Anyone who’s ever seen any nature documentary will know that saltwater crocodiles are big beasts.
任何看过自然纪录片的人都会知道咸水鳄是巨大的野兽。
Indeed, they’re the heaviest reptiles on the planet today, reaching up to 1,200 kg – around the same as two MINI cars! Reticulated pythons from southern Asia are the longest reptiles, there are reports of one of these snakes reaching 10 m!
事实上，它们是当今地球上最重的爬行动物，重达1200公斤——大约相当于两辆迷你轿车！来自南亚的网纹蟒是最长的爬行动物，据报道其中有条蛇长度可以达到10米！
The herpetology experts inform us that particularly large saltwater croc specimens can grow to 7 m long from snout to tail, but males of this species tend to average 4.9 m.
爬虫学专家告诉我们，特别大的咸水鳄标本从鼻子到尾巴可以长到7米，但这个物种的雄性平均长度为4.9米。
Currently the largest crocodile in captivity is Cassius (c. 100 years old), who measures 5.48 m – the equivalent of two ping-pong tables laid end to end. Captured in 1987 in northern Australia, he was moved to Marineland Melanesia wildlife park – owned by George Craig (the man pictured below with his feet dangling in the pool) – where he resides to this day. The park is located on Green Island, which sits in the Great Barrier Reef – the world's longest reef.
目前活着的圈养的最大的鳄鱼是卡修斯(约100岁) ，测得5.48米，相当于两张首尾相连的乒乓桌的长度。他于1987年在澳大利亚北部被捕获，后来被转移到美拉尼西亚海洋野生动物园——归乔治·克雷格所有(下图中脚悬在游泳池里的那个人)——直到今天他仍然居住在那里。该公园位于绿岛，坐落在大堡礁——世界上最长的珊瑚礁上。
The largest crocodile in captivity ever outsized even Cassius. When transferred to Bunawan Eco-Park in the Philippines in 2011, Lolong lived up to his name with an unprecedented – and as-yet-unsurpassed – total length of 6.17 m. He sadly passed away in 2013.
迄今为止被圈养过的最大的鳄鱼甚至超过了卡修斯。当2011年洛隆被转移到菲律宾的布纳万生态公园时，其也是名副其实，其总长度达到了前所未有的、也是迄今为止无人能及的6.17米。他于2013年不幸去世。
However, if you think saltwater crocs are massive, wait till you hear about one of their ancient ancestors.
然而，如果你觉得咸水鳄已经很大了，先等等，等到你听了他们的其中一位远古祖先再说。
The terrifying Sarcosuchus imperator is estimated to have measured as long as 12.2 m and weighed as much as 8 tonnes. That made this colossal animal double the length of Lolong and around 7.5 times his weight. It’s little wonder that this mega-predator is sometimes dubbed “super-croc”.
据估计，这只恐怖的帝王鳄长达12.2米，重达8吨。这个庞然大物的体长是洛隆的两倍，体重大约是其7.5倍。难怪这种巨型捕食动物有时被称为“超级鳄鱼”。
Calculating the size of long-extinct creatures always requires an element of educated guesswork, but these extrapolations are based on fairly extensive skeletal remains that were excavated in Africa by US palaeontologist Paul Sereno.
计算早已灭绝的生物的大小总是需要一些有根据的猜测，但这些推断都是基于美国古生物学家保罗·塞雷诺在非洲发掘的相当广泛的骨骼遗骸来的。
Sarcosuchus lived 112 million years ago in the Mid-Cretaceous, making it a contemporary of more familiar record-breaking reptilians, such as Spinosaurus (the largest carnivorous dinosaur – yes, this meat-eating dino was even longer than T. rex), the Microraptor (the smallest dinosaur) and Sauroposeidon (the tallest dinosaur).
帝王鳄生活在1.12亿年前的白垩纪中期，这使得它成为更为人熟知的打破记录的爬行动物的同代物种，例如棘龙(最大的食肉恐龙——是的，这种食肉恐龙甚至比霸王龙还长) ，小盗龙(最小的恐龙)和波塞东龙(最高的恐龙)。
The crocodile family tree is rather complex, but Sarcosuchus sat in a group near the very beginning of their lineage, known as the Crocodyliformes – hence its record title as the largest crocodyliform ever.
鳄鱼的族谱相当复杂，但是帝王鳄所在种群非常接近其世系的最初阶段，即鳄属原型——因此其被记录为有史以来最大的鳄形动物。
From what experts can tell – size aside – the distant relation of today’s crocodilians most likely looked very similar to saltwater crocs (though the end of its snout may have been a bit more bulbous). The very fact that crocs have survived so many millions of years with so few adaptations is testament to their ultra-efficient design.
除了体型之外，专家们还表示，现在的鳄鱼的远亲很可能看起来和咸水鳄非常相似(尽管其鼻口部可能有点球状)。鳄鱼存活了数百万年却没有多少改变，这一事实本身就证明了其自身这种超高效的设计结构。