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NizarIbrahim_2014Y-_我们是如何挖掘出棘龙的_
These dragons from deep time are incredible creatures . 远古时代的恐龙是不可思议的物种。
dragons:n.龙;悍妇;母夜叉;(dragon的复数) incredible:adj.难以置信的,惊人的; creatures:n.生物;动物;(具有某种特征的)人(creature的复数)
They're bizzarre, they're beautiful, and there's very little we know about them. 它们非常的奇特, 也非常的壮观, 而我们对它们的了解还非常有限。
These thoughts were going through my head when I looked at the pages of my first dinosaur book. 在我第一次拿到一本介绍恐龙的书, 这些念头就已经开始在我的脑海中浮现。
I was about five years old at the time, and I decided there and then that I would become a paleontologist . 那个时候我大概只有5岁, 我当时就下定决心 要做一名古生物学家。
paleontologist:n.古生物学家;古生物学者;
Paleontology allowed me to combine my love for animals with my desire to travel to far-flung corners of the world. 研究古生物学不仅满足了我对远古动物的好奇心, 也让我能够在世界上各个广袤的角落间游历。
Paleontology:n.古生物学; far-flung:adj.遥远的;广泛的;广布的;
And now, a few years later, I've led several expeditions to the ultimate far-flung corner on this planet, the Sahara. 目前我已经进行了多年的相关研究,也多次带领考古队探索了 地球上最古老的辽阔之地,撒哈拉沙漠。
expeditions:n.探险(expedition的复数);远征; ultimate:adj.最终的;极限的;根本的;n.终极;根本;基本原则;
I've worked in the Sahara because I've been on a quest to uncover new remains of a bizarre , giant predatory dinosaur called Spinosaurus. 之所以选择撒哈拉沙漠,是因为我最近在探寻, 希望能够找到一种奇特、巨大的肉食性恐龙, 叫做“棘龙”。
quest:n.追求;寻找;vi.追求;寻找;vt.探索; uncover:v.揭开盖子;发现;揭露;揭发; bizarre:adj.奇异的(指态度,容貌,款式等); giant:n.巨人;伟人;巨兽;adj.巨大的;特大的 predatory:adj.掠夺的,掠夺成性的;食肉的;捕食生物的;
A few bones of this animal have been found in the deserts of Egypt and were described about 100 years ago by a German paleontologist. 一百多年前,一位德国古生物学家 在埃及境内的沙漠 发现了少量棘龙的骨骼化石。
described:v.描述;形容;把…称为;做…运动;(describe的过去分词和过去式)
Unfortunately , all his Spinosaurus bones were destroyed in World War II. 非常可惜,所有的化石都在二战中被毁掉了。
Unfortunately:adv.不幸地;
So all we're left with are just a few drawings and notes. 所以我们现在能找到的资料就只有一些笔记和（骨头的）素描。
From these drawings, we know that this creature, which lived about 100 million years ago, was very big, it had tall spines on its back, forming a magnificent sail, 通过这些素描, 我们发现这种生活在一千万年前的生物 体型非常的庞大, 它们的背上有高耸的脊椎,形成了一条巨大的尾巴,
spines:n.[解剖]脊柱;棘状突起;体刺(spine的复数); magnificent:adj.高尚的;壮丽的;华丽的;宏伟的;
and it had long, slender jaws, a bit like a crocodile, with conical teeth, that may have been used to catch slippery prey , like fish. 下巴非常的细长,像是鳄鱼的嘴一样, 牙齿是圆锥型的, 这可能是用来捕食很滑的食物,例如鱼类。
slender:adj.细长的;苗条的;微薄的; conical:adj.圆锥的;圆锥形的; slippery:adj.滑的;狡猾的;不稳定的; prey:n.猎物;受害者;受骗者;v.折磨;掠夺;捕食(on,upon);损害(on,upon);
But that was pretty much all we knew about this animal for the next 100 years. 但是在接下来的一百年中, 基本上就没有任何新的发现了。
My fieldwork took me to the border region between Morocco and Algeria, a place called the Kem Kem. 我们在摩洛哥和阿尔及利亚交界附近, 一处叫卡玛卡玛的地方进行了实地考察。
fieldwork:n.野外工作;现场工作;野战工事; region:n.地区;范围;部位;
It's a difficult place to work in. 在这种地方工作很艰苦。
You have to deal with sandstorms and snakes and scorpions , and it's very difficult to find good fossils there. 你需要应对沙尘暴,蛇,蝎子等等, 而要找到保存较好的化石也很难。
sandstorms:n.沙尘暴(sandstorm的复数); scorpions:n.蝎子;蝎形弩(scorpion的复数形式); fossils:n.[古生]化石(fossil复数形式);
But our hard work paid off. 好在我们的努力没有白费。
We discovered many incredible specimens . 我们发现了很多不可思议的物种。
specimens:n.[试验]试样,[图情]样本(specimen的复数);
There's the largest dinosaur bone that had ever been found in this part of the Sahara. 这是目前为止 在撒哈拉发现的最大的恐龙骨骼。
We found remains of giant predatory dinosaurs, medium-sized predatory dinosaurs, and seven or eight different kinds of crocodile-like hunters. 我们发现了巨型食肉恐龙, 中等大小的食肉恐龙, 以及7到8种不同类型的鳄鱼嘴型的恐龙。
medium-sized:adj.中型的,中等大小的;普通型的;
These fossils were deposited in a river system. 这些化石堆积在一个河流底部的淤泥中。
deposited:v.存放;储存;放置(deposit的过去分词);adj.存放的;堆积的;
The river system was also home to a giant, car-sized coelacanth , a monster sawfish , and the skies over the river system were filled with pterosaurs , flying reptiles . 在这条水系里也埋藏着有汽车那么大的巨型腔棘鱼, 怪兽一样的锯鲛（鱼）, 河流的上空盘旋着大量的热翼龙, 一种会飞的爬行动物。
coelacanth:n.腔棘鱼;adj.腔棘鱼类的; monster:n.怪物;恶魔;庞然大物;adj.巨大的; sawfish:n.[鱼]锯鳐;锯鲛; pterosaurs:n.飞龙目;翼手龙(pterosaur的复数形式); reptiles:n.爬行动物(reptile的复数);[脊椎]爬行类;爬虫类;
It was a pretty dangerous place, not the kind of place where you'd want to travel to if you had a time machine . 毫无疑问这是个非常危险的地方, 这可不是一个你会想要乘坐时光机参观猎奇的好去处。
time machine:n.时间机器;
So we're finding all these incredible fossils of animals that lived alongside Spinosaurus, but Spinosaurus itself proved to be very elusive . 我们找到了这么多的不可思议的动物, 这些生物都生活在棘龙的周围, 但是我们一直追寻的棘龙,其踪迹还是难以琢磨。
elusive:adj.难懂的;易忘的;逃避的;难捉摸的;
We were just finding bits and pieces and I was hoping that we'd find a partial skeleton at some point. 我们只找到它的一些化石碎片, 我一直希望有一天能够找到一些大的骨架。
bits and pieces:零星小玩意;零碎;零碎东西;星星点点; partial:adj.部分的;不完整的;片面的;有偏见的; skeleton:n.骨架,骨骼;纲要;骨瘦如柴的人;adj.骨骼的;骨瘦如柴的;概略的;
Finally , very recently , we were able to track down a dig site where a local fossil hunter found several bones of Spinosaurus. 终于,在最近, 我们成功的找到了一个当地化石勘探者挖掘的大坑, 他在这个坑里挖出过一些棘龙的化石。
Finally:adv.终于;最终;(用于列举)最后;彻底地; recently:adv.最近;新近; track:n.小道;足迹;车辙;轨道;v.追踪;跟踪;
We returned to the site, we collected more bones. 我们重新回到这个坑里寻找更多的化石。
And so after 100 years we finally had another partial skeleton of this bizarre creature. 终于,在100多年之后,我们又挖掘到了这种 奇特生物的骨架,（译注:第一具已经在二战中被毁）
And we were able to reconstruct it. 我们成功的重建了它。
reconstruct:vt.重建;改造;修复;重现;
We now know that Spinosaurus had a head a little bit like a crocodile, very different from other predatory dinosaurs, very different from the T. rex. 我们现在能够确认棘龙的头 形状跟鳄鱼的头有点像, 跟其它的肉食性恐龙差别非常大, 跟雷克斯暴龙家族（T. rex）差别非常大。
But the really interesting information came from the rest of the skeleton. 更有意思的是骨架的其它部分。
We had long spines, the spines forming the big sail. 我们发现了很长的脊椎骨, 构成了一条粗大的尾巴,
We had leg bones, we had skull bones, we had paddle-shaped feet, wide feet -- again, very unusual, no other dinosaur has feet like this -- and we think they may have been used to walk on soft sediment , or maybe for paddling in the water. 我们找到了腿骨和头盖骨, 我们找到了桨状的足,脚趾分的很开—— 非常的少见,这是已知恐龙中唯一带有这种特征的—— 我们猜测是因为他们需要在松软的沉积物上行走的缘故, 或者它们需要在水里滑行。
skull:n.头盖骨,脑壳; sediment:n.沉积;沉淀物; paddling:n.[皮革]划动;v.用桨划;在水中行进(paddle的现在分词);
We also looked at the fine microstructure of the bone, the inside structure of Spinosaurus bones, and it turns out that they're very dense and compact . 我们还检查了骨头的微结构, 棘龙骨头的内部构造, 发现骨头非常的密实和紧凑。
microstructure:n.微观结构;[生物]显微结构; dense:adj.稠密的;浓厚的;愚钝的; compact:n.合同,契约;小粉盒;adj.紧凑的,紧密的;简洁的;vt.使简洁;使紧密结合;
Again, this is something we see in animals that spend a lot of time in the water, it's useful for buoyancy control in the water. 这样的结构我们经常在长期泡在水里的动物身上看到, 有助于它们在水中控制平衡。
buoyancy:n.浮力;轻快;轻松的心情;(股票)保持高价或回升;
We C.T.-scanned all of our bones and built a digital Spinosaurus skeleton. 我们用CT扫描了收集到的所有骨头,并对棘龙的骨架进行了数字建模。
digital:adj.数字的;手指的;n.数字;键;
And when we looked at the digital skeleton, we realized that yes, this was a dinosaur unlike any other. 当我们仔细研究骨架模型时, 我们意识到,没错,棘龙是独特的。
It's bigger than a T. rex, and yes, the head has "fish-eating" written all over it, but really the entire skeleton has " water-loving " written all over it -- 它比之前发现的雷克斯暴龙还要大, 没错,棘龙的头就是为了捕鱼而设计的, 但是实际上棘龙的全身都透露着“亲水型”的设计——
water-loving:亲水的;
dense bone, paddle-like feet, and the hind limbs are reduced in size, and again, this is something we see in animals that spend a substantial amount of time in the water. 紧致的骨骼、蹼状的足、相对短小的后足, 同样的,这些特征都让我们相信 只有长期呆在水里的动物才会有这些身体构造。
hind:adj.后部的;n.雌鹿; limbs:n.[解剖]四肢(limb的复数); substantial:adj.大量的;实质的;内容充实的;n.本质;重要材料;
So, as we fleshed out our Spinosaurus -- 所以,当我们重建了棘龙的血肉——
fleshed:n.肉;肉体;vt.喂肉给…;使发胖;vi.长胖;
I'm looking at muscle attachments and wrapping our dinosaur in skin -- we realize that we're dealing with a river monster, a predatory dinosaur, bigger than T. rex, the ruler of this ancient river of giants , feeding on the many aquatic animals I showed you earlier on. 当我注视着棘龙的肌肉和最外层的皮肤时—— 我们意识到我们面对的是一头水里的猛兽, 一种比雷克斯暴龙还要大的肉食性恐龙, 远古时代的河流统治者, 通过捕食我刚才介绍的其他水生生物生存。
muscle:n.肌肉;力量;v.加强;使劲搬动;使劲挤出; wrapping:n.包装材料;包装纸;v.包,裹(礼物等);用…包裹;(wrap的现在分词) giants:n.巨人;大汉;巨兽;巨树;(giant的复数) aquatic:adj.水生的;水栖的;在水中或水面进行的;n.水上运动;水生植物或动物;
So that's really what makes this an incredible discovery. 这个发现非常地不可思议。
It's a dinosaur like no other. 这是独一无二的恐龙。
And some people told me, "Wow, this is a once-in-a-lifetime discovery. 有人跟我说,“哇,能发现这个,这辈子也就没有什么遗憾的了。
once-in-a-lifetime:千载难逢(的好机会);
There are not many things left to discover in the world." 毕竟,这个世界上已经没有多少地方可挖了。”
Well, I think nothing could be further from the truth. 不过,我觉得并不是这样。
I think the Sahara's still full of treasures, and when people tell me there are no places left to explore , 我觉得撒哈拉依然到处都是宝藏, 每当有人告诉我说,已经没啥地方可以探索了,
explore:v.探索:探测:探险:
I like to quote a famous dinosaur hunter, Roy Chapman Andrews, and he said, "Always, there has been an adventure just around the corner -- and the world is still full of corners." 我都喜欢引用一位着名恐龙化石考古学者Roy Chapman Andrews 的话, 他说过,”你总是能够在角落里发现一些什么—— 而这个世界从来不缺角落。”
quote:v.引用;报价;举例说明;开价;为(企业的股份)上市;n.引用; Chapman:n.叫卖小贩;商人; adventure:n.冒险;奇遇;经历;冒险游戏;v.探险;以…冒险;大胆进行;闯;
That was true many decades ago when Roy Chapman Andrews wrote these lines. 这句话不仅在很多年前, Roy Chapman Andrews 写下它时是正确的,
And it is still true today. 在今天依然如此。
Thank you. 感谢各位。
(Applause) （掌声）