被取消，但由于国家的政治不稳定，仍有公园违法注册——“导致未来计划的网络状保护区添加了很多不确定的因素。”科考队成员——自西班牙国家自然科学博物馆的David Vieites在声明中如是说道。

a newfound frog in the Mantidactylus genus 新发现的曼蛙科青蛙（Photograph courtesy Miguel Vences 图片来自Miguel Vences ）

The fourth largest island on Earth, Madagascar's isolation supports a high number of species found nowhere else (above, a newfound frog in the Mantidactylus genus).

作为地球上第四大岛屿，马达加斯加的独立隔绝的环境使大量仅此独有的物种得以生存（包括上图新发现的曼蛙科青蛙）。

The recent discovery of more than 200 new amphibian species in the country stresses the need for thorough surveys to prioritize "conservation efforts within biodiversity hot spots," including Madagascar, scientists said in a May 2009 study.

近期的研究在这个国家发现超过200种新两栖动物强调需要通过调查来优先排序“有效保护物种多样性热区”，包括马达加斯加。科学家在09年5月的研究中表示。

a newfound frog species in the Boophis genus 新发现的乌氏树蛙（Photograph courtesy Miguel Vences 图片来自Miguel Vences ）

Rampant habitat destruction in Madagascar may be affecting more species than previously thought, both among amphibians (above, a newfound frog species in the Boophis genus) and other kinds of animals, experts said in May 2009.

马达加斯加栖息地猖獗的破坏可能已经影响到比之前设想的更多的物种，无论是两栖动物（上图为新发现的乌氏树蛙）还是其他类型的动物，专家在09年五月表示。

The deforestation rate in Madagascar is one of the highest on the planet, with more than 80 percent of the island's forests already lost.

马达加斯加的森林砍伐率是世界上最高的地区之一，超过80%的岛屿森林已经消逝。

Boophis乌氏树蛙（Photograph courtesy Miguel Vences 图片来自 Miguel Vences ）

Amphibian patterns of diversity, especially in the tropics, are not well understood, mainly because of incomplete information on species classification and distribution. In May 2009, for example, researchers unexpectedly found more than 200 new amphibian species in Madagascar, including the newly identified frog in the Boophis genus pictured above.

两栖物种的多样性，特别是在热带，没有得到好的认识，主要是因为对物种的分类信息缺乏认识。例如，在2009年5月，研究者在马达加斯加意外发现超过200种新两栖动物，包括上图所示的最近刚标识的乌氏树蛙。

Finding such an "extreme proportion" of amphibian diversity in Madagascar means experts will have to revisit what was previously known about the creatures, the scientists said.

在马达加斯加发现这种“极端比例”的两栖动物的多样性意味着专家学者们必须重新审视之前对自然的认识，科学家表示。

注：Boophis 这个词查了柯林斯高阶 牛津高阶 剑桥高级 韦氏大典等数十本字典均无中文解释，汗，网上也有翻译为埃氏树蛙。估计在生物学专业词典里才有。wikipedia上面有解释，如下

Boophis is a frog genus in the family Mantellidae. Like other frogs of their family, they are small, toxic, arboreal, and colorful[1]. They have adaptations simiar to the unrelated tree frogs. This genus can only be found on Madagascar and Mayotte Island (Comoros) and is the single member of the subfamily Boophinae[2]. Many species of Boophis have nearly translucent skin, allowing bones and internal organs to be observed like in the unrelated glass frogs (Centrolenidae) of the tropical Americas. This has led to the vernacular name skeleton frogs for the present genus.

英文原文版权归 NationalGeographic

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中文翻译版权为xiaoJack所有

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