侏罗纪搏击俱乐部 第59期:吃了兴奋剂的鹰爪

 Of the tens of thousands of fossil remains¹, only a single Ceratosaurus was found.

在数千具化石遗骸中只有一具属于角鼻龙。

This mid-sized predator² did not have the power to cause the damage to the tens of thousands of bones.

这数万块骨头上面的损伤是这种中等体型的掠食者力所不及的。

Another killer³, even bigger, must have been keeping them away.

一定有另一种更大的杀手让角鼻龙不敢靠近这里。

This hypothesis would gain momentum⁴ with the discovery of a fourth set of remains.

随着第四组残骸的发现这一推测就更加有说服力了。

And this one was a much larger, more lethal⁵ predator.

这种掠食者要大得多而且更致命的。

Allosaurus.

异特龙。

Allosaurus was the most common dinosaur⁶ found in the Cleveland Lloyd site.

在克利夫兰劳埃德石场发现得最多的就是异特龙。

It's a massive animal, so it was more than capable of crushing bones and ripping apart skeletons.

它是个庞然大物，压碎骨头、撕开骨架对它来说并不在话下。

Allosaurus was the first giant predatory dinosaur predates T-rex by some eighty million years and was the biggest carnivore of its time.

异特龙是最早的巨型掠食恐龙，比霸王龙要早八千万年，是当时最大的食肉动物。

When the first big skeletons of Allosaurus were uncovered people finally saw that there were meat-eating dinosaurs⁷ that were as big as a killer whale,

人们发现第一具异特龙骨架时，是首次见到肉食恐龙能长到虎鲸那么大，

with powerful claws on its hand, truly fearsome meat eaters, a terror from the Jurassic period.

前肢还有有力的爪子，真是很吓人的食肉者，它是侏罗纪的恐怖明星。

Of the thousands of bones excavated⁸ at the prehistoric⁹ lake, two-thirds of them are from Allosaurus.

在史前湖区挖出的数千块骨头中有三分之二来自异特龙。

They were about five meters tall, eleven meters in length and weighed up to four tons.

它们高约五米长达十一米重达四吨。

In addition to its size, Allosaurus had two lethal tools that made it a successful predator.

除了体型之外，异特龙还有两件致命武器使之成为成功的掠食者。

The first was its trio of claws extending from each hand.

第一件就是每个前肢伸出的三个爪子。

The claws of Allosaurus would have been like an eagle on steroids.

异特龙的前爪就好比是吃了兴奋剂的鹰爪。

They're long, they're curved, they're actually very similar to eagle claws in shape, but backed by huge muscles.

又长又弯跟鹰爪的形状很像并且附有发达的肌肉。

Allosaurus' second weapon was its combination of powerful jaw¹⁰ muscles and serrated teeth.

异特龙的第二件武器结合了有力的颌部肌肉和锯齿状牙齿。

The teeth of Allosaurus were not like T-Rex. They weren't bone crushing.

异特龙的牙齿与霸王龙的不同。它们不是用来咬碎骨头的。

They seem to be more bladelike.

它们更像是刀刃。

They're more slashing¹² teeth, and that's probably more of what it was doing when it attacked.

是更适合划切的牙齿估计它在进攻时主要就用这种方法。

It was making a slash¹¹, not holding on, trying to bleed it.

它会去划上一下而非咬住，这样让猎物流血。

In some ways, that's the way sharks actually attack.

这一定程度上就是鲨鱼的攻击方式。

They'll go up and they'll bite something and bleed it and allow that to weaken the animal.

它们会冲上去咬一口让猎物流血，这样能让该猎物变弱。

But if the teeth of Allosaurus were not capable of crushing bone, then how can we explain some of the injuries?

不过要是异特龙的牙齿不能咬碎骨头那么这些损伤又如何解释呢？

Many dinosaurs found at the watering hole showed signs of being crushed.

水坑处发现的许多恐龙都有碎裂的迹象。

What had the Allosaurus done?

异特龙做了什么？

1 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。

2 predator   

n.捕食其它动物的动物；捕食者

参考例句：

• The final part of this chapter was devoted to a brief summary of predator species.本章最后部分简要总结了食肉动物。
• Komodo dragon is the largest living lizard and a fearsome predator.科摩多龙是目前存在的最大蜥蜴，它是一种令人恐惧的捕食性动物。

3 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

4 momentum   

n.动力，冲力，势头；动量

参考例句：

• We exploit the energy and momentum conservation laws in this way.我们就是这样利用能量和动量守恒定律的。
• The law of momentum conservation could supplant Newton's third law.动量守恒定律可以取代牛顿第三定律。

5 lethal   

adj.致死的；毁灭性的

参考例句：

• A hammer can be a lethal weapon.铁锤可以是致命的武器。
• She took a lethal amount of poison and died.她服了致命剂量的毒药死了。

6 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。

7 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》

8 excavated   

v.挖掘( excavate的过去式和过去分词 )；开凿；挖出；发掘

参考例句：

• The site has been excavated by archaeologists. 这个遗址已被考古学家发掘出来。
• The archaeologists excavated an ancient fortress. 考古学家们发掘出一个古堡。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 prehistoric   

adj.（有记载的）历史以前的，史前的，古老的

参考例句：

• They have found prehistoric remains.他们发现了史前遗迹。
• It was rather like an exhibition of prehistoric electronic equipment.这儿倒像是在展览古老的电子设备。

10 jaw   

n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训

参考例句：

• He delivered a right hook to his opponent's jaw.他给了对方下巴一记右钩拳。
• A strong square jaw is a sign of firm character.强健的方下巴是刚毅性格的标志。

11 slash   

vi.大幅度削减；vt.猛砍，尖锐抨击，大幅减少；n.猛砍，斜线，长切口，衣衩

参考例句：

• The shop plans to slash fur prices after Spring Festival.该店计划在春节之后把皮货降价。
• Don't slash your horse in that cruel way.不要那样残忍地鞭打你的马。

12 slashing   

adj.尖锐的；苛刻的；鲜明的；乱砍的v.挥砍( slash的现在分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减

参考例句：

• Slashing is the first process in which liquid treatment is involved. 浆纱是液处理的第一过程。 来自辞典例句
• He stopped slashing his horse. 他住了手，不去鞭打他的马了。 来自辞典例句