侏罗纪搏击俱乐部 第2期:东方霸王龙

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　　1996年，在离马达加斯加西北的马哈姜嘎市不到四十公里处古生物学家们在做例行挖掘。

　　But as they continued to dig, it became clear that there were something strange about this particular find.

　　随着挖掘的进行，这里的奇特发现越来越清楚。

　　As scientists unearthed² more remains³, forensic⁴ and anatomical clues began to paint a picture of the unidentified dinosaur⁵.

　　科学家们挖出了更多的遗骸，现场和解剖学线索描绘出了一种未知恐龙的图画。

　　And these bones did not belong to a plant eater. They belonged to a predator⁶.

　　这些骨头不是植食性恐龙的。它们属于一种掠食者。

　　We can very often tell whether bones belong to carnivores or herbivores just by looking at them.

　　我们经常只要看上一眼就知道它们是食肉还是食草恐龙。

　　In the big carnivorous dinosaurs⁷, you have hollow bones.

　　大型的食肉恐龙的骨头是中空的。

　　And hollow bones, of course, can support the animals as long as the bone around the outside is dense⁸ enough to support the weight of the animal.

　　当然对于中空的骨头来说只要外部够结实就能够撑起动物的重量。

　　In the lab, paleontologists observed something peculiar⁹, marks and deep gashes¹⁰ in the bone.

　　古生物学家们在实验室里有了特殊的发现，就是骨头上深深的沟痕。

　　The gashes were spaced 10 to 17 millimeters apart. These were probably bite marks.

　　这些沟痕的间距是10到17毫米。很可能是咬痕。

　　The scientists were eager to unravel¹¹ the cause of death.

　　科学家们很想揭开它的死因。

　　At first the paleontologists had no idea who or what had made these markings on the bone.

　　一开始，古生物学家们不知道有什么能在骨头上留下这样的痕迹。

　　But using some of the same techniques that modern forensic scientists do today,不过通过使用现代犯罪现场科学家所使用的科技，they were able to solve the mystery of who it was that made these injuries over 70 million years ago.

　　他们解开了这一谜团，知道了七千万年前这些伤痕的元凶。

　　First, they needed to identify the dinosaur. They turned to the local fossil evidence.

　　首先，他们要鉴别恐龙。他们转向了当地的化石证据。

　　Found nearby was a remarkably¹² well-preserved skull¹³ of a large predatory dinosaur, a meat-eating dinosaur called Majungasaurus.

　　在附近就发现过一个保存得很好的大型掠食恐龙头骨，这种食肉恐龙叫做玛君龙。

　　It was the T-Rex of the east.

　　它是东方的霸王龙。

 

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