侏罗纪搏击俱乐部 第151期:恐龙同时离奇死亡

 　　Scientists quickly discovered that these dinosaurs² had all died at the same time.

　　科学家们很快发现了这些恐龙全部是同时死亡的。

　　Finding the remains³ in one place could mean only one thing.

　　在同一地点发现的遗骸只能说明一个问题。

　　The entire herd⁴ had been wiped out suddenly, and catastrophically.

　　整个恐龙群突然地、灾难性地被毁掉。

　　Ceratopsian bone beds almost certainly all represent catastrophes⁵.

　　肿鼻角龙骨床几乎可以肯定代表着大灾难。

　　And these catastrophes only happen when the animals are moving together in herds⁶.

　　这些灾难只可能在动物成群迁移时发生。

　　And in the fossil record, we see that with the Ceratopsian dinosaurs, that, every now and then, things did go wrong.

　　在化石证据里，我们能够看到角龙，不时地就会出现问题。

　　So maybe one in a hundred of the bone beds that we find turns out to be one of these mass death sites where we have horned dinosaurs that were travelling in herds that died all at once.

　　我们发现的骨床里面有百分之一会是这些带角恐龙大规模死亡之处，在这里角龙成群旅行突然死亡。

　　With the Arctic vanishing, the seasons began to change on planet earth.

　　随着北极在消失，地球上的季节开始变化。

　　This triggered deadly flash floods.

　　这导致了大型致命的洪水。

　　This is what we get if you have a lot of big animals in fast flowing water.

　　这就是当有很多大型动物在急流中时会出现的情况。

　　A single Pachyrhinosaurus could probably easily swim through even a relatively⁷ fast moving stream.

　　单独一头肿鼻角龙能够轻易游过水流相当湍急的河流。

　　But when you get two, or four, or a dozen, or a hundred going through the water they interfere⁸ with each other, their limbs trip each other up and they get entangled⁹ and they drown.

　　不过变成两头、四头或是一打乃至一百头同时过河的时候，它们会相互影响，它们的四肢绊倒对方，它们会纠缠在一起被淹死。

　　The force of the stream carries these bodies together and washes them up against the shoreline or at the curve of a stream.

　　水流会携带着这些尸体把它们冲上岸边或是在水流转弯处。

　　We see that today when a herd of antelope¹⁰ try to cross a stream at flood stage together, they get stacked up against each other.

　　现在我们能够看到一群羚羊一起穿过洪流的情形，它们相互叠在一起。

　　And that seems to be what happened at Pipestone Creek¹¹ back in the age of dinosaurs.

　　这似乎就是恐龙时期在派泊斯通溪的发生的事情。

　　The small grains of earth surrounding the bones supported the flood theory.

　　在骨头周围的泥土小颗粒支持洪水理论。

　　Different sized grains of dirt travel at different speeds.

　　不同尺寸的泥土颗粒在水流中的速度不同。

　　Fast moving water means little grains travel very quickly, bigger grains lag behind.

　　快速流动的水意味着小颗粒移动得非常快，大颗粒被甩在后面。

　　So when they found these dinosaurs they were completely encased in the same sized grain, and that tells us that these animals were washed into their position.

　　当他们找到这些恐龙时，它们是完全一样大小的颗粒，那告诉我们这些动物是被冲到它们的位置的。

　　But the flash flood raised new questions.

　　不过洪水带来了新的问题。

　　A few deaths would have been understandable, but an entire herd of Pachyrhinosaurus charging into a flood and certain death?

　　几头恐龙的死亡可以理解不过为什么整群的肿鼻角龙冲进夺命洪水之中呢？

　　Lawrence Witmer of Ohio University conducted CAT scans on the brain case of Pachyrhinosaurus looking for clues as to how the dinosaur¹ may have behaved.

　　俄亥俄大学的劳伦斯·维特莫对肿鼻角龙的颅腔进行了CAT扫描，寻找线索来了解这种恐龙可能的行为方式。

　　He found that this animal operated on raw instinct.

　　他发现这种恐龙完全靠本能反应。

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 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。

4 herd   

n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• He had no opinions of his own but simply follow the herd.他从无主见，只是人云亦云。

5 catastrophes   

n.灾祸( catastrophe的名词复数 )；灾难；不幸事件；困难

参考例句：

• Two of history's worst natural catastrophes occurred in 1970. 1970年发生了历史上最严重两次自然灾害。 来自辞典例句
• The Swiss deposits contain evidence of such catastrophes. 瑞士的遗址里还有这种灾难的证据。 来自辞典例句

6 herds   

兽群( herd的名词复数 )； 牧群； 人群； 群众

参考例句：

• Regularly at daybreak they drive their herds to the pasture. 每天天一亮他们就把牲畜赶到草场上去。
• There we saw herds of cows grazing on the pasture. 我们在那里看到一群群的牛在草地上吃草。

7 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。

8 interfere   

v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰

参考例句：

• If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话，可能弊多利少。
• When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件，棘手的事情就来了。

9 entangled   

adj.卷入的；陷入的；被缠住的；缠在一起的v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The bird had become entangled in the wire netting. 那只小鸟被铁丝网缠住了。
• Some military observers fear the US could get entangled in another war. 一些军事观察家担心美国会卷入另一场战争。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 antelope   

n.羚羊；羚羊皮

参考例句：

• Choosing the antelope shows that China wants a Green Olympics.选择藏羚羊表示中国需要绿色奥运。
• The tiger was dragging the antelope across the field.老虎拖着羚羊穿过原野。

11 creek   

n.小溪，小河，小湾

参考例句：

• He sprang through the creek.他跳过小河。
• People sunbathe in the nude on the rocks above the creek.人们在露出小溪的岩石上裸体晒日光浴。