侏罗纪搏击俱乐部 第38期:史前集体猎杀的画面

 CAT scan evidence would also reveal another clue.

CT扫描也揭示了另一条线索。

The Raptors at this site were incredibly agile¹.

在这一战场上的迅猛龙惊人地敏捷。

We have a sense that this animal could really move around with a fair amount of dexterity².

我们感觉这种恐龙能够异常敏捷地移动。

So it's interesting for me then, with the CAT scan, to have a look inside the skull³ at what the inner ear looks like, because that speaks to the center of balance for this animal,

因此我很有兴趣，用CT扫描看看其颅腔内耳是什么样的，因为那里是它的平衡中心，

and the question is "did it have a sense of balance that matches what we see from other parts of the skeleton?"

而问题在于它的平衡机制跟我们能从骨骼构造上发现的一致吗？

And the answer is very much so.

答案是肯定的。

They certainly have the kind of inner ear structure that fully⁴ supports the idea that these were very active, agile animals.

它们的内耳结构完全支持它们是非常活跃敏锐的动物这一说法。

Then, focusing on the inner ear canals, Witmer's team discovered something new.

接着在内耳耳道之处，维特莫的团队有了新的发现。

These Raptors could pick up low frequency sound.

这些迅猛龙可以听到低频声音。

One of the exciting things when we did the CAT scanning of Deinonychus is we've found very large air spaces surrounding the brain region of the back ends of these skulls⁵, and they're very curious to us.

令人兴奋的是我们在对恐爪龙头骨CT扫描时，我们在其颅骨后端附近，在脑部周围找到了空间很大的气缝，我们对这些很是好奇。

Why did they have these very large spaces within their skull? They were airheads in a very literal sense.

为什么它们的颅骨内有那么大空间呢？这可真是脑袋空空呀。

It turns out that having a very large middle ear space, the space of just inside the eardrum, has an impact on the kinds of sounds that you're potentially sensitive to.

结论是，要是中耳空间非常之大，耳鼓里面的空间会直接影响对某些种类的声音敏感。

It potentially opens up greater sensitivity to low frequency sounds.

这很可能开创了对低频音更强的敏感度。

And so it's conceivable that Deinonychus and actually many of these predatory dinosaurs⁷ like Tyrannosaurus and others,

因此我们相信恐爪龙与霸王龙及很多其它掠食恐龙有一样的地方，

that have these large sinuses associated with their ear, were actually using low frequency sounds potentially to track the movements,

都有跟耳朵相连的大鼻窦，实际上它们是利用低频音来追踪潜在猎物的行动，

or activities of animals that were really quite far away, potentially animals that were out of their line of sight or beyond their senses of smell.

或窥探在很远处的动物活动，这些动物都在它们视线和嗅觉范围之外。

So the sense of hearing and their sensitivity to low frequency sounds, which is something we never could have discovered without CAT scanning,

它们的听觉和对低频音的敏锐感知在没有CT扫描的情况下是没法发现的，

provides us with a unique glimpse into the biology or the potential predatory behavior of some of these kinds of dinosaurs.

这项技术让我们一窥这种生物奇观以及某些此类恐龙潜在的掠食行为。

The discovery of yet another dinosaur⁶ at the scene would add to the ancient puzzle, and paint a picture of a group attack.

现场发现的另一种恐龙帮助解开谜团，并勾勒出一个史前集体猎杀的画面。

1 agile   

adj.敏捷的，灵活的

参考例句：

• She is such an agile dancer!她跳起舞来是那么灵巧！
• An acrobat has to be agile.杂技演员必须身手敏捷。

2 dexterity   

n.(手的)灵巧，灵活

参考例句：

• You need manual dexterity to be good at video games.玩好电子游戏手要灵巧。
• I'm your inferior in manual dexterity.论手巧，我不如你。

3 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。

4 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

5 skulls   

颅骨( skull的名词复数 )； 脑袋； 脑子； 脑瓜

参考例句：

• One of the women's skulls found exceeds in capacity that of the average man of today. 现已发现的女性颅骨中，其中有一个的脑容量超过了今天的普通男子。
• We could make a whole plain white with skulls in the moonlight! 我们便能令月光下的平原变白，遍布白色的骷髅！

6 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。

7 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》