If I bring a bone over, we can superimpose these two. It's got one big muscle attachment right here and the dinosaurs have a muscle scar just like this. It appears in the first bipedal dinosaurs, this scar on the outside of the fibula and it is not present in earlier animals. So this is another link between dinosaurs and birds. So I must look for that the next time I see ...
如果我把那块骨骼带来,这两块骨骼能够重叠。这里附带大的肌肉块,而恐龙也有和这类似的肌痕。第一批双足恐龙就有这样的肌痕,出现在腓骨的外侧,早期的恐龙就没有。因此这是另一个恐龙和鸟相似的地方。等下次再有机会,我一定要仔细地在看看……
Yeah, you can see that. Trexes have a huge one of those, a massive scar like this big.
是的,你可以看到它们是有关联的。Trexes就有恐龙中最大的肌痕。
By estimating the muscle sizes of extinct animals and inputting them into computer models, John is able to get an incredible new insight into how dinosaurs actually moved.
通过估算灭绝恐龙的肌肉大小,并把数据输入计算机模型中,约翰能够得到一个令人难以置信的有关恐龙如何移动的新解释。
It's basically running a simulation. The computer's figuring out what is the best way to use these muscles, given what we've put in to raise the body up. We are not animating it. And we are not saying, "Do it this way." We are just giving it some basic rules of biology. This is what kinds of things you should be trying to do overall and let it find the best solution.
本质上这是在运行模拟。计算机在得到抬高身体的指示后, 找到了运行肌肉的最好方法。我们没有推动它,也没有指示它“就这样做。” 我们只是赋予它一些基本的生物学规则。这是你应该全面尝试做的事情,然后找到最好的解决方案。
Yeah. So John you've actually done right, trying to reconstruct how Trex would have looked, how its muscles would have worked, how he would have run. What kind of results have you got from that?
没错,约翰,你这次做得是正确的,试图重建恐龙的模样,然后研究它的肌肉是如何运作的,它是如何奔跑的。你能从中得到什么样的结果呢?
Yes. So we found using our computer models that human sprinters which can do 25 miles an hour or a little faster would probably be pretty well matched for a muscular tyrannosaurus or an average human who can run about 15 miles per hour would probably be a pretty good match for a kind of skinnier version of a Trex.
通过电脑模型,我们发现每小时25英里甚至更快的短跑选手和肌肉暴龙的奔跑速度匹配,而每小时15英里的普通跑步者可能和相对苗条的恐龙的奔跑速度匹配。
John, I've heard some theories where Trex has been put forward as running very fast, probably faster than that. So has your work basically disapproved that?
约翰,我听说过一些理论——恐龙被认为奔跑速度很快,甚至比想象中的还要快。那么你的研究能够推翻这个理论吗?
I think it's put a lot of doubt in that idea that a Trex could run like as fast as a race horse, or even faster, like forty miles an hour, something like that. I don't think you'll need an automobile to outrun a Trex.
恐龙能和赛马的奔跑速度媲美,甚至比赛马还要快,比如能达到40英里每小时,我对这一说法深感怀疑。我认为你并不需要拿汽车行驶速度和恐龙奔跑速度比。
We do have a chance of outrunning them, running away.
我们都可以比恐龙跑得快,会逃跑就行。
Never gonna happen, thankfully.
不过谢天谢地我们不需要逃跑。
The work of scientists like John has allowed us to not only refine our ideas about these extinct animals, but has actually transformed our image of them.
像约翰这样科学家的工作让我们不仅能够精炼我们对于灭绝恐龙的想法,还能改变我心中恐龙的形象。
If you think about tyrannosaurus, Trexes for example, we used to think of him as standing upright like gorilla, but now we know he couldn't have worked like that.
如果你想到了暴龙,比如Trexes,我们过去认为它可以像大猩猩一样直立行走,但是现在我们知道它是不可能做到站立行走的。
You treat him like an engineering problem, in format, using comparative anatomy of living animals.
你对待它就好像是在处理一个工程问题,采用现存动物的比较解剖学来解决。
And how we know that his body was much more horizontal with his tail held up in the air, and our reconstructions are much more robust.
我们也由此知道当它把尾巴抬起的时候,它的整个身体处于一个水平的状态,看来我们的重现工作非常强大。
We are getting as close as we possibly can to what this longdead animal would have looked like.
我们越发能够知道这个早已灭绝的动物最真实的模样。