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On Scotland's Isle of Skye, scientists have identified two areas with evidence of ancient life forms.
在苏格兰的天空岛上，科学家们已经确定了两个地区具有古代生命形式的证据。
Researchers believe the markings are, in fact, footprints from dinosaurs that lived 170 million years ago.
研究人员认为，这些标记实际上是生活在1.7亿年前的恐龙的脚印。
They say the prints date to the middle of the Jurassic Period, a time from which few dinosaur fossils have been recovered.
他们说，这些指纹可以追溯到侏罗纪中期，当时几乎没有恐龙化石被发现。
Researchers reported this month on their study of about 50 fossilized footprints at the two sites.
研究人员本月报告了他们对这两个地点约50个脚印化石的研究。
The markings are just a few hundred meters apart from each other.
这些标记彼此之间只有几百米的距离。
They are said to show dinosaurs walking in different directions.
据说它们展示了恐龙在不同的方向行走。
At least three kinds of dinosaurs left the footprints.
至少有三种恐龙留下了足迹。
Steve Brusatte, the leader of the research team, is a paleontologist with the University of Edinburgh.
研究小组组长史蒂夫·布鲁塞特是爱丁堡大学的古生物学家。
"The tracks are located on flat rocky surfaces near the beach, so they are only exposed at low tide," he said.
“这些脚印位于海滩附近平坦的岩石表面上，因此只有在退潮时才会暴露出来，”他说。
"The tide laps across them, back and forth, every day."
“每天，潮水都在这些脚印上来回翻腾。”
One set of markings came from a two-legged, meat-eating dinosaur that researchers say was about the size of a car.
其中一组标记来自一只两条腿的食肉恐龙。据研究人员称，它大概是一辆汽车大小。
They say its footprints have three toes.
他们表示该恐龙的脚印有三个脚趾。
The creature, with sharp claws, appears to be from a group of dinosaurs called theropods.
这种有着锋利爪子的生物似乎来自一种名为兽脚类的恐龙。
Bigger, three-toed footprints came from large-bodied, two-legged plant-eaters called ornithopods or perhaps, the researchers say, a large theropod.
研究人员说，更大的、三趾的脚印来自体型庞大的两腿植食动物--鸟脚类动物，或者是一种大型兽脚类动物。
All of these prints had worn-down toes, not sharp edges.
所有这些指纹都是磨损的脚趾，而不是锋利的边缘。
The researchers are especially interested in markings left by another creature: an early member of a group of heavily built, four-legged plant-eaters called stegosaurs.
研究人员对另一种生物留下的标记特别感兴趣：一种被称为剑龙的四足植食动物群的早期成员。
The footprints represent some of the oldest evidence anywhere of a stegosaur, notes Paige dePolo, a doctoral student at the University of Edinburgh.
爱丁堡大学博士生佩吉·德波罗指出，这些脚印是剑龙最古老的证据之一。
DePolo was the lead writer of a report on the study.
德波罗是这项研究报告的主要作者。
The findings were published in the journal PLOS ONE.
研究结果发表在《公共科学图书馆·综合》杂志上。
The most famous member of the stegosaurs was Stegosaurus, which lived late in the Jurassic Period.
剑龙属中最著名的成员是剑龙，它生活在侏罗纪晚期。
It had large, bony protective plates around the neck and back - and a large spiked tail, too.
它的脖子和背部有巨大的骨质保护板--还有一条巨大的带刺尾巴。
Brusatte was careful to note that the researchers still have a lot of unanswered questions about this creature.
布鲁塞特谨慎地指出，研究人员对这种生物仍有许多悬而未决的问题。
"I suspect this stegosaur was about the size of a cow, which is fairly small for a stegosaur.
他谈到:“我怀疑这只剑龙大约有一头牛那么大，对于剑龙来说，这是相当小的。
Whether that's because it's a primitive, smaller species or a juvenile of a bigger species, we're not sure," he said.
无论是因为它是一个原始的、较小的物种，还是一个较大物种的幼年，我们都不确定。”
The researchers noted that the findings were an important window into the many kinds of dinosaurs on the Isle of Skye.
研究人员指出，这些发现是了解斯凯岛上多种恐龙的重要窗口。
"Skye has emerged as one of the most important windows into Jurassic dinosaur evolution.
“天空岛已经成为了解侏罗纪恐龙进化的最重要的窗口之一。
We know that dinosaurs were diversifying with a frenzy in the Middle Jurassic, but there are few fossil sites of this age anywhere in the world," Brusatte added.
我们知道恐龙在中侏罗纪疯狂繁殖，但世界上几乎没有这个年代的化石遗址。“布鲁塞特补充道。
I'm John Russell.
我是约翰·拉塞尔。
