侏罗纪搏击俱乐部 第152期:依靠本能而非智慧

 　　What that small brain structure in Pachyrhinosaurus tells us is that the animals were probably not problem solvers.

　　肿鼻角龙很小的脑部结构告诉我们，这种动物很可能没有解决问题的能力。

　　They didn't have the capacity necessarily to sort out what was going on in their environment.They're a very instinctual animal.

　　它们没有必要的能力来了解周围发生了什么。它们是很依靠本能的动物。

　　You really couldn't throw Pachyrhinosaurus a curve and have the animal deal with it.

　　对于肿鼻角龙可不能指望它脑筋能转得过来。

　　It was a very instinctual, hardwired animal.

　　这种动物全靠本能和身体。

　　Being an animal that reacts on instinct more than intellect, it's easy to understand how an entire herd¹ of Pachyrhinosaurus could have been stampeded into a fast flowing river.

　　因为这种动物更多依靠本能而非智慧，整群肿鼻角龙受惊奔逃冲进激流就比较容易理解了。

　　Because of their small brains, these dinosaurs³ had a "shoot first and ask questions later" sort of mentality⁴.

　　因为它们的大脑很小，这些恐龙基本上就是做了再说的那种。

　　What Pachyrhinosaurus lacked in brains, it made up for in brawn⁵.

　　肿鼻角龙脑力的缺陷有块头来弥补。

　　Although the brain was small, it was protected inside the dinosaur²'s chief weapon: an armored skull⁶.

　　尽管它的脑很小，它却被保护在其最主要的武器里：有甲的头颅。

　　Ceratopsian brain cases are actually separated from their skull which means that they can actually have a large impact on something and it's not gonna addle⁷ their brain.

　　肿鼻角龙的颅腔其实与它们的颅骨是分开的，这说明就算它们猛烈地撞击到什么东西也不会损伤它们的脑。

　　Whether it's another dinosaur or maybe even knocking down trees, I don't know, to get to...to get to some more edibles⁸.

　　不管撞到的是其它恐龙还是撞倒树木，来弄点东西吃这其实都无所谓。

　　That massive skull is their biggest weapon and it's what they'd use to defend themselves.

　　它们厚重的头颅是最主要的武器也是它们用来保护自己的工具。

　　In a fight, Pachyrhinosaurus is going to do one thing and that is to face its attacker.

　　在战斗中，肿鼻角龙会做的就是面对它的攻击者。

　　And as the attacker moves in, Pachyrhinosaurus will lower his head down and charge and just as he hits the target, it's going to raise its head up.

　　当它的攻击者接近时，肿鼻角龙把头低下冲上去，并且在撞到目标时会把头扬起来。

　　What this does is it thrusts the horn in and then up and rips a huge wound into the attacker.

　　这样它就能把角戳进去再抬起来给攻击者撕开巨大伤口。

　　Multiply that battering⁹ ram¹⁰ by a hundred and you have Pachyrhinosaurus' other big weapon: strength in numbers.

　　把一攻城槌乘上一百倍就是肿鼻角龙的另一个重要武器，人多力量大。

　　Pachyrhinosaurus was a herd dinosaur and therefore it could operate together.

　　肿鼻角龙是群居恐龙因此会跟其它同伴合作。

　　The main benefits are the number of eyes available.

　　主要的好处是很多双观察的眼睛。

　　The more eyes around, the more chance you have of seeing a predator¹¹ coming.

　　多几双眼睛观察就更容易看到掠食者靠近。

　　Plus, if you've got a bunch of big animals with big horns or big frills working together, they can fight off even the fiercest of predators¹² that lived in that environment.

　　而且，这么一大群有巨角和骨质褶皱的壮硕的动物合作，它们能战退当时那种环境下最凶猛的掠食者。

　　That environment included Alberta, but also Alaska and Montana, where the remains¹³ of Pachyrhinosaurus have been found.

　　那种环境包括阿尔伯塔，还有阿拉斯加和蒙大拿，曾找到过肿鼻角龙化石的地方。

1 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。

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 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》

4 mentality   

n.心理，思想，脑力

参考例句：

• He has many years'experience of the criminal mentality.他研究犯罪心理有多年经验。
• Running a business requires a very different mentality from being a salaried employee.经营企业所要求具备的心态和上班族的心态截然不同。

5 brawn   

n.体力

参考例句：

• In this job you need both brains and brawn.做这份工作既劳神又费力。
• They relied on brains rather than brawn.他们靠的是脑力，而不是体力。

6 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。

7 addle   

v.使腐坏，使昏乱

参考例句：

• Eggs addle quickly in hot weather.蛋在热天易坏。
• The object is to addle and not to elucidate.其目的是为了混淆而不是为了阐明。

8 edibles   

可以吃的，可食用的( edible的名词复数 )； 食物

参考例句：

• They freely offered for sale what edibles they had. 他们很自愿地把他们的一点点可吃的东西卖给我们。
• Our edibles the wild vegetable. 我们只能吃野菜。

9 battering   

n.用坏，损坏v.连续猛击( batter的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The film took a battering from critics in the US. 该影片在美国遭遇到批评家的猛烈抨击。
• He kept battering away at the door. 他接连不断地砸门。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 ram   

(random access memory)随机存取存储器

参考例句：

• 512k RAM is recommended and 640k RAM is preferred.推荐配置为512K内存，640K内存则更佳。

11 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。

12 predators   

n.食肉动物( predator的名词复数 )；奴役他人者（尤指在财务或性关系方面）

参考例句：

• birds and their earthbound predators 鸟和地面上捕食它们的动物
• The eyes of predators are highly sensitive to the slightest movement. 捕食性动物的眼睛能感觉到最细小的动静。 来自《简明英汉词典》

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。