侏罗纪搏击俱乐部 第19期:霸王龙的三个利器

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　　如此体型的霸王龙是庞然巨物，不过现代科学揭示出了它的三个特征使之成为猎杀机器。

　　The first was his eyesight.

　　第一是它的视力。

　　In 2006, Dr. Lawrence Witmer of Ohio University scanned the brain cavity of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

　　在2006年，俄亥俄大学的劳伦斯·维特莫博士扫描了一头雷克斯暴龙的颅腔。

　　It's an important piece of the puzzle.

　　这是拼图中的重要一块。

　　We now know that T-Rex had powerful binocular vision.

　　现今我们知道霸王龙有着出色的双目视觉。

　　From the CAT scan information, we can get a sense of the relative size of particular parts of the brain.

　　根据CT扫描的信息，我们能够了解到大脑特定部分的相对大小。

　　The part of the brain associated with vision, the optic lobes²,包括与视觉相关的那部分大脑叫做视叶，

　　the part of the brain associated with the sense of smell, or the part of the brain associated with hearing.

　　与嗅觉相关的那部分大脑，或是与听觉相关的部分。

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　　Like an eagle, Tyrannosaurus Rex had binocular vision.

　　和鹰一样，雷克斯暴龙也有双目视觉。

　　This gave it the ability to maintain focus on a moving target.

　　这让它能保持对移动物体的聚焦。

　　In a fight, it had no trouble keeping its opponent with its line of sight.

　　在战斗中，它能轻易地让对手处于其视线之内。

　　T-Rex almost certainly had a pretty good visual field overlap³, meaning it had pretty extensive binocular vision.

　　几乎可以肯定，霸王龙视野有很大幅度的重叠，这意味着它有较强的双目视觉。

　　What we see in the brain is that indeed the brain is structured to, in a sense, process that visual information.

　　我们看到的大脑构造其实在一定程度上是用来处理这种视觉信息的。

　　Its second feature - tremendously powerful jaws⁵.

　　它的第二个特点是异常有力的双颚。

　　With a bite force of over 3,000 pounds per square inch, it's among the strongest in the animal kingdom, twice the strength of a Great White shark.

　　它的咬合力达到每平方厘米两百多公斤，这在动物王国里名列前茅，力度是大白鲨的两倍。

　　What controlled the teeth and the damage those teeth inflicted⁶ were the jaw⁴ muscles, and T-Rex just has expanded the back of the skull⁷.

　　它靠颚肌控制牙齿，用牙齿造成破坏，霸王龙的颅骨后部有明显扩展。

　　So it has a lot of musculature, so that it has the power to actually drive those teeth right through bone.

　　所以它有很多肌肉组织，这样能够有力量驱使这些利齿咬穿骨头。

　　This unbelievable power in its jaws separate it from all other dinosaurs⁹ and all the other living animals as well.

　　它的双颚力量难以置信，这让它不同于任何其它恐龙，也和所有现存动物大相径庭。

　　It's third, and most dangerous asset was its incredibly massive teeth.

　　它的第三个，也是最危险的财富是它大得难以置信的牙齿。

　　No other creature, before or after, has ever had spikes¹¹ designed like these.

　　像这样的尖刺设计可谓前无古人，后无来者。

　　T-Rex had to use those teeth to crunch¹² right through bone.

　　霸王龙要用这些牙齿压碎骨头。

　　And so it couldn't have narrow teeth the way the other carnivorous dinosaurs did.

　　所以它不能像其它肉食恐龙那样拥有窄牙。

　　It had to make teeth that were really, really wide, and would have been incredibly damaging to anything that it bit.

　　它必须要有非常宽大的牙齿，使得被咬中的都会遭到严重损坏。

　　These are pulverizing¹³ teeth, these could pierce through flesh, they could shatter bone, and they're anchored by extremely deep roots.

　　这些牙齿仿佛粉碎机一般，能够撕开血肉，也能咬碎骨头。这些牙的牙根非常之深。

　　They're unlike any other predatory dinosaur⁸'s tooth.

　　它们跟其它掠食恐龙的牙齿都不一样。

　　Look at the tooth of any predatory dinosaur, Allosaurus, Ceratosaurus, even Raptors,看看任何掠食恐龙的牙齿，异特龙、角鼻龙、甚至迅猛龙，you'll find that their teeth are more blade-like and are serrated on front and back, very common.

　　就会发现它们牙齿更像刀刃，前后都有锯齿，这都很常见。

　　But look at the tooth of a Tyrannosaurus Rex and now you're looking at a railroad spike¹⁰.

　　不过看看雷克斯暴龙的牙齿，就好像是铁路道钉一般。

　　But those teeth may have held something even worse than just a massive bite.

　　不过这些牙齿也许还有比凶猛一咬更糟的功能。

 

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