侏罗纪搏击俱乐部 第122期:发现潜在的掠食者

You really want to detect a predator before it gets close enough for you to be able to see it and so they potentially used other senses like the sense of smell.

它们确实会想在掠食者靠近得能够看见之前就探测到它，所以它们潜在地使用其它感觉比如说嗅觉。

With its limited visual capability, Gastonia had to rely on a keen sense of smell and hearing to keep it alert of potential predators.

加斯顿龙因为视觉能力有限，必须要依赖敏锐的嗅觉和听觉才能发现潜在的掠食者。

Based on modern animal behavior, scientists also consider an intriguing possibility of another early warning system.

根据现代动物行为，科学家也在考虑另一种早期预警系统有趣的可能性。

There are a lot of symbiotic relationships between animals today, and I have no doubt whatsoever that they existed in the past.

如今动物间有很多共生关系，我敢肯定过去也有这种现象。

Look at modern rhinos.

比如现代犀牛。

They have a poor sense of vision, so they rely on birds to alert them to approaching danger.

它们的视力很差，所以它们依靠鸟类来警告它们有危险靠近。

These birds in turn are protected from their own predators by the rhino.

这些鸟类反过来也被犀牛保护于它们自己的掠食者。

I think that small pterosaurs would have had the same symbiosis with Gastonia.

我认为小型翼龙可能会跟加斯顿龙形成同样的共生关系。

They would have been protected by the Gastonia, and in return, they would have warned it of potential danger.

它们可能被加斯顿龙保护，反过来它们警告加斯顿龙潜在的危险。

But with its incredible array of defensive armor, why would Gastonia even need an early warning system?

不过有了这么出色的全副护甲，为何加斯顿龙还需要预警系统呢?

Its only vulnerability was its underbelly which was not armored, no creature could possibly have been strong enough or clever enough to prey on it.

它唯一的薄弱环节就是其没有护甲的腹部，没有哪种生物有那么壮或聪明能够捕食加斯顿龙。

But 50 meters away, paleontologists found fossil evidence of exactly why Gastonia would have needed an early warning system.

不过50米开外，古生物学家发现的化石证据说明了，加斯顿龙究竟为什么需要预警系统。

In 1989, near the town of Moab in Utah, dinosaur hunter Robert Gaston discovered the remains of Gastonia, an armored dinosaur from the early Cretaceous.

1989年，在犹他州摩押镇附近，恐龙猎人罗伯特·加斯顿发现一头加斯顿龙的残骸，这是白垩纪早期的一种有甲恐龙。

He had no idea that lying nearby was a second species, unknown to modern science.

他根本不知道另一个不为现代科学所知的物种就在不远处。

Only this one was a predator.

只不过这是一个掠食者。

And scientists would soon discover this was no ordinary killer.

科学家们很快就会发现这不是普通杀手。