科学美国人60秒 SSS 群居行为帮助恐龙统治地球

This is Scientific American’s 60-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。

Just like cows, sheep and bison roam in herds¹ today, so, too, did plant-eating dinosaurs³.

就像今天的奶牛、绵羊和野牛成群结队地游荡一样，食草恐龙也是如此。

And it appears they began flocking together much earlier than we used to think—just as the Jurassic period was beginning to unfold.

它们聚集在一起的时间似乎比我们过去认为的-—侏罗纪时期开始出现，要早得多。

(This is) a critical time in the evolution of dinosaurs.

这是恐龙进化的关键时期。

(This is) pretty early on. So the idea is: this type of social behavior, may actually contributed to the evolutionary⁴ success of dinosaurs.

这是相当早的。 所以这个想法是:这种这种社会行为类型，可能实际上有助于恐龙进化成功。

Jahandar Ramezani of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a geochronologist. In his words ...

麻省理工学院的贾汉达尔·拉米扎尼是一位地质年代学家。 他说……

I date things. And I date old things, things in the millions and billions of years—not the really young stuff.

我确定事物的年代。 我对古老的事物，对数百万、数十亿年前的事物进行了年代测定，而不是那些事实上年轻的事物。

In this case, Ramezani was dating tiny zircon crystals, in fact,in a fossil bed in Patagonia, near the southern tip of South America.

在这个案例中，拉米扎尼在靠近南美洲南端的巴塔哥尼亚的化石层中测定微小的锆石晶体的年代。

Those crystals dated back to nearly 193 million years ago.

这些晶体可以追溯到近1.93亿年前。

And the fossils preserved there—an array of nearly 200 specimens⁵ of a plant eater named Mussaurus patagonicus—provide a snapshot of the dinosaur² at all stages of its life.

保存在那里的化石——一组近200个食草动物的标本，名为巴塔哥尼亚鼠龙(Mussaurus patagonicus)——提供了这种恐龙所有生命阶段的快照。

Eggs and hatchlings, clumps⁶ of juveniles⁷ and then—further out—adults.

卵和刚孵化的幼崽，成群的幼崽恐龙化石，远远多于成年的恐龙化石。

So this kind of undisturbed distribution of fossils and this kind of age segregation⁸ basically shows these dinosaurs had a social structure.

所以这种未受干扰的化石分布和这种年龄隔离基本上说明了这些恐龙有一个社会结构。

They lived in a colony. And everybody has got things to do—duties—with respect to the young and the juveniles.

他们居住在群落里。对于幼崽来说，每个都有自己的事情要做—职责。

The study—in the journal Scientific Reports—suggests dinosaurs developed complex social behavior 40 million years earlier than previously⁹ thought.

这项发表在《科学报告》杂志上的研究表明，恐龙发展出复杂的社会行为的时间比之前认为的要早4000万年。

And Ramezani says the work also advances long-standing questions about the social structure of dinosaurs.

拉米扎尼表示，这项工作还推进了关于恐龙社会结构这一长期存在的问题。

Was it more like primitive¹⁰ taxa like the crocodiles?

它是不是更像鳄鱼那样的原始类群?

Or did it look like more evolved types of animals like birds and mammals?

还是它看起来像进化的动物类型，比如鸟类和哺乳动物?

And we’re beginning to see that, yes, it looks more like a mammal- or bird-type colony.

我们开始发现，是的，它看起来更像哺乳动物或鸟类的群落。

Whatever type of social structure it was, the scientists hypothesize that it helped large plant eaters first spread across the planet—kick-starting tens of millions of years of dominion¹¹ on Earth.

无论它是哪种社会结构，科学家们假设它首先帮助大型食草动物在地球上扩张，开启了其在地球上数千万年的统治。

Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。

1 herds   

兽群( herd的名词复数 )； 牧群； 人群； 群众

参考例句：

• Regularly at daybreak they drive their herds to the pasture. 每天天一亮他们就把牲畜赶到草场上去。
• There we saw herds of cows grazing on the pasture. 我们在那里看到一群群的牛在草地上吃草。

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 evolutionary   

adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的

参考例句：

• Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
• These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。

5 specimens   

n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人

参考例句：

• Astronauts have brought back specimens of rock from the moon. 宇航员从月球带回了岩石标本。
• The traveler brought back some specimens of the rocks from the mountains. 那位旅行者从山上带回了一些岩石标本。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 clumps   

n.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的名词复数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声v.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的第三人称单数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声

参考例句：

• These plants quickly form dense clumps. 这些植物很快形成了浓密的树丛。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The bulbs were over. All that remained of them were clumps of brown leaves. 这些鳞茎死了，剩下的只是一丛丛的黃叶子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 juveniles   

n.青少年( juvenile的名词复数 )；扮演少年角色的演员；未成年人

参考例句：

• Do you think that punishment for violent crimes should be the same for juveniles and adults? 你对暴力犯罪的惩罚对于青少年和成人应一样吗？ 来自生活英语口语25天快训
• Juveniles Should we not exactly in need of such strength and conviction? 少年的我们难道不正是需要这种力量和信念吗？ 来自互联网

8 segregation   

n.隔离，种族隔离

参考例句：

• Many school boards found segregation a hot potato in the early 1960s.在60年代初，许多学校部门都觉得按水平分班是一个棘手的问题。
• They were tired to death of segregation and of being kicked around.他们十分厌恶种族隔离和总是被人踢来踢去。

9 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

10 primitive   

adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物

参考例句：

• It is a primitive instinct to flee a place of danger.逃离危险的地方是一种原始本能。
• His book describes the march of the civilization of a primitive society.他的著作描述了一个原始社会的开化过程。

11 dominion   

n.统治，管辖，支配权；领土，版图

参考例句：

• Alexander held dominion over a vast area.亚历山大曾统治过辽阔的地域。
• In the affluent society,the authorities are hardly forced to justify their dominion.在富裕社会里，当局几乎无需证明其统治之合理。