科學家發現 西藏地區曾分佈熱帶雨林!

The cold and dry plateau of Tibet in Southwest China used to be a warm and humid rainforest 40 million years ago, scientists from China, India and the UK recently discovered, saying that it offers critical evidence of the plateau's ancient environment.

來自中國、印度和英國的科學家最近發現，4000萬年前，中國西南部西藏寒冷乾燥的高原曾經是溫暖潮溼的雨林。他們稱，這提供了該高原古老環境的關鍵證據。

The scientists found a Tibet amber and proved it was the fossil resin of an ancient dipterocarpaceae, the representative plant of Asian rainforests, which is key to proving the existence of Tibet's ancient rainforests, according to a release provided by the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology of Chinese Academy of Sciences, which participated in the research, to the Global Times.

據參與研究的中國科學院南京地質古生物學研究所向《環球時報》提供的一份新聞稿稱，科學家們發現了一顆西藏琥珀，並證明它是一種古老的亞洲熱帶雨林的代表性植物--一種古老的龍舌蘭科植物的化石樹脂。這是證明西藏古代熱帶雨林存在的關鍵。

The Tibet amber, originally located less than 1,300 meters above sea level, is derived from the representative plant of Asian rainforests, said Wang Bo, researcher of the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and program instructor.

南京地質古生物研究所研究員、項目指導員王波說，西藏琥珀最初位於海拔不到1300米的地方，是從亞洲熱帶雨林的代表性植物中提取出來的。

Wang's team worked with their counterparts from Britain and India.

王波的團隊是與來自英國和印度的同行一起進行研究的。

At that time, Tibet had a relatively low sea level and so the forest formed because of warm steam from the Indian Ocean, Wang said.

王波稱，當時西藏的海平面相對較低，因此，隨着印度洋的溫暖氣流的涌入，雨林就形成了。

He explained that the Tibet forest resembles Xishuangbanna in Southwest China's Yunnan Province, one of the most famous rainforests in China, which experiences close to tropical climate.

他解釋稱，該西藏雨林類似於今天中國西南部雲南省的西雙版納地區。西雙版納是中國最著名的熱帶雨林之一，接近熱帶氣候。