侏罗纪搏击俱乐部 第123期:犹他盗龙奇特的爪子

 　　We have been working in the quarries¹, and we were starting to get familiar with how the bones were situated².

　　我们在石场工作，我们开始对骨头是如何放置的熟悉起来。

　　And one of the students that was with the College of Eastern Utah, yelled over to me:

　　在东犹他大学就读的一名学生向我喊道：

　　"Jim, you should come over and look at this. It looks a little different."

　　“吉姆，你得过来看看这个。看起来有点儿不一样”

　　And I'm looking down at it, and I realize that there's a little groove³ on the surface.

　　我向下看去，意识到在其表面有一条小沟槽。

　　And I hold my head down low and realize "Boy, this is really thin. That looks like the groove you see in the side of a claw,but it's really thin."

　　把头低下去后发现“天哪，这真薄。看起来好像是爪子侧面的沟槽，不过真是很薄。”

　　And I thought to myself, "Deinonychus, terrible claw, from the early Cretaceous."

　　我想，“恐爪龙，可怕的爪子，来自白垩纪早期。”

　　"This is good, one of my favorite dinosaurs⁵." I said, "This is twice as big as Deinonychus".

　　“不错，是我最喜欢的恐龙之一”，我说，“但这有恐爪龙两倍大”。

　　Scientists had just unearthed⁶ the remains⁷ of a giant raptor, one that was over 12 times as heavy as its next largest relative.

　　科学家们刚刚挖出了巨大的迅猛龙骨骸，是其最大亲戚体重的十二倍。

　　They named the beast Utahraptor.

　　他们给这头猛兽起名犹他盗龙。

　　Very soon after beginning to excavate⁸ the Gastonia bones, we uncovered a claw approximately 8 inches in length.

　　我们挖掘出加斯顿龙骨头之后很快，我们就发现了一个接近8英寸长的爪子。

　　And through analysis of other specimens⁹, it was determined¹⁰ that this was a gigantic Dromaeosaur, which is the family of dinosaurs that Velociraptor and Deinonychus and things like that belong to.

　　通过分析其它样本，它被确定是一种巨大的恐爪龙，伶盗龙和鳄龙以及类似这些都属于的这个恐龙科。

　　And so this was very exciting because it was the largest Dromaeosaur known and not only it was larger than anything known, but it was several times larger than anything previously¹¹ seen.

　　所以这很让人兴奋因为这是已知最大的恐爪龙，不仅比任何已知的都大，而且要比以前看到的大好几倍。

　　The Utahraptor preceded the Velociraptor by tens of millions of years.

　　犹他盗龙比伶盗龙早出现几千万年。

　　This was clearly an early version of the smaller, faster raptors to come.

　　这显然是后来的更小更快的迅猛龙的早期版本。

　　When Utahraptor was found, it was pretty significant because up until that point the largest of the Raptor dinosaurs found was Deinonychus, which was about the size of a timber wolf.

　　犹他盗龙被发现的时候，非常有意义，因为到那时为止，人们发现的最大迅猛龙是鳄龙，其体型与一头灰狼相仿。

　　And here comes one with similar sort of anatomy¹², but bigger than a bear, or at least the size about a big grizzly¹³, or a big polar bear, a truly monster sized Raptor dinosaur⁴.

　　而这一头有着类似的解剖结构，但却比熊大，或者最少是一头大个儿棕熊或大北极熊的体型，真正的怪兽级别的迅猛龙。

　　I think someone gave a really good explanation of what Utahraptor was.

　　我记得有人对犹他盗龙是什么做了非常好的解释。

　　Utahraptor was Velociraptor on steroids. Here's the pumped up Raptor.

　　犹他盗龙是服了类固醇的伶盗龙。这是振奋的迅猛龙。

　　This is the biggest Raptor we've found so far and it was probably the nastiest as well.

　　这是到目前为止发现的最大的迅猛龙，而且很可能是最凶狠的。

1 quarries   

n.（采）石场( quarry的名词复数 )；猎物（指鸟，兽等）；方形石；（格窗等的）方形玻璃v.从采石场采得( quarry的第三人称单数 )；从（书本等中）努力发掘（资料等）；在采石场采石

参考例句：

• This window was filled with old painted glass in quarries. 这窗户是由旧日的彩色菱形玻璃装配的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They hewed out the stones for the building from nearby quarries. 他们从邻近的采石场开凿出石头供建造那栋房子用。 来自辞典例句

2 situated   

adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的

参考例句：

• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。
• She is awkwardly situated.她的处境困难。

3 groove   

n.沟，槽；凹线，（刻出的）线条，习惯

参考例句：

• They're happy to stay in the same old groove.他们乐于墨守成规。
• The cupboard door slides open along the groove.食橱门沿槽移开。

4 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。

5 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》

6 unearthed   

出土的（考古）

参考例句：

• Many unearthed cultural relics are set forth in the exhibition hall. 展览馆里陈列着许多出土文物。
• Some utensils were in a state of decay when they were unearthed. 有些器皿在出土时已经残破。

7 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。

8 excavate   

vt.挖掘，挖出

参考例句：

• They plan to excavate a large hole.他们计划挖个大洞。
• A new Danish expedition is again excavating the site in annual summer digs.一支新的丹麦探险队又在那个遗址上进行一年一度的夏季挖掘。

9 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》

10 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

11 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

12 anatomy   

n.解剖学，解剖；功能，结构，组织

参考例句：

• He found out a great deal about the anatomy of animals.在动物解剖学方面，他有过许多发现。
• The hurricane's anatomy was powerful and complex.对飓风的剖析是一项庞大而复杂的工作。

13 grizzly   

adj.略为灰色的，呈灰色的；n.灰色大熊

参考例句：

• This grizzly liked people.这只灰熊却喜欢人。
• Grizzly bears are not generally social creatures.一般说来，灰熊不是社交型动物。