译文:新种巨鼠和小负鼠被发现
       昨天专家们宣布说,哺乳动物专家马蒂亚.西纳戈手握的重3英磅(1.4公斤)的老鼠对科学界来说也许是一个新的品种,这只老鼠是在2007年6月的一次探险中,在印尼新几内亚岛西部的偏远的Foja山区发现的. 

       国际保护生物性多样性学会和印尼自然科学学会的研究员们先前已经于2005年在原始热带雨林区的一次科考中,发现了几种新的动植物品种.
 
       当探险队今夏返回Fojas时,发现了这种巨鼠,同时还发现了一只先前未曾记录过的小负鼠. 

       华盛顿史密森学会的一位科学家科里斯特佛.汉根在一次新闻声明中说:"这种巨鼠的个头大约是典型城市老鼠的五倍.不过人们不用担心,很明显,在探险期间这种巨鼠曾多次进入过探险队的帐篷 

原文:New Giant Rat, Pygmy Possum Discovered 


       Mammal expert Martua Sinaga holds a 3-pound (1.4-kilogram) rat that may be a species new to science. The rat was found in the remote Foja Mountains of western New Guinea, Indonesia, on a June 2007 expedition, experts announced yesterday.  

       Researchers from Conservation International and the Indonesia Institute of Science had previously discovered several new species of plants and animals during a trip to the pristine rain forest region in 2005.  

       When the team returned to the Fojas this summer, they found the rat along with a pygmy possum that could also be a previously unrecorded species.  

       "The giant rat is about five times the size of a typical city rat," Kristofer Helgen, a scientist with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., said in a press statement. "With no fear of humans, it apparently came into the camp several times during the trip."