纪录片《侏罗纪之谜》 第24期 寻找小骨骼

We were actually looking for some small pieces of bone.

我们正在找一些小骨骼

We have seen that there were bones in those rocks

我们看到那些石头里有骨骼

so we were just essentially¹ chipping little pieces of rock

所以我们耐心地敲碎石头

and seeing if there were any bones or fragments in there.

看看里面是不是有骨头或碎片

Dr Rougier doesn't do dinosaurs³. He's not even looking for plants.

Rougier博士并非研究恐龙，他也不是在寻找植物

He's after something even more precious and harder to find.

他的目标是一些更珍贵、更难找的东西

People working on dinosaurs think that they have a lot of heavy work and so on,

研究恐龙的那些人认为他们的工作非常繁重

but we looking for tiny little mammals, you know little creatures like this and like that,

但是我们要找的是小型哺乳动物，你要知道像这样的小动物

we have an even harder time because they can trip over a skeleton of a dinosaur²,

找起来更加困难，它们可能被恐龙的骨骼埋住

but for us to identify a little mammal jaw⁴ like this

而我们却要在现场辨认这么小的哺乳动物颚骨，

in the field for which only a little portion is showing up it's very tough.

它们只露出这么小一点点，这真的非常困难

Mammals were the Cinderellas of the Jurassic.

哺乳动物是侏罗纪时代的“灰姑娘”

They were tiny, like present day mice, and probably nocturnal.

它们像今天的老鼠一样小，而且很可能是夜行动物

Their fossils are so rare that before the site was discovered

在这次发现之前，它们的化石非常稀少

not a single Jurassic mammal had ever been found in South America before.

此前南美洲从未发现过一种侏罗纪哺乳动物

We were kind of ready to head back home and kind of a little bit dispirited

我们都已经准备回家了，大家都有点失望

because after four or five days we haven't really gotten what we were looking for,

因为连续四五天我们都没能找到我们想要的东西

I saw a little thing that was very suggestive of a jaw of a mammal,

我看见一样小东西很像哺乳类的颚骨

but there wasn't enough showing to be sure that that was the case.

但它那些部分并不能完全说明它就是颚骨

But when he looked closer Dr Rougier saw teeth.

可是当Rougier博士仔细观察时，他看到了牙齿。

1 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。

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 jaw   

n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训

参考例句：

• He delivered a right hook to his opponent's jaw.他给了对方下巴一记右钩拳。
• A strong square jaw is a sign of firm character.强健的方下巴是刚毅性格的标志。