萬物簡史 第104期:勢不兩立的科學(xué)(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.

曼特爾寫了一篇論文，準備遞交給英國皇家學(xué)會。不幸的是，恰好又有一塊恐龍骨頭在牛津郡的一處采石場被發(fā)現(xiàn)，而且剛剛有人作過正式描述——這個人不是別人，就是敦促曼特爾不要倉促行事的巴克蘭牧師。它被取名為斑龍。這個名字其實是他的朋友詹姆斯·帕金森博士——那位未來的激進分子、帕金森綜合征的鼻祖——向巴克蘭建議的。大家也許記得，帕金森最初是個地質(zhì)學(xué)家，他對斑龍的研究顯示了他在這方面的成就。

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.

在為《倫敦地質(zhì)學(xué)會學(xué)報》寫的報告中，他注意到，那種動物的牙齒不像蜥蜴那樣直接連著頜骨，而像鱷魚那樣長在牙槽里。不過，巴克蘭就注意到這么多，沒有認識到它的意義，即斑龍完全是一種新發(fā)現(xiàn)的動物。

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.

不過，盡管他的報告缺少敏銳的目光和深刻的見解，它仍是發(fā)表過的描述斑龍的第一篇文章。因此，人們把發(fā)現(xiàn)這種古代動物的功勞歸給了巴克蘭，而不是更有資格的曼特爾。