英语听力：探索发现 2012-07-04 恐龙是怎样的炼成的—20

 So how realistic do you think it is to show 3 tyrannosaurs coming together like this? 

 

We have evidence suggesting that these animals lived in groups. It’s very reasonable to imagine a scene like this in which you have a juvenile¹ eating a carcass of a duck-billed dinosaur², and other individuals coming and being attracted by the carcass. 

 

If this is going to be a skeleton here representing an edmontosaurus, a duck-billed dinosaur being eaten by the T-Rexes. Is there actually evidence that they ate this type of dinosaur?

 

You have evidence in the shape of bones of duck-billed like edmontosaurus that have tooth marks essentially³ and those marks, those scratches on the bone coincide well with the shape of the crowns of the teeth of tyrannosaurus Rex. 

 

It’s quite forensic⁴. You’ve actually got gnaw⁵ marks on a duck-billed dinosaur. (Yes. Yes.) Fantastic.

 

But the exhibition isn’t only about T-Rex. And amongst the 20 major mounts will be fruitadens, the smallest dinosaur ever to be found in North America. Working from his own illustration, Doyle has created 5 fruitadens.  It’s the first time that this dinosaur has ever been reconstructed. 

 

This is full-grown to scale. It’s a very small dinosaur and one of the smallest in the world. Because its specimen⁶ is so fragile and sparse⁷, the information that we can gather, a lot of it is inferred or we’re guessing that it fits with the group of animals based on what information we do have. We don’t have a full skeleton. 

 

By comparing the size of a full limb to a thigh⁸ bone, it was clear that fruitadens was bipedal, and by studying close relatives, it’s possible to get a good idea of what a complete skeleton would have looked like. The real challenge was to turn that skeleton into a flesh ate animal. 

 

Musculature can be inferred from the bones. You can see muscle attachments⁹. Every animal has some sort of muscle that pulls the leg back and also something that supports the leg in front, a calf¹⁰ muscle, gastrocnemius or any sort of tendon that will go down to the feet. That’s something that exists on every animal that walks on land.

1 juvenile   

n.青少年，少年读物；adj.青少年的，幼稚的

参考例句：

• For a grown man he acted in a very juvenile manner.身为成年人，他的行为举止显得十分幼稚。
• Juvenile crime is increasing at a terrifying rate.青少年犯罪正在以惊人的速度增长。

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 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

4 forensic   

adj.法庭的，雄辩的

参考例句：

• The report included his interpretation of the forensic evidence.该报告包括他对法庭证据的诠释。
• The judge concluded the proceeding on 10:30 Am after one hour of forensic debate.经过近一个小时的法庭辩论后，法官于10时30分宣布休庭。

5 gnaw   

v.不断地啃、咬；使苦恼，折磨

参考例句：

• Dogs like to gnaw on a bone.狗爱啃骨头。
• A rat can gnaw a hole through wood.老鼠能啃穿木头。

6 specimen   

n.样本，标本

参考例句：

• You'll need tweezers to hold up the specimen.你要用镊子来夹这标本。
• This specimen is richly variegated in colour.这件标本上有很多颜色。

7 sparse   

adj.稀疏的，稀稀落落的，薄的

参考例句：

• The teacher's house is in the suburb where the houses are sparse.老师的家在郊区，那里稀稀拉拉有几处房子。
• The sparse vegetation will only feed a small population of animals.稀疏的植物只够喂养少量的动物。

8 thigh   

n.大腿；股骨

参考例句：

• He is suffering from a strained thigh muscle.他的大腿肌肉拉伤了，疼得很。
• The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.股骨连着髋骨。

9 attachments   

n.（用电子邮件发送的）附件( attachment的名词复数 )；附着；连接；附属物

参考例句：

• The vacuum cleaner has four different attachments. 吸尘器有四个不同的附件。
• It's an electric drill with a range of different attachments. 这是一个带有各种配件的电钻。

10 calf   

n.小牛，犊，幼仔，小牛皮

参考例句：

• The cow slinked its calf.那头母牛早产了一头小牛犊。
• The calf blared for its mother.牛犊哞哞地高声叫喊找妈妈。