評論
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If I bring a bone over, we can superimpose these two. It's got one big muscle attachment right here and the dinosaurs have a muscle scar just like this. It appears in the first bipedal dinosaurs, this scar on the outside of the fibula and it is not present in earlier animals. So this is another link between dinosaurs and birds. So I must look for that the next time I see ...
如果我把那塊骨骼帶來，這兩塊骨骼能夠重疊。這里附帶大的肌肉塊，而恐龍也有和這類似的肌痕。第一批雙足恐龍就有這樣的肌痕，出現(xiàn)在腓骨的外側，早期的恐龍就沒有。因此這是另一個恐龍和鳥相似的地方。等下次再有機會，我一定要仔細地在看看……
Yeah, you can see that. Trexes have a huge one of those, a massive scar like this big.
是的，你可以看到它們是有關聯(lián)的。Trexes就有恐龍中最大的肌痕。
By estimating the muscle sizes of extinct animals and inputting them into computer models, John is able to get an incredible new insight into how dinosaurs actually moved.
通過估算滅絕恐龍的肌肉大小，并把數(shù)據(jù)輸入計算機模型中，約翰能夠得到一個令人難以置信的有關恐龍如何移動的新解釋。
It's basically running a simulation. The computer's figuring out what is the best way to use these muscles, given what we've put in to raise the body up. We are not animating it. And we are not saying, "Do it this way." We are just giving it some basic rules of biology. This is what kinds of things you should be trying to do overall and let it find the best solution.
本質上這是在運行模擬。計算機在得到抬高身體的指示后， 找到了運行肌肉的最好方法。我們沒有推動它，也沒有指示它“就這樣做。” 我們只是賦予它一些基本的生物學規(guī)則。這是你應該全面嘗試做的事情，然后找到最好的解決方案。
Yeah. So John you've actually done right, trying to reconstruct how Trex would have looked, how its muscles would have worked, how he would have run. What kind of results have you got from that?
沒錯，約翰，你這次做得是正確的，試圖重建恐龍的模樣，然后研究它的肌肉是如何運作的，它是如何奔跑的。你能從中得到什么樣的結果呢？
Yes. So we found using our computer models that human sprinters which can do 25 miles an hour or a little faster would probably be pretty well matched for a muscular tyrannosaurus or an average human who can run about 15 miles per hour would probably be a pretty good match for a kind of skinnier version of a Trex.
通過電腦模型，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)每小時25英里甚至更快的短跑選手和肌肉暴龍的奔跑速度匹配，而每小時15英里的普通跑步者可能和相對苗條的恐龍的奔跑速度匹配。
John, I've heard some theories where Trex has been put forward as running very fast, probably faster than that. So has your work basically disapproved that?
約翰，我聽說過一些理論——恐龍被認為奔跑速度很快，甚至比想象中的還要快。那么你的研究能夠推翻這個理論嗎？
I think it's put a lot of doubt in that idea that a Trex could run like as fast as a race horse, or even faster, like forty miles an hour, something like that. I don't think you'll need an automobile to outrun a Trex.
恐龍能和賽馬的奔跑速度媲美，甚至比賽馬還要快，比如能達到40英里每小時，我對這一說法深感懷疑。我認為你并不需要拿汽車行駛速度和恐龍奔跑速度比。
We do have a chance of outrunning them, running away.
我們都可以比恐龍跑得快，會逃跑就行。
Never gonna happen, thankfully.
不過謝天謝地我們不需要逃跑。
The work of scientists like John has allowed us to not only refine our ideas about these extinct animals, but has actually transformed our image of them.
像約翰這樣科學家的工作讓我們不僅能夠精煉我們對于滅絕恐龍的想法，還能改變我心中恐龍的形象。
If you think about tyrannosaurus, Trexes for example, we used to think of him as standing upright like gorilla, but now we know he couldn't have worked like that.
如果你想到了暴龍，比如Trexes，我們過去認為它可以像大猩猩一樣直立行走，但是現(xiàn)在我們知道它是不可能做到站立行走的。
You treat him like an engineering problem, in format, using comparative anatomy of living animals.
你對待它就好像是在處理一個工程問題，采用現(xiàn)存動物的比較解剖學來解決。
And how we know that his body was much more horizontal with his tail held up in the air, and our reconstructions are much more robust.
我們也由此知道當它把尾巴抬起的時候，它的整個身體處于一個水平的狀態(tài)，看來我們的重現(xiàn)工作非常強大。
We are getting as close as we possibly can to what this longdead animal would have looked like.
我們越發(fā)能夠知道這個早已滅絕的動物最真實的模樣。
