世界上唯一已知的粉红色蝠鲼在大堡礁拍摄的美丽新照片

世界上唯一已知的粉红色蝠鲼在大堡礁拍摄的美丽新照片

Around Lady Elliot Island, a 45-hectare island in Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, swims a sight like no other in the world: a manta ray with a bright pink belly. The animal was first seen in 2015 and received the name Inspector Clouseau, after the bumbling detective in the Pink Panther movies.

在澳大利亚大堡礁海洋公园占地45公顷的艾略特夫人岛(Lady Elliot Island)周围，游来游去的是世界上独一无二的景象:一条腹部呈亮粉色的蝠鲼。这种动物在2015年首次被发现，并以《粉红豹》电影中笨手笨脚的侦探克鲁索的名字命名为。

New images of Inspector Clouseau, the only known manta ray with this particular coloration, were recently taken by underwater wildlife photographer Kristian Laine.

克鲁索巡视员是唯一已知的有这种特殊颜色的蝠鲼，它的新照片最近由水下野生动物摄影师克里斯蒂安·雷恩拍摄。

Alfredo Carpineti

The rosy-hued ray came to the attention of the University of Queensland's Project Manta, who wondered about the reason behind the curious color. The researchers performed a small tissue biopsy in 2016, nixing infection or sickness as the cause. In a Facebook post, the team stated that the pink hue is likely due to “an unusual and unique expression of the skins [sic] melanin!”

这条粉红色的鳐鱼引起了昆士兰大学Manta项目的注意，他们想知道这种奇怪颜色背后的原因。研究人员于2016年进行了一次小组织活检，发现是感染或疾病引起的。研究小组在Facebook上发帖称，这种粉红色可能是由于“皮肤黑色素的一种不同寻常的独特表达!”

It's possible the ray has a genetic mutation called erythrism related to the overproduction of red pigments and the underproduction of dark pigments, caused by a recessive gene – much like that for albinism, melanism, and leucism. Erythrism has been seen in a variety of animals, from leopards to snakes, and though it is incredibly rare, it is most often observed in grasshoppers.

这条射线可能有一种叫做赤体病的基因突变，它与一种隐性基因引起的红色素生产过剩和深色色素生产不足有关，就像白化病、黑变病和亮色病一样。从豹子到蛇，各种动物都有这种现象，虽然极为罕见，但蚱蜢是最常见的。

It may be a rarely observed phenomenon because animals with this unusual coloring are easy prey and don't make it to adulthood, but this male ray seems to be doing just fine. Possibly because manta rays are born big, and get bigger very quickly. Adult manta rays weight more than a ton.

这可能是一个罕见的现象，因为这种不寻常的颜色的动物很容易成为猎物，不能活到成年，但这条雄性鱼身上的射线似乎很好。可能是因为蝠鲼一出生就很大，而且长得很快。成年蝠鲼的体重超过一吨。

Manta rays are distributed around the world in tropical and subtropical waters, but not all species are equally distributed. Project Manta aims to better understand manta ray populations in Australia and the surrounding regions. Studying the movements of these animals requires tracking and recognizing them. Luckily, every single manta ray has a unique spotting pattern on their underside, a sort of belly fingerprint, and scientists use these to identify individuals.

蝠鲼分布在世界各地的热带和亚热带水域，但并不是所有物种都分布均匀。Manta项目旨在更好地了解澳大利亚及其周边地区的蝠鲼种群。研究这些动物的运动需要跟踪和识别它们。幸运的是，每一条蝠鲼的腹部都有一个独特的斑点图案，这是一种腹部指纹，科学家们用它们来识别个体。

Project Manta asks citizen scientists to submit photos of rays from around Australia, so if you have any, consider sending them to these researchers to help us understand these beautiful creatures of the deep even better.

“曼塔计划”要求公民科学家提交来自澳大利亚各地的鳐鱼照片，所以如果你有的话，考虑把它们发给这些研究人员，帮助我们更好地了解这些美丽的深海生物。