如果你對可愛的袋熊有所了解，你會知道袋熊是地球上唯一能拉出方形便便的生物。多少年來，科學(xué)家一直無法弄明白袋熊為什么能拉出立方體的便便，而今他們終于找到答案了。

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.

盡管和其他所有哺乳動物一樣長著圓圓的肛門，但是毛鼻袋熊拉的便便卻不是圓球狀、螺旋狀或亂糟糟的一堆，它們是地球上唯一拉方形便便的生物。

anus [?e?n?s]: n. 肛門

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.

居住在澳大利亞草原和桉樹林里的有袋哺乳動物袋熊是世界上最可愛的動物之一，但是很長時間以來它們對于動物專家來說都是難解的謎。這都是因?yàn)樗鼈兝谋惚恪Ｒ?，毛鼻袋熊擁有一?xiàng)獨(dú)特能力，每天都能拉多達(dá)100個與眾不同的立方體便便。現(xiàn)在，研究人員聲稱他們已經(jīng)找到了袋熊便便如此特別的原因。

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.

喬治亞理工學(xué)院的研究人員從2018年開始通過分析死于車禍的袋熊的消化道來研究袋熊為什么能拉方形便便。他們將袋熊的腸道和豬的腸道做了比較，將一個氣球塞進(jìn)兩種動物的消化道，觀察消化道為了容納氣球是如何伸縮的，結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn)不同區(qū)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.

接下來，科學(xué)家創(chuàng)建了一個平面數(shù)學(xué)模型來模擬袋熊腸道各區(qū)域是怎樣隨著消化的節(jié)奏收縮和擴(kuò)張并經(jīng)過數(shù)天時間將便便塑造成立方體的。研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，比較柔軟的腸道區(qū)域會緩慢收縮并給便便塑形。有趣的是，大多數(shù)哺乳動物的腸道肌肉都是向各個方向收縮，但是袋熊帶紋路的腸道肌肉組織和不規(guī)則的收縮方式卻將便便塑造成了不同的形狀。

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.

盡管這項(xiàng)研究也許看起來毫無意義，或者只是為了滿足人類的好奇心，但是參與該研究的科學(xué)家表示，這些新發(fā)現(xiàn)可能對人類消化健康研究和制造技術(shù)產(chǎn)生重大影響。通過柔軟的材料來塑造立方體而不是用模具來鑄造，將這種方式應(yīng)用于制造過程將會是一個很不錯的方法。

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謎題既然已經(jīng)解開，現(xiàn)在只剩下一個問題：為什么袋熊要拉方形便便？關(guān)于這個問題，科學(xué)家也有幾種理論。其中一種理論指出，因?yàn)榇軙焓白约旱谋惚愣哑饋恚赃@種方式來和同類交流，立方體形狀有助于它們將便便堆成“高塔”。

Another theory claims that because wombats tend to use their poop to mark their territory on rocks and logs, the cubical shape of the excrement ensures that it won’t simply roll off.

另一種理論指出，因?yàn)榇軆A向于在石頭和原木上用自己的便便來劃分彼此的領(lǐng)地，立方體形狀的便便不會從石頭和原木上滾下去。

Also fun fact, the poop of wombats in captivity isn’t as cubic as that of wild ones. The squarer the poop, the healthier the wombat, apparently.

還有一個有趣的事實(shí)是，圈養(yǎng)袋熊的便便不像野生袋熊的便便那么方。顯然，便便越方，袋熊越健康。

英文來源：Oddity Central

翻譯&編輯：丹妮