Phát hiện hóa thạch dị thường

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Insects (côn trùng) are legion (nhiều vô số kể, nhiều đến nỗi đếm không xuể), but fossil (hóa thạch) ones are rare (hiếm) and usually in terrible condition (điều kiện tệ hại). Now a bug that lived 50 million years ago has been found in Colorado, in such an extraordinary (lạ thường; khác thường; phi thường; đặc biệt) state of preservation (bảo tồn, bảo quản) that we can still see the stripes on his little legs. And his genitalia (bộ phận sinh dục ngoài).

...Looking at the photograph, one’s eyes are drawn to the dark figure-8 seemingly attached to the insect’s middle leg – but that’s not the lad’s gonads, it’s a beetle. The genitals of the insect, sprawled (nằm dài ra, nằm ườn ra, ngã sóng soài; bò lan ngổn ngang) forever more with his six legs akimbo, are at the end of the last body segment. What we see is the sac called the pygophore (aka pygofer), which derives from the Greek word pyg for “rump” and phore for “bearer.”

Ironically, if anything, according to this picture this genital capsule looks like a vulva. But it is not.

Bài trước: Hơn người cũng chẳng sung sướng gì