纪录片《恐龙的战争》 极限生存（10）（在线收听）

Sauroposeidon does almost everything by instinct including rearing, or more accurately, not rearing its children.

波塞东龙做任何事几乎都是出于本能，包括抚养后代，更准确地说是，根本不抚养其后代。

It may seem cruel to just dig a hole and leave your eggs and wander on.

挖个坑，产了卵就走了，这看起来好像挺残酷的。

But it's a very effective means of reproduction if you can afford to make lots of babies.

不过这是种很有效的繁殖方式，前提是你得下足够多的蛋。

We know that the sauropods were not taking care of their newly hatched babies.

我们知道蜥蜴类动物不会照顾刚破壳的新生儿。

We don't find the newly hatched babies with the adults.

我们在成年龙身边找不到新生儿。

Scientists believe Sauroposeidon's gargantuan size makes incubating eggs a physical impossibility.

科学家认为波塞东龙的庞大体型使得它们根本没法孵蛋。

When you're running, say, 60,80 feet in length, and your eggs are only about the size of a cantaloupe, the size difference makes it so hard to be gentle.

比如你有大约六十或者八十英尺长，而你的蛋只有哈密瓜那么大，这种大小差距下根本无法做到轻手轻脚。

I think sauropods like sauroposeidon are just too big to be able to control where their body mass is going to be.

我认为波塞东龙这种蜥蜴类动物实在太大了，所以没法控制自己的身体。

You know, they aren't... They don't have the brain capacity to understand where their butt is at the same time as where their head is.

它们无法...它们没有这样的头脑同时去想屁股在哪儿，头又在哪儿。

With its mammoth size and limited intellect, Sauroposeidon relies on a totally different method than Tyrannosaurus rex to raise its young.

由于其巨大的体型和有限的智力，波塞东龙运用与霸王龙完全不同的方式来抚养后代。

In its life-span, a mated pair of Sauroposeidons might produce thousands and thousands of eggs and only maybe a couple or three are going to survive to adulthood.

一对波塞东龙一生能产下成千上万的蛋，可是只有为数不多的两三只能活到成年。

So, what that tells us is that almost all of the offspring are being killed and eaten by predators.

所以这告诉我们，其大部分后代都被肉食性动物给吃掉了。

Basically, you're flooding all the carnivores with so much food that they can't eat it all, and so there's bound to be some survivors.

从本质上来说，你为食肉动物提供这么多食物，多到它们都吃不完，那就一定会有存活下来的。

Sauroposeidon's approach to its young sounds brutish and cruel, but it isn't.

波塞东龙对其后代的方法听起来很残暴又野蛮，但事实并非如此。

Sauroposeidon, like sea turtles, for example, seems to have tried to overwhelm the predators with just sheer numbers of offspring.

波塞东龙就像海龟一样要用后代巨大的数量优势战胜那些肉食性动物。

They're not just all laying their eggs within a few weeks of each other.

它们并不是用几周的时间来下蛋。

They're all trying to lay their eggs on the same night or two.

而是在一两个晚上下完所有蛋。

And one of the reasons is so that they can overwhelm the predators.

原因之一就是这样它们就能战胜捕食者。

If you have a food resource that's available in vast numbers but only for a very limited time, it's hard for predators to eat all of them.

如果食物数量极大，但只有很短一段时间，那捕食者很难一下子全都吃完。

Like sea turtles, who from the moment they hatch, they are on their own.

而海龟从出生那一刻起就得自力更生了。

For predators, hatching time is a veritable feast. Even so, the strategy works.

对捕食者而言，孵化期是一场饕餮盛宴。即便如此，繁殖战略还是起了作用。

Carnivores gulp down virtually every hatchling. But a few do make it.

捕食者几乎吃完了所有的小海龟。不过还是有几只幸存下来。

Not even the most voracious feeders can kill them all.

就连最贪吃的捕食者也不能把它们吃光。