評論
打印
When growing is your best defense, gaining weight is serious business.
當成長成為了最佳防守之道，增加體重就是重中之重。
So Sauroposeidon does away with time-consuming tasks like chewing.
所以波塞東龍略去了耗時的任務比如咀嚼。
If you could just swallow that stuff and let your giant stomach mash it up for you,
如果能吞下食物讓巨大的胃替你搗碎，
you could move in a lot more food per unit time and you could get a lot bigger.
那么單位時間的進食速率會更快，也可以長得更大。
Sauroposeidon's 52 chisel-like teeth are perfectly designed for the job.
波塞東龍的五十二顆鑿狀牙齒就是專門為此設計的。
They can rake leaves and twigs straight off a tree.
它們可以從樹上直接折下枝葉。
They've got these big teeth that are just cropping devices.
它們巨大的牙齒就是枝葉修剪器。
They just bite down on a branch and either take the whole branch or strip the leaves and needles off and then swallow it down.
它們只是咬下一枝，要么吞掉整枝要么剝離樹葉和針葉，然后吞下去。
To be able to digest this huge volume of food and grow big enough to avoid attack requires a stomach as large as a ton.
為了消化如此多的食物長成龐然大物、躲避攻擊需要一個一噸重的胃。
That's as big as a swimming pool, and it's filled with acid so concentrated it can dissolve iron.
就像游泳池那么大，其中酸濃度非常大，即使鐵也會被溶解。
It had to be able to hold maybe a ton or more of plant material at a time, and we're talking about something huge.
它能同時容納一噸甚至更多食物，這一定非常巨大。
Surprislngly, it isn't something huge which allows these giant herbivores to grow big enough to be all but invincible.
令人驚訝的是，并不是巨型的尾部使得這些龐大的食草動物長成無人能敵的巨獸。
In fact, it's something incredibly small. And something meat eaters lack.
事實上，它的胃非常小。但有一個肉食者沒有的器官。
Below Sauroposeidon's stomach are two gigantic organs called ceca, simliar to our appendix.
在波塞東龍胃部下方有兩個叫做盲腸的巨型器官，功能與人類的闌尾相似。
Humans stopped using an appendix millions of years ago when we started eating meat.
數百萬年前，人類因為食肉開始停止使用闌尾。
A Sauroposeidon would die without one.
波塞東龍則離不開它。
The ceca are home to millions of microscopic organisms.
盲腸是數百萬微生物的家園。
They break down the tough, fibrous walls of plant cells.
它們能分解植物細胞堅硬的，纖維狀的細胞壁。
It has this whole little world inside of microbes that's helping it digest its food,
這個充滿微生物的微小世界能幫助其消化食物，
that send in little tendrils that help break open those cell walls, helps liberate those nutrients, and that's what helps the animal survive.
它伸出微小的卷須幫助分解細胞壁釋放出營養物質，這樣動物才能活下去。
And the result of this incredible feat of engineering is one final trick that keeps predators at bay.
而這鬼斧神工的生物構造使得捕食者陷入困境。
Sauropods were probably burping and farting almost continuously, because that's what big plant eaters do.
波塞東龍無時無刻不在打嗝，放屁，因為巨型食草動物都會如此。
And they would have been noisy, smelly, unpleasant animals to be around.
聲音巨大，臭氣熏天，使動物不便接近。
Despite all these adaptations,
盡管有各種適應技能，
all of this specialized biology that has allowed Sauroposeidon to grow to mammoth proportions,
這些專門的生物功能使得波塞東龍可以長成龐然大物，
there is one part of its body that simply hasn't kept up.
但它身體里有一部分并沒有長大。
Its brain. Animals like Sauroposeidon are really the poster child for the dumb dinosaur.
那就是大腦。波塞東龍是愚蠢恐龍的典型代表。
