侏罗纪搏击俱乐部 第105期:肉食者的美餐

The landscape of modern Utah scarcely resembles the landscape of 156 million years ago, when Allosaurus ruled supreme, there were fewer mountains.

现代犹他州的地形跟一亿五千六百万年前大相径庭，在异特龙称霸之时，那里没多少山脉。

And seasons as we now know them did not exist.

我们如今熟悉的季节当时并不存在。

And there was water everywhere. Rivers, ponds and lakes covered much of the state.

那时到处都是水。河流、池塘和湖泊覆盖着当时的整个犹他州。

The entire flood plain was probably scattered with with these rivers, with ponds and lakes, and large meadows.

整个涝原可能都点缀着河流、池塘、湖泊和大片的草场。

There were a lot of fairly large trees. Trees were probably 100, 200 feet tall.

有很多相当高大的树木。这些树高达100,200英尺高。

Lots of ferns, lots of cycads, lots of ginkkos, plants be interesting plants, but of course none of them flowering plants, or grasses, or fruits, or anything like that.

有很多蕨类，很多苏铁，很多银杏，都是有趣的植物，不过当然它们中没有花、草、水果之类的植物。

Fossilized dinosaur bones are often found in sediment created by rain or flood.

恐龙骨化石经常能在大雨或洪水形成的沉积物中发现。

This sediment provides crucial information.

这种沉积物提供了关键信息。

Different types of physical environments produce different sorts of sediment.

不同类型的物理环境会产生不同类型的沉积物。

And we can go out in the modern world to look at a stream valley versus a desert, versus open plains, and each of them has a different pattern of sediment being produced and therefore different types of sedimentary rocks or structures.

我们可以去现代世界观察河流峡谷对比沙漠，对比开阔平原，它们每一种都会产生不同类型的沉积物因此会有不同的沉积岩或沉积结构。

Also, the plants vary from environment to environment.

同样，植物在不同环境里也各不相同。

As so we can look at whether we are seeing ferns, or herbs, or trees, or other remains of fossil plants to reconstruct the living environment.

所以我们能参考看到的是蕨类，还是草，或树木，或是什么别的植物化石遗迹来重建当时的生存环境。

By extracting oxygen, and carbon isotopes from the sediment and analyzing their chemical make-up, geochemists can deduce temperature, humidity, and even weather conditions from prehistoric world.

通过在沉积层里提取氧和碳的同位素，并且分析其化学构成，地化学家能够推测出温度、湿度、甚至是史前世界的气候条件。

And by adding all these bits and pieces together, we can create a much bigger picture of past climates and past atmospheres, and therefore, past environments.

把这些零零碎碎的各种信息加起来，我们就能构造出过去气候和大气更为广阔的图景，继而了解过去的环境。

Throughout the Jurassic period, the earth climate was hot and humid.

在整个侏罗纪时期，地球气候又热又湿。

This created a super-sized world. Tree in Utah reach an average of 25 meters.

这形成了巨物天地。在犹他州的树木平均高二十五米。

During the Jurassic era, they could reach 42 meters, fueled by the abundance of water and oxygen.

在侏罗纪时期，充足的水分和氧气的滋养下，它们能达到四十二米高。

This lush environment provided a banquet for plant eating dinosaurs who in turn, became a banquet for the new species of meat eaters, like Allosaurus.

这种葱郁的环境为植食恐龙提供了盛宴，它们也转而成了异特龙这样的肉食者的美餐。

More advanced in both brain and brawn, it literally ate its competition into extinction.

无论脑力还是体格都更出色，它简直把它的对手吃到了灭绝。

One of the main competitors of Allosaurus was Ceratosaurus.

异特龙的主要竞争对手之一是角鼻龙。