侏羅紀搏擊俱樂部 第38期:史前集體獵殺的畫面

CAT scan evidence would also reveal another clue.

CT掃描也揭示了另一條線索。

The Raptors at this site were incredibly agile.

在這一戰(zhàn)場上的迅猛龍驚人地敏捷。

We have a sense that this animal could really movearound with a fair amount of dexterity.

我們感覺這種恐龍能夠異常敏捷地移動。

So it's interesting for me then, with the CAT scan, to have a look inside the skull at what theinner ear looks like, because that speaks to the center of balance for this animal,

因此我很有興趣，用CT掃描看看其顱腔內耳是什么樣的，因為那里是它的平衡中心，

and the question is "did it have a sense of balance that matches what we see from other partsof the skeleton?"

而問題在于它的平衡機制跟我們能從骨骼構造上發(fā)現(xiàn)的一致嗎?

And the answer is very much so.

答案是肯定的。

They certainly have the kind of inner ear structure that fully supports the idea that these werevery active, agile animals.

它們的內耳結構完全支持它們是非?；钴S敏銳的動物這一說法。

Then, focusing on the inner ear canals, Witmer's team discovered something new.

接著在內耳耳道之處，維特莫的團隊有了新的發(fā)現(xiàn)。

These Raptors could pick up low frequency sound.

這些迅猛龍可以聽到低頻聲音。

One of the exciting things when we did the CAT scanning of Deinonychus is we've found verylarge air spaces surrounding the brain region of the back ends of these skulls, and they're verycurious to us.

令人興奮的是我們在對恐爪龍頭骨CT掃描時，我們在其顱骨后端附近，在腦部周圍找到了空間很大的氣縫，我們對這些很是好奇。

Why did they have these very large spaces within their skull? They were airheads in a veryliteral sense.

為什么它們的顱骨內有那么大空間呢?這可真是腦袋空空呀。

It turns out that having a very large middle ear space, the space of just inside the eardrum, hasan impact on the kinds of sounds that you're potentially sensitive to.

結論是，要是中耳空間非常之大，耳鼓里面的空間會直接影響對某些種類的聲音敏感。

It potentially opens up greater sensitivity to low frequency sounds.

這很可能開創(chuàng)了對低頻音更強的敏感度。

And so it's conceivable that Deinonychus and actually many of these predatory dinosaurs likeTyrannosaurus and others,

因此我們相信恐爪龍與霸王龍及很多其它掠食恐龍有一樣的地方，

that have these large sinuses associated with their ear, were actually using low frequencysounds potentially to track the movements,

都有跟耳朵相連的大鼻竇，實際上它們是利用低頻音來追蹤潛在獵物的行動，

or activities of animals that were really quite far away, potentially animals that were out oftheir line of sight or beyond their senses of smell.

或窺探在很遠處的動物活動，這些動物都在它們視線和嗅覺范圍之外。

So the sense of hearing and their sensitivity to low frequency sounds, which is something wenever could have discovered without CAT scanning,

它們的聽覺和對低頻音的敏銳感知在沒有CT掃描的情況下是沒法發(fā)現(xiàn)的，

provides us with a unique glimpse into the biology or the potential predatory behavior ofsome of these kinds of dinosaurs.

這項技術讓我們一窺這種生物奇觀以及某些此類恐龍潛在的掠食行為。

The discovery of yet another dinosaur at the scene would add to the ancient puzzle, and painta picture of a group attack.

現(xiàn)場發(fā)現(xiàn)的另一種恐龍幫助解開謎團，并勾勒出一個史前集體獵殺的畫面。