萬(wàn)物簡(jiǎn)史 第93期:勢(shì)不兩立的科學(xué)(1)

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第六章　勢(shì)不兩立的科學(xué)

IN 1787, SOMEONE in New Jersey—exactly who nowseems to be forgotten—found an enormousthighbone sticking out of a stream bank at a placecalled Woodbury Creek. The bone clearly didn'tbelong to any species of creature still alive, certainlynot in New Jersey. From what little is known now, itis thought to have belonged to a hadrosaur, a largeduck-billed dinosaur. At the time, dinosaurs wereunknown.

1787年，新澤西州有個(gè)人——到底是誰(shuí)，如今似乎已被忘卻——在伍德伯里溪發(fā)現(xiàn)一根巨大的大腿骨戳出一處岸邊。那根骨頭顯然不屬于尚存的任何物種，也肯定不是新澤西州的。根據(jù)現(xiàn)在掌握的一點(diǎn)情況，人們認(rèn)為它屬于一只鴨嘴龍，那是一種長(zhǎng)著鴨嘴的大恐龍。當(dāng)時(shí)，人們還沒(méi)有聽(tīng)說(shuō)過(guò)恐龍。

The bone was sent to Dr. Caspar Wistar, the nation's leading anatomist, who described it at ameeting of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia that autumn. Unfortunately,Wistar failed completely to recognize the bone's significance and merely made a few cautiousand uninspired remarks to the effect that it was indeed a whopper. He thus missed thechance, half a century ahead of anyone else, to be the discoverer of dinosaurs. Indeed, the boneexcited so little interest that it was put in a storeroom and eventually disappeared altogether.So the first dinosaur bone ever found was also the first to be lost.

骨頭被送交給當(dāng)時(shí)美國(guó)最杰出的解剖學(xué)家卡斯帕·威斯塔博士。同年秋天，他在費(fèi)城召開(kāi)的美國(guó)哲學(xué)學(xué)會(huì)的一次會(huì)議上作了描述。威斯塔沒(méi)有完全認(rèn)識(shí)到這根骨頭的重要意義，只是小心翼翼地講了幾句不痛不癢的話，大意是，它真是個(gè)龐然大物。他就這樣錯(cuò)過(guò)了先于別人半個(gè)世紀(jì)發(fā)現(xiàn)恐龍的機(jī)會(huì)。實(shí)際上，這根骨頭沒(méi)有引起多大興趣，后來(lái)被放在貯藏室里，最后徹底不見(jiàn)了。因此，歷史上第一根被發(fā)現(xiàn)的恐龍骨頭，也是第一根被丟失的恐龍骨頭。