暴龍是從一種兒童體型的恐龍進化而來的

暴龍是從一種兒童體型的恐龍進化而來的

History’s most frightening dinosaur, the Tyrannosaurus rex, came from a long line of smaller creatures.

歷史上最可怕的恐龍，暴龍，來自一長串較小的生物。

Scientists have identified a new relative of the Tyrannosaurus rex, also known as T. rex. Scientists say this relative was only about one-meter high, the height of a small child.

科學家們已經(jīng)確定了暴龍的一個新的“親戚”，也就是所謂的霸王龍?？茖W家說，這個“親戚”僅僅一米高，相當于小孩子的身高。

American Sterling Nesbitt, a paleontologist, discovered the dinosaur. He told the Associated Press that if the ancient creature raised its head, an adult human maybe “would be looking at it in the eye.”

美國古生物學家斯特林·內(nèi)斯比特發(fā)現(xiàn)了這只恐龍，他告訴美聯(lián)社，如果這個古老的生物抬起頭，一個成年人類可能會“正看著它的眼睛”。

Nesbitt is with the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. In 1998, he found the creature’s remains while serving as a volunteer on a dig in New Mexico with a famous paleontologist. At the time, Nesbitt was just 16 years old.

內(nèi)斯比特在弗吉尼亞州布萊克斯堡的弗吉尼亞理工學院和州立大學工作。1998年，他在新墨西哥州的一次挖掘中與一位著名的古生物學者一起發(fā)現(xiàn)了這種生物的遺骸。當時，內(nèi)斯比特只有16歲。

For about 20 years, scientists were not sure what to make of the remains, until other small relatives of T. rex were discovered.

大約20年來，科學家們一直不確定如何處理這些遺骸，直到發(fā)現(xiàn)了霸王龍的其他小親戚。

“The small group of tyrannosauroid dinosaurs would give rise to some of the biggest predators that we’ve ever seen,” noted Nesbitt. He is the lead author of a report of the bones. The findings were published earlier this month in the scientific journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

內(nèi)斯比特指出：“這一小群霸王龍會產(chǎn)生我們所見過的一些最大的食肉動物。”他是骨頭報告的主要作者。這一發(fā)現(xiàn)在本月早些時候發(fā)表在科學雜志“自然、生態(tài)與進化”上。

The new dinosaur is called Suskityrannus hazelae. The name comes from a word in the language of the Zuni, a Native American tribe. It describes another small, but modern predator: the coyote.

這種新的恐龍被稱為Suskityrannus hazelae，這個名字來自于美洲土著部落祖尼語中的一個詞，它描述了另一個體形很小，但生活在現(xiàn)代的掠食者：郊狼。

Scientists say the dinosaur dates back 92 million years, about 20 million years before the T. rex walked the Earth. The newly discovered cousin weighed between about 20 and 40 kilograms. It was three times longer than it was tall. That is almost nothing compared to the nine-ton T. rex.

科學家們說，這種恐龍可追溯到9200萬年前，大約在霸王龍出現(xiàn)的2000萬年前，新發(fā)現(xiàn)的表親體重在20到40公斤之間，是它身高的三倍多，與九噸重的霸王龍相比算不了什么。

Suskityrannus hazalae is not the first or even smallest member of the Tyrannosaurus family tree. But Nesbitt said it provides the best example of how this family of smaller dinosaurs evolved into the frightening star of movies and television shows.

Suskityrannus hazalae不是暴龍家族中的第一位，甚至也不是最小的成員。但是內(nèi)斯比特說，它提供了一個最好的例子，說明這個小恐龍家族是如何演變成電影和電視節(jié)目中可怕的明星的。

Hans-Dieter Sues is a paleobiologist with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. He suggested it was an important find.

漢斯-迪特爾·蘇斯是華盛頓史密森學會的古生物學家，他認為這是一個重要的發(fā)現(xiàn)。

“Suskityrannus is the first really good record of the early tyrannosaurs in North America,” he wrote in an email. He was not involved in the study.

他在一封電子郵件中寫道：“Suskityrannus是北美早期霸王龍的第一個非常好的記錄。”他沒有參與這項研究。

Scientists are not sure why these meat-eaters were not especially big compared with other dinosaurs alive at the time. So it is unclear why they later evolved to be so huge.

科學家們不清楚為什么這些食肉動物與當時活著的其他恐龍相比不是特別大，所以現(xiàn)在還不清楚為什么它們后來進化得如此龐大。

Nesbitt said the newly discovered species is probably among the last of the little dinosaurs. It was bigger than earlier members of the species and had big feet needed for speed — something the T. rex lost.

內(nèi)斯比特說，新發(fā)現(xiàn)的物種可能是最后的小恐龍之一，它比這個物種的早期成員要大得多，而且它還需要很大的腳來保持速度-這正是霸王龍所缺失的。

I’m Jonathan Evans.

喬納森·埃文斯報道。

Words in This Story

paleontologist – n. a scientist who studies the remains of animals and plants that lived very long ago especially in the time of dinosaurs

predator(s) – n. an animal that lives by killing and eating other animals

author – n. a person who has written something

journal – n. a magazine that reports on things of special interest to a particular group of people

coyote – n. a small wild animal that is related to dogs and wolves and that lives in North America

evolve(d) – v. to change or develop slowly often into a better, more complex, or more advanced state

paleobiologist – n. a scientist who studies the biology of animals and plants that lived very long ago especially in the time of dinosaurs