評論
打印
In 1971, paleontologists discovered a massive hole in the ground in Wyoming. The cave opening had acted as a trap, unwary creatures fell to their death.
在1971年，古生物學家在懷俄明發(fā)現了地上的一個巨洞。這個洞口如同一個陷阱，不警覺的動物會墜入摔死。
They called it "natural trap cave".
人們稱之為“自然陷坑”。
Laying 30 meters below the opening in an underground cavern, they found the remains of thousands of ice age mammals.
在洞口下方30米處的一個地下洞穴，他們發(fā)現了數千具冰期哺乳動物的遺骸。
Among them, the broken skeleton of a giant bear named Arctodus.
在其中有一頭巨熊的破碎骨架，它叫熊齒獸。
The thing that impresses everybody when they first see an Arctodus fossil is just how big it is.
每個人第一次見到熊齒獸化石的時候都震驚于它的巨大。
The largest bears living today are the Alaskan Brown Bears, the Kodiak Bears and the Polar Bears.And an Arctodus would be about twice as large as either one of those.
如今生活的最大的熊，是阿拉斯加棕熊、科迪亞克熊，以及北極熊。而熊齒獸的體型是它們任意一個的兩倍多。
The size of this bear was staggering.
這種熊的體型大得驚人。
Arctodus stood 4 meters tall, its body was 5 meters long and it weighed nearly a metric ton.It towered over today's Grizzlies.
熊齒獸站立起來有四米高，身體長五米，重量將近一噸。它遠比現代灰熊更加高大。
Alongside its sheer mass, Arctodus had two distinctive features that differentiated it from modern bears.
除了體型巨大，熊齒獸還有兩個特點讓它們區(qū)別于現代熊。
The first was its oversized teeth and short, but powerful muzzle, from which it derives its nickname: the short faced bear.
第一是它們超大的牙齒和短而有力的口鼻部，因此它們有一個小名：短面熊。
This is the skull of a giant short faced bear and you can see why they're named this.
這是巨大的短面熊顱骨，能看出來它們?yōu)楹蔚么嗣?/div>
They have a very shortened snout in proportion to the overall skull, their skull is actually very wide for its size.
從整個頭顱的比例來看，它們的口鼻部非常短，它們的頭顱對它的大小來說是非常寬的。
Here are the canines, you can see they're very long and robust.
這些是犬齒，能看到它們很長很結實。
The teeth here are very bear-like.They're just basically bear teeth that are scaled up, developed for crushing.
這里的牙齒和熊的很像。它們基本上是放大了的熊牙，用來咬碎東西。
Very powerful muscles would have attached right here, here, and up here that would have given it a very powerful bite.
這里附著非常有力的肌肉，這里，還有上邊這里，這能帶來非常強大的咬合力。
We open the mouth then.We can see those large canines, what it would be like to be on the dinner side of a short faced bear.
我們把它的嘴張開。看到那些很大的犬齒，試想一下被短面熊當成晚餐會是什么樣吧。
The second feature was its unusually long front legs.
第二個特點是它異乎尋常的長前腿。
Modern Grizzly bears have longer front legs than back legs.
現代灰熊前腿比后腿要長。
Allowing it to reach speeds of up to 35 miles per hour over short distances.
這使它能夠在短距離就加速到35英里每小時。
But in the mega bear, both equal-length legs were a special adaptation that may have allowed this bear to reach speeds in excess of 45 miles per hour, and run for much greater distances.
不過這種巨熊，前后一樣的長腿，是一種特別的適應性，那也許能讓這種熊達到超過45英里的時速，而且能奔跑更長的距離。
