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Mini T. Rex Recovered
In a study in the journal Science, researchers announce the discovery of a dinosaur1 125 million years older and one-nintieth the size of T. Rex, but having virtually the same body plan as the giant dino. Cynthia Graber reports.
Ask any young dinosaur fanatic2 about the mighty3 Tyrannosaurus rex and you’ll probably get a fairly accurate description: huge reptile4, big head, powerful jaws6, tiny little arms. Scientists had thought that the animal evolved its bizarre proportions as it grew to its gargantuan7 stature8. But in this week’s issue of the journal Science, paleontologist Paul Sereno describes a newly discovered miniature tyrannosaurid that evolved millions of years earlier—and has all the attributes of the larger one.
The tiny dino had been excavated9 in Mongolia illegally and sold to a private collector. He contacted Sereno to evaluate the preserved tyrannosaurid. Sereno agreed to do so if the dinosaur was donated to science, and eventually returned to China.
The dinosaur is about nine feet long and had an estimated weight of only 150 pounds. But it’s all there—the tiny arms, the huge head, the large teeth and muscular jaw5. A hundred-twenty-five million years later, that animal’s descendants had ballooned into an almost exact replica10 more than 90 times larger. Sereno and his colleagues say the body plan must have been a successful structure for hunting prey—and ultimately thrilling dinosaur lovers everywhere.
—Cynthia Graber
1 dinosaur | |
n.恐龙 | |
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2 fanatic | |
n.狂热者,入迷者;adj.狂热入迷的 | |
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3 mighty | |
adj.强有力的;巨大的 | |
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4 reptile | |
n.爬行动物;两栖动物 | |
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5 jaw | |
n.颚,颌,说教,流言蜚语;v.喋喋不休,教训 | |
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6 jaws | |
n.口部;嘴 | |
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7 gargantuan | |
adj.巨大的,庞大的 | |
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8 stature | |
n.(高度)水平,(高度)境界,身高,身材 | |
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9 excavated | |
v.挖掘( excavate的过去式和过去分词 );开凿;挖出;发掘 | |
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10 replica | |
n.复制品 | |
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