万物简史 第104期:势不两立的科学(12)

Mantell prepared a paper for delivery to the RoyalSociety. Unfortunately it emerged that anotherdinosaur had been found at a quarry in Oxfordshireand had just been formally described—by theReverend Buckland, the very man who had urgedhim not to work in haste. It was the Megalosaurus,and the name was actually suggested to Buckland byhis friend Dr. James Parkinson, the would-be radicaland eponym for Parkinson's disease. Buckland, itmay be recalled, was foremost a geologist, and heshowed it with his work on Megalosaurus.

曼特尔写了一篇论文，准备递交给英国皇家学会。不幸的是，恰好又有一块恐龙骨头在牛津郡的一处采石场被发现，而且刚刚有人作过正式描述——这个人不是别人，就是敦促曼特尔不要仓促行事的巴克兰牧师。它被取名为斑龙。这个名字其实是他的朋友詹姆斯·帕金森博士——那位未来的激进分子、帕金森综合征的鼻祖——向巴克兰建议的。大家也许记得，帕金森最初是个地质学家，他对斑龙的研究显示了他在这方面的成就。

In his report, for the Transactions of the Geological Society of London, he noted that thecreature's teeth were not attached directly to the jawbone as in lizards but placed in sockets inthe manner of crocodiles. But having noticed this much, Buckland failed to realize what itmeant: Megalosaurus was an entirely new type of creature.

在为《伦敦地质学会学报》写的报告中，他注意到，那种动物的牙齿不像蜥蜴那样直接连着颌骨，而像鳄鱼那样长在牙槽里。不过，巴克兰就注意到这么多，没有认识到它的意义，即斑龙完全是一种新发现的动物。

So although his report demonstrated little acuity or insight, it was still the first publisheddescription of a dinosaur, and so to him rather than the far more deserving Mantell goes thecredit for the discovery of this ancient line of beings.

不过，尽管他的报告缺少敏锐的目光和深刻的见解，它仍是发表过的描述斑龙的第一篇文章。因此，人们把发现这种古代动物的功劳归给了巴克兰，而不是更有资格的曼特尔。