One of the most famous specimens is a pliosaur nicknamed Eric, an almost-complete marine reptile preserved in opal.

最著名的范本之一便是一只昵称叫埃里克的上龙，这是一只几乎完好保存在欧泊内部的海洋爬行动物。

But the local waters that these pliosaurs lived in were about to change.

但是这些上龙生活的当地水域即将发生变化。

But this time, the fossil skeleton was of a giant marine reptile known as a pliosaur.

但这一次，化石骨架是一种被称为上龙的巨型海洋爬行动物。

And it, along with its pliosaur relatives, was probably terrifying to most of the things it shared the seas with.

而且它， 连同它的上龙亲戚，可能对与它共享海洋的大多数生物都感到恐惧。

Weighing up to 12 tons with around 24 pairs of teeth, these pliosaurs looked like some sort of terrifying cross between a dolphin and a crocodile.

这些上龙重达 12 吨， 大约有 24 对牙齿，看起来像是海豚和鳄鱼的某种可怕杂交种。

The resulting fossils have both aesthetic and scientific value, and in 1993, Eric the pliosaur was almost made into jewelry by a broke owner looking to sell and potentially break up the pieces.

这些化石产物具有美学和科学的双重价值，1993年上龙“埃里克”差一点就要被一名企图分割并寻求出售的破坏性的物主做成珠宝首饰。

In fact, Kronosaurus was named after the ancient Greek titan Kronos, who ate his own children for some reason, because there's evidence that these pliosaurs ate other members of their own genus.

事实上， 克柔龙是以古希腊泰坦克洛诺斯命名的，克洛诺斯出于某种原因吃掉了自己的孩子，因为有证据表明这些上龙吃掉了自己属的其他成员。

What the researchers could tell was that this creature was a marine reptile that would've been about 3 meters long and that it was likely a close relative of the sauropterygians, the group that includes plesiosaurs and pliosaurs.

研究人员可以判断的是， 这种生物是一种长约 3 米的海洋爬行动物， 很可能是蜥龙类的近亲，蜥龙类包括蛇颈龙和上龙类。