鳄鱼一般被认为是只下蛋的，但专家提供了一个远古鳄鱼胎生的证据-----一个两亿五千万年前含有胚胎的母鳄鱼化石被发现。
It was thought to only lay eggs but experts have provided the first ever evidence that an ancient ancestor of the crocodile also had live births.A remarkable 250 million-year-old fossil has been discovered which contains an embryo inside the mother.
新化石来自一个生活在三迭纪华南浅海的远古鳄鱼。胎生在哺乳动物中是众所周知的，哺乳动物母亲具有滋养胚胎发育的胎盘。蜥蜴和蛇中也非常普遍有时婴儿在他们的母亲体内“孵化”而没有壳蛋的出现（蝮蛇等，也叫卵胎生）。
The new fossil is from a distant ancestor of the crocodile that flourished in shallow seas of South China in the Middle Triassic.Live birth is well known in mammals where the mother has a placenta to nourish the developing embryo.It is also very common among lizards and snakes where the babies sometimes 'hatch' inside their mother and emerge without a shelled egg.
直到最近，作为第三种主要的陆生脊椎动物：鳄鱼和鸟类都被认为是只下蛋的。
Until recently the third major group of living land vertebrates the crocodiles and birds only laid eggs.
来自中国合肥工业大学的研究者们发现了新的化石——一种罕见的叫做“东方恐头龙”的长颈动物，这一生物在三叠纪中期时在华南浅海曾经大量繁衍。
Researchers from Hefei University of Technology in China discovered the new fossil of an unusual long-necked animal called Dinocephalosaurus - a creature that flourished in shallow seas of South China in the Middle Triassic.
在恐头龙妈妈的胸腔里面发现了一个面朝前方的胚胎。
An embryo was found inside the rib cage of the mother and facing forwards.
这表示这个动物可能不是被捕食的。通常被吃下的动物是面朝后的，因为食肉动物为了顺利吞咽那些被捕食的动物，经常先从脑袋吞起。
This suggests that the animal was not eaten - as swallowed animals generally face backwards because the predator swallows its prey head-first to help it go down its throat.