侏罗纪搏击俱乐部 第110期:躺着等待未知的猎物

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　　犹他盗龙埋伏在植食动物迁徙的必经之路上，躺着等它未知的猎物。

　　Utahraptor may have been more of an ambush³ predator⁴.

　　犹他盗龙可能更像是伏击性掠食者。

　　In other words, we might say that a Velociraptor was a cheetah⁵ running things down, that Utahraptor may have been the equivalent of a lion in the sense that it may have laid and waited for prey and with a quick, short burst of speed, take in something, but it wasn't an animal that probably runs things down over a long distance.

　　换一句话说的话，我们可能会说伶盗龙像猎豹一样奔袭猎物，而犹他盗龙可能更像狮子会埋伏起来等待猎物靠迅速的短距离冲刺来捕获猎物，但它可能并不会依靠长距离奔跑来狩猎。

　　Utahraptor was fast, but the cooling climate favored even faster, smaller models.

　　犹他盗龙速度很快，不过变冷的气候青睐更加迅捷小巧的型号。

　　Future Raptors would evolve to stand just over a meter high.

　　未来的迅猛龙将进化到站起来只有一米多高。

　　They would rely more on agility⁶ and cunning than brute⁷ strength and they would render the Utahraptor obsolete⁸.

　　它们将更依赖敏捷和狡黠而不是蛮力，它们将致使犹他盗龙被淘汰。

　　Found halfway⁹ around the globe, another killer¹⁰ was perfectly¹¹ suited to his environment.

　　在半个地球之外，人们发现了另一种完美适应环境的杀手。

　　It was the apex¹² predator of his territory and it's often called "the T-Rex of the East".

　　它是那片领地上的顶级掠食者，经常本称作“东方霸王龙”。

　　70 million years ago, the earth was cooling.

　　七千万年前，地球正在变冷。

　　Ice caps formed at the poles and winters were becoming harsher with temperatures dropping to near freezing.

　　极地开始形成冰盖，冬季变得更加严酷气温降到了冰点左右。

　　Those temperatures would seem relatively¹³ warm by today's standards.

　　那些温度按今天的标准来看好像还比较温暖。

　　But for life in the Cretaceous period, it was much colder than anything the dinosaurs¹⁴ were used to.

　　不过对于白垩纪时期的生命，这可比恐龙们经历过的任何时候都要寒冷。

　　The Cretaceous period was much cooler than that of the Jurassic that preceded it.

　　白垩纪时期远比之前的侏罗纪时期更加寒冷。

　　Well, this was all due to the break-up of Pangaea, and then ultimately Gondwana and Laurasia.

　　这都是因为泛大陆的分裂，最终形成了瓦纳古陆和劳亚古陆。

　　The sea levels rose and fell, the jet streams and the atmosphere were altered, and currents in the ocean were effected.

　　海平面升高又降下，喷射流和大气都被改变了，海洋中的洋流也受到了影响。

　　The life that was hit the hardest was that lived on the smaller landmasses.

　　受到最大打击的生命是生活在较小陆块之上的那些。

　　Well, larger areas have more buffer¹⁵ than smaller ones when it comes to climate change.

　　在气候发生变化时，较大的区域比较小的多了缓冲空间。

　　In what's now North America, the larger Allosaurus had given way to the smaller Raptors.

　　在如今的北美洲上，较大的异特龙让位给了较小的迅猛龙。

　　Off the west coast of Africa, on the island of Madagascar, another smaller-sized improvement on Allosaurus became its biggest killer,referred to as the T-Rex of the East.

　　在非洲西海岸之外，马达加斯加岛上，另一种较小的异特龙改进版成了那里最大的杀手，被称作东方的霸王龙。

　　Its name was Majungasaurus.

　　它的名字是玛君龙。

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