你想知道卻又不敢問的關(guān)于霸王龍的一切

你想知道卻又不敢問的關(guān)于雷克斯霸王龍的一切

Icons come and go, especially when it comes to the star-studded pantheon of dinosaurs.

偶像來了又走，尤其是在眾星云集的恐龍神殿。

One day, the triceratops is all the rage. Those distinctive horns, that 10-ton girth and ... is that a beak? But peace-loving vegetarian dinosaurs, no matter how interesting they appear, just don't have a long shelf life in the popular imagination.

曾經(jīng)，三角龍風(fēng)靡一時(shí)。那些與眾不同的角，10噸重的腰圍，還有……那是鳥嘴嗎?但是愛好和平的素食恐龍，不管它們看起來多么有趣，只是在大眾的想象中沒有很長的保質(zhì)期。

There’s still a lot we don’t know about this fearsome dinosaur, but what we do know is fascinating. (Photo: sruilk/Shutterstock)

Who wants to be remembered as king of the salad bar?

誰想被人銘記為沙拉吧之王?

The T. rex wasn't the salad type. (Photo: Herschel Hoffmeyer/Shutterstock)

Then there was the upstart velociraptor! Fast. Smart. Vicious!

然后是暴發(fā)戶迅猛龍!速度快。聰明。兇惡!

But much of that hype faded when paleontologists politely pointed out that velociraptors weren't quite the sprinting razor blades that terrified us in the "Jurassic Park" movies. They had feathers and probably looked more like big chickens.

但當(dāng)古生物學(xué)家禮貌地指出迅猛龍并不是《侏羅紀(jì)公園》(Jurassic Park)電影中令我們感到恐懼的那種疾跑刀片時(shí)，這種大肆宣傳就煙消云散了。它們有羽毛，可能看起來更像大雞。

It's been around 70 million years since the T. rex stalked the Earth, waving its twiggy arms around and treating its contemporaries like chicken.

自從霸王龍?jiān)诘厍蛏习菏组煵?，揮舞著它那彎曲的手臂，像對(duì)待小雞一樣對(duì)待同時(shí)代的動(dòng)物，距今已經(jīng)有7000萬年的歷史了。

But why is it that for humans — who only ever got to dust off their old bones — the nightmares remain so vivid?

但是為什么對(duì)于人類來說——他們只能撣去舊骨頭上的灰塵——噩夢(mèng)仍然如此生動(dòng)?

1.They were actually pretty ferocious.

它們實(shí)際上非常兇猛。

All that we have to remember the T. rex by today are some intimidating bones. (Photo: Marques/Shutterstock)

Its name is a mix of Latin and Greek — as if first coined by a flustered paleontologist too freaked out to get the ancient languages straight. But "Tyrant Lizard King" definitely gets the scary factor perfectly straight.

它的名字是拉丁語和希臘語的混合體——就好像最初是由一位驚慌失措的古生物學(xué)家創(chuàng)造出來的，因?yàn)樗^害怕而無法把這些古老的語言搞清楚。但是《蜥蜴之王》絕對(duì)把這個(gè)可怕的因素說得很清楚。

2.A T. rex could beat you at chess ... if you were as smart as a chimp.

雷克斯霸王龍下棋能贏你……如果你像黑猩猩一樣聰明。

In the case of the T. rex, brains came long before brawn. (Photo: CapturePB/Shutterstock)

"Tyrannosaurs got smart before they got big, and they got big quickly right at the end of the time of the dinosaurs," Steve Brusatte, a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh in the U.K., told Live Science.

英國愛丁堡大學(xué)的古生物學(xué)家Steve Brusatte告訴Live Science:“暴龍?jiān)谧兇笾熬妥兊寐斆髁?，它們?cè)诳铸垥r(shí)代末期很快就變大了。”

3. Their senses were also razor-sharp.

它們的感官也非常敏銳。

The T. rex likely had eyes a little bigger than tennis balls. (Photo: Martina Badini/Shutterstock.com)

Those big brains had other amenities too. Like massive olfactory bulbs allowing a T. rex to catch the faintest whiff of dinner and come running. Its sense of smell was, like so many things, far superior to its contemporaries. Even worse for those lesser-endowed animals was the possibility the T. rex enjoyed hunting them at night.

那些大腦袋還有其他的便利設(shè)施。就像巨大的嗅球讓雷克斯霸王龍捕捉到最微弱的晚餐氣味，然后跑過來。它的嗅覺，就像其他許多東西一樣，遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)優(yōu)于同時(shí)代的動(dòng)物。對(duì)于那些天賦較差的動(dòng)物來說，更糟糕的是，雷克斯霸王龍可能喜歡在晚上捕獵它們。

4. Let's talk about those arms.

我們來談?wù)勊鼈兊氖直?/strong>