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Texas. 68 million years ago.
德克薩斯州。六千八百萬(wàn)年前。
Here death comes not only from well-armed gargantuan dinosaurs.
死亡不僅來(lái)自武裝精良的巨型恐龍。
Sometimes it swoops down from the sky..on the wings of a flying reptile..Quetzalcoatlus.
有時(shí)，死亡會(huì)猝然從天而降，落于飛行爬行類的翅展之間，風(fēng)神翼龍。
A Quetzalcoatlus could be seen as a Cretaceous stealth bomber..
風(fēng)神翼龍可謂白堊紀(jì)的隱形轟炸機(jī)...
Air-to-ground weaponry at its finest.
它擁有最先進(jìn)的空對(duì)地武器。
They weren't big, fragile kites. They were big, mean, terrifying bats from hell.
它們并非脆弱的大風(fēng)箏。而是來(lái)自地獄的恐怖大蝙蝠。
Quetzalcoatlus is arguably the largest, most sophisticated animal ever to fly.
風(fēng)神翼龍算得上是最龐大最復(fù)雜的飛行動(dòng)物。
A wingspan of almost 12 meters holds aloft a body weighing 180 kilograms.
翅展幾乎可達(dá)12米，帶動(dòng)著180公斤重的身軀直上云霄。
Picture a living plane, and that gives you a sense of what Quetzalcoatlus would look like in life.
把它想象成一只活的飛機(jī)，你就能體會(huì)到風(fēng)神翼龍?jiān)谡鎸?shí)情況下是什么樣了。
This is an animal that probably accelerates over 2.5G's just on takeoff.
這種動(dòng)物的起飛加速度能達(dá)到重力加速度的2.5倍多。
Just beyond our comprehension.
超出了我們的理解范圍。
A Quetzalcoatlus is 10 times the weight of the largest flying bird today.
風(fēng)神翼龍有現(xiàn)今最大飛鳥(niǎo)的十倍重。
Yet this airborne reptile doesn't rely on feathers. Its wings are made of skin.
然而這種空中爬行動(dòng)物并不依賴羽毛。它的翅膀由皮膚構(gòu)成。
Almost half of that wing is supported by an extended finger bone, a finger 2.5 meters long.
向外延伸的指骨支撐著幾乎一半的翅膀，一根指頭長(zhǎng)2.5米。
A second bone lines the front of the wing, forming a leading edge, similar to an aircraft.
第二根長(zhǎng)在翅膀前沿形成了翼前緣，與飛機(jī)類似。
This aerodynamic design allows for near-perfect control on takeoff and landing.
這種空氣動(dòng)力學(xué)結(jié)構(gòu)使得它對(duì)起飛和降落的控制趨于完美。
But for this flying monster, getting off the ground is the hardest task.
但對(duì)于這只飛行怪獸起飛才是最困難的。
Big pterosaur like Quetzalcoatlus... giraffe height on all fours, and it's got to get up into the air.
風(fēng)神翼龍這種龐大的翼龍...四腳著地時(shí)與長(zhǎng)頸鹿高度相仿，而且還要能夠起飛。
How is it gonna do that? And that's made it more difficult living on the plains of Texas.
它是如何做到的？這使得它在德克薩斯平原的生存更艱難。
Flat ground, no hills, no cliffs, no special conditions, nothing to help it at all except its muscles.
平地，沒(méi)有小山，沒(méi)有懸崖，沒(méi)有特殊條件，除了自己的肌肉沒(méi)有其它輔助條件。
It could still take off from a standstill without any running required.
它仍然不需要任何助跑，原地就能起飛。
The secret to how this Goliath takes off can be seen in a creature 1,000 times smaller...the vampire bat.
這頭歌利亞巨人起飛的奧秘可以在比它小一千倍的生物身上找到，即吸血蝙蝠。
They have to spring up into the air.
它們必須向空中躍起。
They have to do essentially a super push-up with their powerful forelimbs,
必須靠最有力的前肢
the strongest limbs they have, get up high enough
將身體用力向上推到達(dá)足夠的高度
so that they can get their wings to flap and get off the ground.
以伸展翅膀平地起飛。
A Quetzalcoatlus takes off in the same way, using all four limbs to suddenly leap up into the air.
風(fēng)神翼龍亦是這樣起飛，用四肢支撐身體躍起后展翅高飛。
Its powerful arm muscles are composed of 80% fast-twitch fiber, a third more than humans.
它強(qiáng)壯的前肢肌肉中百分之八十是快縮肌纖維，比人類的多三分之一。
This specialized muscle tissue is capable of delivering rapid bursts of energy.
這一特殊的肌肉組織能帶來(lái)強(qiáng)勁的爆發(fā)力。
This energy is needed to propel this creature weighing as much as a grizzly bear,
這股爆發(fā)力驅(qū)使這只重如美洲灰熊的龐然大物
from a dead stop to a launch speed of 30 kilometers per hour, all in a fraction of a second.
由靜止而獲得30公里的飛行時(shí)速而僅僅用了不到一秒鐘。
I think that seeing a pterosaur like Quetzalcoatlus actually take off
如果能親眼見(jiàn)到風(fēng)神翼龍起飛
would have to be one of the most impressive sights in the animal kingdom.
肯定是動(dòng)物王國(guó)里最震撼的一幕。
And to see something that's 20 feet tall suddenly spring into the air and fly away
看著一只20英尺高的巨型生物突然直上云霄漸漸遠(yuǎn)去，
is outside the bounds of human experience.
對(duì)人類而言是無(wú)法想象的。
