经济学人315:恐龙行为 疯狂撞头的家伙

 　　Science and technology

　　科学技术

　　Dinosaur¹ behaviour

　　恐龙行为

　　Headbangers

　　疯狂撞头的家伙

　　Evidence of duelling dinosaurs²

　　战斗性恐龙的证据

　　WORKING out how an extinct animal behaved when it was alive is tricky³.

　　对于灭绝的生物来说，要研究出它们存活时的行为是很棘手，

　　But it is not always impossible,

　　不过也不是完全不可能。

　　as Joseph Peterson and Collin Dischler of the University of Wisconsin explained on October 17th to the Society of Vertebrate Palaeontology meeting held in Raleigh, North Carolina.

　　10月17日，在北卡罗莱纳州罗利市举行的古脊椎动物学会议上，美国威斯康星大学的约瑟夫·彼得森和柯林·狄斯勒就对肿头龙的习性做出了一些解释。

　　Pachycephalosaurs lived 65m years ago.

　　肿头龙生活在6500万年前。

　　As their name suggests, they had large, bony, domed⁴ heads.

　　正如其名称所说，它们有巨大的、高隆的头骨。

　　For years, it was assumed they used these to bash one another in the way that rams⁵ do now.

　　多年来，人们一直认为肿头龙用头攻击同类，就像现在的公羊一样。

　　Recently, though, a second suggestion has surfaced—that rather than for fighting, the domes⁶ were for show; the dinosaur equivalent of a peacock's tail.

　　不过最近有人提出另外一个假设：它们的大脑袋不是为了战斗，而是出于展示的目的—作用相当于孔雀的尾巴。

　　Dr Peterson and Dr Dischler put these two theories into a head-to-head competition.

　　彼得森和狄斯勒博士让这两种理论来了个头对头的正面对抗。

　　To do so, they studied 102 pachycephalosaur skulls⁷, of various species.

　　为此，他们研究了102只不同品种肿头龙的头骨。

　　They found that 23 of these skulls had pits in them, and that these pits were similar both to each other and to those found in the skulls of living animals that bash each other with their heads.

　　他们发现其中23只头骨上有凹坑。这些凹坑彼此类似。而且现存的用头部撞击同类的动物中，头骨上的凹坑也与之类似。

　　That supported the head-butting theory. The clincher, though, came when they created computerised models of pachycephalosaur skulls and mapped the damage from each of their pitted specimens⁸ on to these virtual skulls.

　　这支持了头部冲撞理论。不过决定性的证据来自于他们用计算机模拟的肿头龙头骨。他们将每个有坑样本的损伤部位标注在虚拟的头骨上。

　　When they did this, they found that the pits were clustered—exactly as might be expected if they were the result of animals deliberately⁹ aiming at each other.

　　这样操作后，他们发现凹坑聚集分布，正如人们假设的那样：是肿头龙故意用头部攻击彼此的结果。

　　Intriguingly¹⁰, they found two patterns of clustering.

　　有意思的是，他们发现凹坑有两种聚集图案。

　　Those pachycephalosaurs with highly domed heads had pits on both the fronts and the backs of their skulls.

　　那些不太隆起的头骨仅在前方有凹坑，而非常高隆的则前后都有。

　　Those whose domes were lower had them only on the fronts.

　　这证明了两种肿头龙攻击时的不同。

　　This suggests the two sorts of animal fought in different ways. Low-domes, it seems, simply charged at each other. High-domes did that too.

　　相对低隆的一种似乎仅向对方迎头冲撞。

　　But they also engaged in head-to-head wrestling of a sort that allowed them to get behind their opponents'skulls and do damage from the rear, in the way that modern bison do.

　　非常高隆的肿头龙除此之外还会采取头对头式摔跤法：能够碰到对方头骨的背部，从后面对彼此造成损伤，好比如今的野牛。

　　None of which proves that pachycephalosaurs did not strut¹¹ their stuff with their domes as well, just as a stag will often show off its antlers before engaging in combat, in order to give a less well-endowed rival the opportunity to withdraw.

　　然而，两种图案都没有否定肿头龙自豪地迈步时也在炫耀他们的大脑袋。成年雄鹿就经常在战斗之前展示它的鹿角，为了使天生劣势的对手借机撤退。

　　But it does demonstrate that the domes were serious weapons, not mere¹² fripperies of fashion.

　　不过这确实证明了高隆的头骨是很厉害的武器，而不仅仅是时髦的矫饰品。

　　1.put into 使处于某种状态

　　But the amount of effort put into it remains¹³ surprisingly small.

　　但是让人惊讶的是在这方面的投入却甚微。

　　A garden will give back however much you put into it.

　　不管你投入多少，最终会得到应该的回报。

　　2.similar to 跟...类似，与...同样

　　You should see something similar to figure 2.

　　你应该会看到类似图2的内容。

　　Try and visualize¹⁴ this energy as a bright white light similar to that of sunlight.

　　试着想象这一能源，把它当做一种明亮如阳光一样的白光。

　　3.allow to 允许

　　Allow to freeze solid for 3-4 hours or overnight.

　　允许冻结3-4小时或隔夜固体。

　　Apply solution to the tube and allow to become tacky.

　　在内胎上涂抹胶水并让它发粘。

　　4.show off 突出；炫耀，卖弄

　　I love to show off your photo samples.

　　我喜欢拿用你拍的照片来炫耀。

　　Like many people, birds sing to show off.

　　和许多人一样，鸟用鸣唱来卖弄自己。

1 dinosaur   

n.恐龙

参考例句：

• Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击？
• He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。

2 dinosaurs   

n.恐龙( dinosaur的名词复数 )；守旧落伍的人，过时落后的东西

参考例句：

• The brontosaurus was one of the largest of all dinosaurs. 雷龙是所有恐龙中最大的一种。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years. 恐龙绝种已有几百万年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

4 domed   

adj. 圆屋顶的, 半球形的, 拱曲的 动词dome的过去式和过去分词形式

参考例句：

• I gazed up at the domed ceiling arching overhead. 我抬头凝望着上方弧形的穹顶。
• His forehead domed out in a curve. 他的前额呈弯曲的半球形。

5 rams   

n.公羊( ram的名词复数 )；(R-)白羊（星）座；夯；攻城槌v.夯实（土等）( ram的第三人称单数 )；猛撞；猛压；反复灌输

参考例句：

• A couple of rams are butting at each other. 两只羊正在用角互相抵触。 来自辞典例句
• More than anything the rams helped to break what should have been on interminable marriage. 那些牡羊比任何东西都更严重地加速了他们那本该天长地久的婚姻的破裂。 来自辞典例句

6 domes   

n.圆屋顶( dome的名词复数 )；像圆屋顶一样的东西；圆顶体育场

参考例句：

• The domes are circular or ovoid in cross-section. 穹丘的横断面为圆形或卵圆形。 来自辞典例句
• Parks. The facilities highlighted in text include sport complexes and fabric domes. 本书重点讲的设施包括运动场所和顶棚式结构。 来自互联网

7 skulls   

颅骨( skull的名词复数 )； 脑袋； 脑子； 脑瓜

参考例句：

• One of the women's skulls found exceeds in capacity that of the average man of today. 现已发现的女性颅骨中，其中有一个的脑容量超过了今天的普通男子。
• We could make a whole plain white with skulls in the moonlight! 我们便能令月光下的平原变白，遍布白色的骷髅！

8 specimens   

n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人

参考例句：

• Astronauts have brought back specimens of rock from the moon. 宇航员从月球带回了岩石标本。
• The traveler brought back some specimens of the rocks from the mountains. 那位旅行者从山上带回了一些岩石标本。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

10 intriguingly   

参考例句：

• Intriguingly, she gave to the music a developed although oddly malleable personality. 最神奇的是，她的音乐具有成熟却又很奇怪地极富可塑性。 来自互联网
• Intriguingly, the patients brains were riddled with tangles, but not amyloid plaques. 有趣的是，患者的大脑中充满了各缠结，但并没有粉斑。 来自互联网

11 strut   

v.肿胀，鼓起；大摇大摆地走；炫耀；支撑；撑开；n.高视阔步；支柱，撑杆

参考例句：

• The circulation economy development needs the green science and technology innovation as the strut.循环经济的发展需要绿色科技创新生态化作为支撑。
• Now we'll strut arm and arm.这会儿咱们可以手挽着手儿，高视阔步地走了。

12 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

13 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

14 visualize   

vt.使看得见，使具体化，想象，设想

参考例句：

• I remember meeting the man before but I can't visualize him.我记得以前见过那个人，但他的样子我想不起来了。
• She couldn't visualize flying through space.她无法想像在太空中飞行的景象。