Sauroposeidon does almost everything by instinct including rearing, or more accurately, not rearing its children.
波塞東龍做任何事幾乎都是出于本能,包括撫養(yǎng)后代,更準確地說是,根本不撫養(yǎng)其后代。
It may seem cruel to just dig a hole and leave your eggs and wander on.
挖個坑,產(chǎn)了卵就走了,這看起來好像挺殘酷的。
But it's a very effective means of reproduction if you can afford to make lots of babies.
不過這是種很有效的繁殖方式,前提是你得下足夠多的蛋。
We know that the sauropods were not taking care of their newly hatched babies.
我們知道蜥蜴類動物不會照顧剛破殼的新生兒。
We don't find the newly hatched babies with the adults.
我們在成年龍身邊找不到新生兒。
Scientists believe Sauroposeidon's gargantuan size makes incubating eggs a physical impossibility.
科學(xué)家認為波塞東龍的龐大體型使得它們根本沒法孵蛋。

When you're running, say, 60,80 feet in length, and your eggs are only about the size of a cantaloupe, the size difference makes it so hard to be gentle.
比如你有大約六十或者八十英尺長,而你的蛋只有哈密瓜那么大,這種大小差距下根本無法做到輕手輕腳。
I think sauropods like sauroposeidon are just too big to be able to control where their body mass is going to be.
我認為波塞東龍這種蜥蜴類動物實在太大了,所以沒法控制自己的身體。
You know, they aren't... They don't have the brain capacity to understand where their butt is at the same time as where their head is.
它們無法...它們沒有這樣的頭腦同時去想屁股在哪兒,頭又在哪兒。
With its mammoth size and limited intellect, Sauroposeidon relies on a totally different method than Tyrannosaurus rex to raise its young.
由于其巨大的體型和有限的智力,波塞東龍運用與霸王龍完全不同的方式來撫養(yǎng)后代。
In its life-span, a mated pair of Sauroposeidons might produce thousands and thousands of eggs and only maybe a couple or three are going to survive to adulthood.
一對波塞東龍一生能產(chǎn)下成千上萬的蛋,可是只有為數(shù)不多的兩三只能活到成年。
So, what that tells us is that almost all of the offspring are being killed and eaten by predators.
所以這告訴我們,其大部分后代都被肉食性動物給吃掉了。
Basically, you're flooding all the carnivores with so much food that they can't eat it all, and so there's bound to be some survivors.
從本質(zhì)上來說,你為食肉動物提供這么多食物,多到它們都吃不完,那就一定會有存活下來的。
Sauroposeidon's approach to its young sounds brutish and cruel, but it isn't.
波塞東龍對其后代的方法聽起來很殘暴又野蠻,但事實并非如此。
Sauroposeidon, like sea turtles, for example, seems to have tried to overwhelm the predators with just sheer numbers of offspring.
波塞東龍就像海龜一樣要用后代巨大的數(shù)量優(yōu)勢戰(zhàn)勝那些肉食性動物。
They're not just all laying their eggs within a few weeks of each other.
它們并不是用幾周的時間來下蛋。
They're all trying to lay their eggs on the same night or two.
而是在一兩個晚上下完所有蛋。
And one of the reasons is so that they can overwhelm the predators.
原因之一就是這樣它們就能戰(zhàn)勝捕食者。
If you have a food resource that's available in vast numbers but only for a very limited time, it's hard for predators to eat all of them.
如果食物數(shù)量極大,但只有很短一段時間,那捕食者很難一下子全都吃完。
Like sea turtles, who from the moment they hatch, they are on their own.
而海龜從出生那一刻起就得自力更生了。
For predators, hatching time is a veritable feast. Even so, the strategy works.
對捕食者而言,孵化期是一場饕餮盛宴。即便如此,繁殖戰(zhàn)略還是起了作用。
Carnivores gulp down virtually every hatchling. But a few do make it.
捕食者幾乎吃完了所有的小海龜。不過還是有幾只幸存下來。
Not even the most voracious feeders can kill them all.
就連最貪吃的捕食者也不能把它們吃光。