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Sea turtles use their flippers like HANDS to karate-chop jellyfish, play with
their food and lick their 'fingers' after eating

海龜會像使用雙手一般用鰭來空手道劈水母、玩弄牠們的食物並於進食後吮指回味

Flippers aren't just for swimming, they are also used as tools by sea turtles
to attack and hold their prey.
Scientists have discovered that these creatures have evolved to use their
flippers like hands, allowing them to karate-chop jellyfish.
They can also use their flippers to play with their food, grasp coral to eat
the sponge clinging to its surface, and even 'lick' their fingers after
eating.
These movements were previously thought to be too advanced for the small
brains of the sea creatures.

海龜的鰭狀肢不只用於游泳，也用於攻擊並夾住牠們的獵物。



在此之前，這些動作都被認為過於高等，腦容量小的海洋生物難以達成。

Researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California trawled the web for
images of the creatures.
By analysing these pictures the scientists discovered surprising levels of
nimbleness.
The researchers said this was unexpected, due to their tiny reptilian brains
being considered too small to co-ordinate such complicated motion.
Dr Kyle Van Houtan, science director at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in
California, who co-led the research, said: 'Sea turtles don't have a
developed frontal cortex, independent articulating digits or any social
learning.
'And yet here we have them 'licking their fingers' just like a kid who does
have all those tools.
'It shows an important aspect of evolution – that opportunities can shape
adaptations.'

加州蒙特雷灣水族館的研究人員上網蒐集許多關於海龜的圖片。

在分析這些圖片後，科學家發現海龜擁有驚人的靈活度。



The pictures used in the study revealed that turtles can use their flippers
to karate-chop jellyfish, roll scallops along the seafloor and grasp coral
while ripping loose an anemone.
These activities were grouped into a list of eight general uses of flippers,
outside of swimming.
These have been categorised as 'holding', 'digging', 'striking', 'tossing',
'leveraging', 'swiping', 'corralling', and 'pounding'.

研究中使用的圖片顯示，海龜們可以用龜鰭施展空手道劈斬水母、沿著海床滾動扇貝、一
邊抓住珊瑚一邊撕下海葵。

經過歸納，龜鰭在用以游泳以外，還能夠達成其他八種基本動作：抓抱、挖掘、擊打、拋
擲、 利用*、揮擊、驅趕集中、搗碎(或重擊)。

*[註]：查看了一下研究內容，這邊的”leveraging”技能來源是海龜一邊抵住珊瑚礁一
邊借力使力來撕下海葵，所以暫翻成「利用」。

Three species were studied – the green turtle (Chelonia mydas), hawksbill
(Eretmochelys imbricata), and loggerhead (Caretta caretta).
Similar behaviour has also been observed in marine mammals with flipper-like
limbs such as walruses, seals, manatees and sea otters.
The findings provide insights into the evolution of four-limbed sea creatures
and raise questions about 'nature or nurture' – which traits are learned and
which are hard-wired from birth.

該研究觀察了三種海龜，包括綠蠵龜、玳瑁以及赤蠵龜。

之前也曾經觀察到其他擁有鰭狀肢的海洋哺乳類有類似的行為，包括海象、海豹、海牛、
海獺。

這些發現提供了研究四肢海洋生物進化的一個新面向，並提出了一個關於「先天或後天」
的問題— 哪一些技能是天生的、哪一些技能是後天習得的。

Dr Van Houtan added: 'We expect these things to happen with a highly
intelligent, adaptive social animal.
'With sea turtles, it's different. They never meet their parents; they're
never trained to forage by their mom.
'It's amazing that they're figuring out how to do this without any
apprenticing, and with flippers that aren't well adapted for these tasks.'
The research was published in the journal PeerJ.



https://imgur.com/y0tg78E.jpg
https://imgur.com/b8l03aq.jpg

新聞連結中有海龜使用空手道劈斬水母影片 https://goo.gl/brcQLW

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