袋熊的便便（为什么袋熊拉的便便是方形的？）
袋熊的便便（为什么袋熊拉的便便是方形的？）
如果你对可爱的袋熊有所懂得，你会知道袋熊是地球上唯一能拉出方形便便的生物。多少年来，科学家一直无法弄明确袋熊为什么能拉出立方体的便便，而今他们终于找到答案了。
[Photo/Unsplash]
Despite having round anuses like all other mammals, bare-nosed wombats do not produce round pellets, tubular coils or messy piles; they are the only creature on Earth that poops cubes.
尽管和其他所有哺乳动物资源网一样长着圆圆的肛门，但是毛鼻袋熊拉的便便却不是圆球状、螺旋状或乱糟糟的一堆，它们是地球上唯一拉方形便便的生物。
anus [ens]: n. 肛门
Wombats, marsupials native to the grassy plains and eucalyptus forests of Australia, are among the most adorable animals in the world, but to animal experts they have been a tough-to-solve mystery for a very long time. And it has all been because of their poop. You see, bare-nosed wombats have the unique ability to produce up to 100 distinctive, cuboid pieces of poop every day. Now, researchers say they have uncovered how the wombat intestine creates this unusually-shaped excrement.
居住在澳大利亚草原和桉树林里的有袋哺乳动物袋熊是世界上最可爱的动物之一，但是很长时光以来它们对于动物专家来说都是难解的谜。这都是因为它们拉的便便。要知道，毛鼻袋熊拥有一项奇特才能，每天都能拉多达100个与众不同的立方体便便。现在，研讨人员声称他们已经找到了袋熊便便如此特殊的原因。
Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology first started studying the wombat’s ability to poop cubes back in 2018, by analyzing the digestive tracts of wombats involved in car accidents. They compared the marsupial’s intestines to those of pigs, by inserting a balloon into the animals’ digestive tracts to see how it stretched to fit the balloon, and found regions of varied thickness and stiffness.
乔治亚理工学院的研讨人员从2018年开端通过火析逝世于车祸的袋熊的消化道来研讨袋熊为什么能拉方形便便。他们将袋熊的肠道和猪的肠道做了比拟，将一个气球塞进两种动物的消化道，视察消化道为了容纳气球是如何伸缩的，成果发明不同区域的厚度和硬度都不同。
Scientists then created a 2D mathematical model to simulate how these intestine regions contract and expand with the rhythms of digestion, over multiple days, shaping the poop into its cuboid shape. Softer intestinal regions squeeze slowly and mold the final corners of the cube, researchers found. Interestingly, in most mammals, the contractions of intestinal muscles occur in all directions, but in wombats, the grooved tissue and irregular contractions shape the poop differently.
接下来，科学家创立了一个平面数学模型来模仿袋熊肠道各区域是怎样随着消化的节奏压缩和扩大并经过数天时光将便便塑造成立方体的。研讨人员发明，比拟柔软的肠道区域会迟缓压缩并给便便塑形。有趣的是，大多数哺乳动物的肠道肌肉都是向各个方向压缩，但是袋熊带纹路的肠道肌肉组织和不规矩的压缩方法却将便便塑造成了不同的形状。
[Photo/Facebook]
While this research may seem completely meaningless, or just meant to satisfy human curiosity, the scientists involved in the study say that these new revelations could have a big impact on human digestive health research and manufacturing technology. It would be a cool method to apply to the manufacturing process, how to make a cube with soft tissue instead of just molding it.
尽管这项研讨也许看起来毫无意义，或者只是为了满足人类的好奇心，但是参与该研讨的科学家表现，这些新发明可能对人类消化健康研讨和制作技巧发生重大影响。通过柔软的材质来塑造立方体而不是用模具来铸造，将这种方法运用于制作进程将会是一个很不错的办法。
Now that the mystery of how bare-nosed wombats produce cubical poop seems to have been solved, that only leaves the ‘why’. Scientists have some theories about this as well. One states that because wombats pick up their poop and stack it as a way of communicating between them, the cubicle shape helps them build higher poop towers.
毛鼻袋熊拉出方形便便的谜题既然已经解开，现在只剩下一个问题：为什么袋熊要拉方形便便？关于这个问题，科学家也有几种理论。其中一种理论指出，因为袋熊会捡拾自己的便便堆起来，以这种方法来和同类交换，立方体形状有助于它们将便便堆成“高塔”。
[Photo/Facebook]
Another theory claims that because wombats tend to use their poo资源网p to mark their territory on rocks and logs, the cubical shape of the excrement ensures that it won’t simply roll off.
另一种理论指出，因为袋熊偏向于在石头和原木上用自己的便便来划分彼此的领地，立方体形状的便便不会从石头和原木上滚下去。
Also fun fact, the poop of wombats in captivity isn’t as cubic as that of wild ones. The 资源网squarer the poop, the healthier the wombat, apparently.
还有一个有趣的事实是，圈养袋熊的便便不像野生袋熊的便便那么方。显然，便便越方，袋熊越健康。
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