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Step 2: prep bones
第二步：制備骨頭。
The next stop for bones coming out of the dig was the museum's prep lab in Los Angeles.
挖掘出的骨頭，第二站是洛杉磯博物館的制備實(shí)驗(yàn)室。
The fossils were challenging, says Doug Goodreau, who runs the lab, because the surrounding material was like cement.
實(shí)驗(yàn)室主任道格·古德勞表示，這些化石很有挑戰(zhàn)性，因?yàn)榘牟牧暇拖袼嘁粯印?/div>
Preparators used an angle grinder to chunk away excess stone, with sparks and stone chips flying, as well as hammers, chisels, and dental tools for more delicate work. Another essential tool: an eye for the unexpected.
制備人員用手持砂輪機(jī)削去多余的巖石，火星與石屑飛散，他們也用錘子、鑿子和牙醫(yī)工具做更細(xì)膩的雕琢。另一種不可或缺的工具是眼光，能注意到意料之外的東西。
"Each jacket can be a quarry unto itself," says Goodreau.
古德勞說：“每個護(hù)套本身都可以當(dāng)成是一座挖掘場。”
Bones, teeth, and other bits must be patiently mined from the matrix.
骨頭、牙齒和其他碎屑必須耐心地從基質(zhì)中挖掘出來。
Work on one pelvis, and on bones discovered alongside it, took the better part of a year.
處理一個骨盆，和骨盆旁發(fā)現(xiàn)的其他骨頭，就要花上大半年的時間。
As many as six preparators at a time worked to expose fine details, using miniature jackhammers called zip scribes and micro-sandblasters called air abraders. It sounded, says Goodreau, like a beehive buzzing.
同一時間會有多達(dá)六名制備人員，用小型手鉆機(jī)和微型噴砂機(jī)，清理出精細(xì)的細(xì)節(jié)。古德勞說，現(xiàn)場聽起來像有個蜂巢在嗡嗡作響。
The last bit of prepping was to fill flaws and gaps with an epoxy putty close to the color of the bone but different enough to distinguish restored from original material.
最后一項(xiàng)準(zhǔn)備工作，是用塑鋼土填補(bǔ)瑕疵和缺口。塑鋼土的顏色要接近骨頭，但差異又足以區(qū)分復(fù)原材料和原本的骨頭。
Step 3: reconstruct skeleton
第三步：重建骨架
In the summer of 2023, in a small Canadian town on the north shore of Lake Ontario, 2,600 miles from the Los Angeles museum, Gnatalie's bones lay in shallow wooden boxes in a back room at Research Casting International (RCI), a firm specializing in rebuilding dinosaurs for museums.
2023年夏天，安大略湖北岸離洛杉磯2600英里的一座加拿大小鎮(zhèn)上，在專門替博物館重建恐龍的鑄件研究國際公司（RCI）的一個儲藏間里，蚋塔莉的骨頭收在淺淺的木箱中。
Some bones rested on beds of foam, others on sand, each with a manila card detailing its place in the coming reconstruction.
有些骨頭擺在泡沫墊上，有些在砂子上，每塊骨頭都附有一張標(biāo)簽卡，詳述在之后重建時的位置。
In a meeting room upstairs, staff from the museum and from RCI were working through details of the mount.
樓上的會議室里，博物館和RCI的員工正在一一確認(rèn)標(biāo)本的細(xì)節(jié)。
It would measure about 75 feet long, on display in the grand entry hall of a new wing of the museum.
它的長度約75英尺，將展示在博物館新展區(qū)宏偉的入口大廳。
But at the moment, it appeared that six feet of the head and neck would poke through a wall into the next room.
不過，當(dāng)時看來，頭頸部會有6英尺穿墻到隔壁展室去。
They debated alternative positioning, but every move seemed to be constrained by architecture.
他們討論改成其他姿勢，但似乎都會受制于建筑。
Too far one way and the head might miss key ceiling anchor points. Too far the other and the tail would intrude on an emergency exit.
往一個方向移太遠(yuǎn)，頭就可能錯過關(guān)鍵的天花板固定點(diǎn)。往另一個方向太遠(yuǎn)，尾巴又會妨礙緊急逃生出口。
Despite what architects and designers imagined, the skeleton was "not just a model you can make go any way you want," says paleontologist Luis Chiappe, director of the museum's Dinosaur Institute, who served from the start as leader (and head chef) at the dig.
古生物學(xué)家路易斯·奇亞培是博物館恐龍研究所所長，一開始就是挖掘現(xiàn)場的負(fù)責(zé)人（也是大廚）。奇亞培說，恐龍骨架和建筑師與設(shè)計(jì)師想像的不同，“并不是可以隨意擺布的模型。”
But the challenge did not seem to leave anyone flustered, insuperable obstacles being standard in paleontology.
不過古生物學(xué)對難以克服的阻礙見怪不怪，所以這項(xiàng)挑戰(zhàn)似乎沒有讓任何人感到慌亂。
Then someone announced, a little meekly, that different design software programs had been miscommunicating: The dinosaur's head wouldn't poke through the wall after all.
然后有人有點(diǎn)怯生生地宣布，不同的設(shè)計(jì)軟件程序之間發(fā)生了溝通錯誤：恐龍的頭其實(shí)不會穿墻而出。
But there were plenty of real, rather than imagined, problems to solve.
不過仍有許多實(shí)際（而非想像中）的問題要解決。
A large section of spine crushed and twisted during those 150 million years underground presented a major issue, for instance.
比方說，有一個大問題是埋藏在地下的1億5000萬年間，一大段脊椎被壓碎扭曲了。
Installed as is, it threatened to bend the spine in a way that would distort the entire mount.
照原樣陳設(shè)的話，脊椎曲折的狀況可能會讓整個標(biāo)本變形。
In the end, Chiappe opted to have RCI scan those vertebrae and produce uncrushed, 3D-printed substitutes for a more natural look.
最后，奇亞培選擇讓RCI掃描那些脊椎骨，制作未被壓碎的3D列印代替品，組合成比較自然的外觀。
The real bones would be displayed below, as part of the exhibit's message about the challenges of getting from dig to exhibition hall.
真正的骨頭會陳列在下方，成為展覽信息的一部分，傳達(dá)出從挖掘現(xiàn)場到展覽大廳的層層挑戰(zhàn)。
Step 4: mount for display
第四步：裝設(shè)展示
Thousands of decisions and many months later, the RCI team set to work mapping parts and building corresponding steel structures to support them.
經(jīng)過數(shù)以千計(jì)的決策和許多個月之后，RCI團(tuán)隊(duì)著手標(biāo)定構(gòu)造的位置，打造相應(yīng)的鋼制支撐結(jié)構(gòu)。
A thick-walled steel post for the pelvis and the back legs went up first. Then came a horizontal steel armature following the natural curve of the spine.
首先立起的是支撐骨盆和后腿用的厚鋼柱。然后是隨著脊椎自然弧度制成的鋼制水平支架。
The reconstruction took months of painstaking labor, and none of it was permanent.
辛苦的重建工作耗時好幾個月，但沒有一個部件是永久固定的。
Instead, the sections of armature slid together, or apart, in a neat stub-and-socket system.
支架的每個區(qū)段都能通過整潔的接頭插孔系統(tǒng)接上或滑開。
Steel holders attached each bone to the larger structure more firmly than in the living animal -- but in such a way that any bone, or all of them, could be removed for repair or research.
鋼架把每塊骨頭連向更大的結(jié)構(gòu)，比在活體動物體內(nèi)更牢固--但是設(shè)計(jì)成每塊骨頭都能拆下維修或研究。
It would take just a few turns with an Allen wrench, as if it were all an elaborate piece of ready-to-assemble household furniture.
只需用六角扳手?jǐn)Q幾下就行了，就好像它是一件精美的、隨時可以組裝的家用家具。
When everything was complete, the bones and steel were disassembled, packed in shipping crates, and trucked back across the continent to Los Angeles.
大功告成后，骨骼和鋼架被拆解裝進(jìn)貨箱，用卡車從加拿大東南部運(yùn)回洛杉磯。
There, on a plinth specially designed for this moment, the parts are coming together, more quickly this time.
到了那里，就在為這一刻特制的基座上開始把各個部分拼起來，這次速度比較快了。
Going on two decades since their first sighting, the dinosaurs blended in this mount are rising up into the exhibition space they will henceforth dominate.
自第一次被發(fā)現(xiàn)以來，已經(jīng)過去了20年，混合組成這個標(biāo)本的恐龍被抬上展示空間，今后將占據(jù)展覽空間的主導(dǎo)地位。
Gnatalie's new life, as terror and teacher to our upstart species, is beginning at last.
蚋塔莉新的一生終于要開始了，以他令人震懾的樣貌，成為我們這個新興物種的老師。
