侏罗纪搏击俱乐部 第111期:它在南美洲有亲戚

 　　The name Majungasaurus is derived¹ from the words "Majunga", which is a district of Madagascar where they found the dinosaur², and "tholus", which means dome³ in Latin.

　　玛君龙的名字来自两个词语，其一是“马任加”就是发现这种恐龙的马达加斯加的一个行政区名，另一个词语“tholus”，拉丁文意义是穹顶。

　　This hideous-looking dinosaur first appeared 70 million years ago and lived up into the end of the Cretaceous when all dinosaurs⁴ went extinct about 65 million years ago.

　　这种面貌狰狞的恐龙最早出现于七千万年前，一直生活到六千五百万年前所有恐龙一起灭绝的白垩纪末期。

　　Its remains⁵ are only found on the Island Madagascar, but it has relatives in South America.

　　其骨骸只有在马达加斯加岛被发现过，不过它在南美洲有亲戚。

　　That proves that at one time, Africa, Madagascar, India and South America were all connected in the super continent of Pangaea.

　　那证明了非洲、马达加斯加、印度和南美洲曾经都联系在泛大陆的超级大陆上。

　　Majungasaurus belonged to a family of dinosaurs called the Abelisaurids.

　　玛君龙属于叫做阿贝力龙的恐龙家族。

　　This family of dinosaurs shared several characteristics.

　　这家族的恐龙有几种共同特点。

　　The Abelisaurids are a group of meat eating dinosaurs, descendents of creatures similar to Ceratosaurus from the Jurassic period.

　　阿贝力龙是一组肉食恐龙，是类似于侏罗纪时期角鼻龙的生物的后代。

　　The Abelisaurids tended to have relatively⁶ short faces.

　　阿贝力龙往往有相对短的脸。

　　They tended to have very think snorts and had very short, bizarre arms where the hands are very, very small and the forearms are short enough, so they are basically just wrists.

　　它们往往有较厚的鼻口部和非常短小怪异的前肢，其手部非常之小，它的前臂很短基本就是一个腕子。

　　The Abelisaurids started off as a sort of secondary predator⁷, a middling sizes predator in the southern continents.

　　阿贝力龙一开始时是南部各大洲一种体型中等的次级掠食者。

　　But in the late Cretaceous, when the Allosaurus had finally all died out, the Abelisaurus took over, and if you were in South America, or Africa, or India, or Madagascar, your greatest fear would be a Abelisaurus.

　　不过到了白垩纪后期，异特龙已经彻底消失，阿贝力龙就接任了，如果你那时在南美洲、非洲印度或马达加斯加岛，你最大的恐惧便是阿贝力龙了。

　　Some of the early description said it's a face that only a mother could love.

　　有些早期的描述说这张脸只有亲妈能喜欢。

　　It's a very ugly, rugose headed dinosaur.

　　这是一种头部多皱的丑陋恐龙。

　　Its nasalis are completely covered with lots of little pits and divots in the skull⁸.

　　它脑袋上的鼻肌完全被众多的坑坑包包所覆盖。

　　It's a very ugly dinosaur, but very cool-looking dinosaur to paleontologists.

　　它是非常丑陋的恐龙，但在古生物学家眼中却很酷。

　　Along with its unusual face, Majungasaurus spouted⁹ a horn that jutted¹⁰ out from the middle of its forehead.

　　除了脸部长相非同寻常之外，玛君龙的额头正中还长出来了一个角。

　　This menacing spike¹¹ may have served an important social function.

　　这个吓人的尖状物也许会有重要的社会功能。

　　When the first really nice skulls¹² of Majungasaurus were found, one of the things that was very apparent was that there was this very complicated and rough looking bump on top of it head.

　　当人们发现了第一个完好的玛君龙头骨时，很明显的事情之一就是它头上有这个看来很复杂也很粗糙的突起。

　　Now we see that lots of different kinds of dinosaurs, including many kinds of predatory dinosaurs like Ceratosaurus, and Allosaurus, and even some specimens¹³ of Tyrannosaurus, have various kinds of horn-like structures or bumpy¹⁴ structures on their head.

　　我们现在知道多种不同恐龙，包括很多种掠食恐龙，比如角鼻龙和异特龙，甚至一些种类的暴龙，头上都有各种角状结构或是突起的结构。

1 derived   

vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取

参考例句：

• Many English words are derived from Latin and Greek. 英语很多词源出于拉丁文和希腊文。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He derived his enthusiasm for literature from his father. 他对文学的爱好是受他父亲的影响。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 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。

3 dome   

n.圆屋顶，拱顶

参考例句：

• The dome was supported by white marble columns.圆顶由白色大理石柱支撑着。
• They formed the dome with the tree's branches.他们用树枝搭成圆屋顶。

4 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》

5 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。

6 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

7 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。

8 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

9 spouted   

adj.装有嘴的v.（指液体）喷出( spout的过去式和过去分词 )；滔滔不绝地讲；喋喋不休地说；喷水

参考例句：

• The broken pipe spouted water all over the room. 破裂的水管喷了一屋子的水。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The lecturer spouted for hours. 讲师滔滔不绝地讲了几个小时。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 jutted   

v.（使）突出( jut的过去式和过去分词 )；伸出；（从…）突出；高出

参考例句：

• A row of small windows jutted out from the roof. 有一排小窗户从房顶上突出来。
• His jaw jutted stubbornly forward; he would not be denied. 他固执地扬起下巴，一副不肯罢休的样子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 spike   

n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效

参考例句：

• The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
• They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。

12 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！

13 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》

14 bumpy   

adj.颠簸不平的，崎岖的

参考例句：

• I think we've a bumpy road ahead of us.我觉得我们将要面临一段困难时期。
• The wide paved road degenerated into a narrow bumpy track.铺好的宽阔道路渐渐变窄，成了一条崎岖不平的小径。