侏羅紀(jì)搏擊俱樂(lè)部 第134期:不警覺(jué)的動(dòng)物會(huì)墜入摔死

In 1971, paleontologists discovered a massive hole in the ground in Wyoming. The cave opening had acted as a trap, unwary creatures fell to their death.

在1971年，古生物學(xué)家在懷俄明發(fā)現(xiàn)了地上的一個(gè)巨洞。這個(gè)洞口如同一個(gè)陷阱，不警覺(jué)的動(dòng)物會(huì)墜入摔死。

They called it "natural trap cave".

人們稱(chēng)之為“自然陷坑”。

Laying 30 meters below the opening in an underground cavern, they found the remains of thousands of ice age mammals.

在洞口下方30米處的一個(gè)地下洞穴，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)了數(shù)千具冰期哺乳動(dòng)物的遺骸。

Among them, the broken skeleton of a giant bear named Arctodus.

在其中有一頭巨熊的破碎骨架，它叫熊齒獸。

The thing that impresses everybody when they first see an Arctodus fossil is just how big it is.

每個(gè)人第一次見(jiàn)到熊齒獸化石的時(shí)候都震驚于它的巨大。

The largest bears living today are the Alaskan Brown Bears, the Kodiak Bears and the Polar Bears.And an Arctodus would be about twice as large as either one of those.

如今生活的最大的熊，是阿拉斯加棕熊、科迪亞克熊，以及北極熊。而熊齒獸的體型是它們?nèi)我庖粋€(gè)的兩倍多。

The size of this bear was staggering.

這種熊的體型大得驚人。

Arctodus stood 4 meters tall, its body was 5 meters long and it weighed nearly a metric ton.It towered over today's Grizzlies.

熊齒獸站立起來(lái)有四米高，身體長(zhǎng)五米，重量將近一噸。它遠(yuǎn)比現(xiàn)代灰熊更加高大。

Alongside its sheer mass, Arctodus had two distinctive features that differentiated it from modern bears.

除了體型巨大，熊齒獸還有兩個(gè)特點(diǎn)讓它們區(qū)別于現(xiàn)代熊。

The first was its oversized teeth and short, but powerful muzzle, from which it derives its nickname: the short faced bear.

第一是它們超大的牙齒和短而有力的口鼻部，因此它們有一個(gè)小名：短面熊。

This is the skull of a giant short faced bear and you can see why they're named this.

這是巨大的短面熊顱骨，能看出來(lái)它們?yōu)楹蔚么嗣?/p>

They have a very shortened snout in proportion to the overall skull, their skull is actually very wide for its size.

從整個(gè)頭顱的比例來(lái)看，它們的口鼻部非常短，它們的頭顱對(duì)它的大小來(lái)說(shuō)是非常寬的。

Here are the canines, you can see they're very long and robust.

這些是犬齒，能看到它們很長(zhǎng)很結(jié)實(shí)。

The teeth here are very bear-like.They're just basically bear teeth that are scaled up, developed for crushing.

這里的牙齒和熊的很像。它們基本上是放大了的熊牙，用來(lái)咬碎東西。

Very powerful muscles would have attached right here, here, and up here that would have given it a very powerful bite.

這里附著非常有力的肌肉，這里，還有上邊這里，這能帶來(lái)非常強(qiáng)大的咬合力。

We open the mouth then.We can see those large canines, what it would be like to be on the dinner side of a short faced bear.

我們把它的嘴張開(kāi)。看到那些很大的犬齒，試想一下被短面熊當(dāng)成晚餐會(huì)是什么樣吧。

The second feature was its unusually long front legs.

第二個(gè)特點(diǎn)是它異乎尋常的長(zhǎng)前腿。

Modern Grizzly bears have longer front legs than back legs.

現(xiàn)代灰熊前腿比后腿要長(zhǎng)。

Allowing it to reach speeds of up to 35 miles per hour over short distances.

這使它能夠在短距離就加速到35英里每小時(shí)。

But in the mega bear, both equal-length legs were a special adaptation that may have allowed this bear to reach speeds in excess of 45 miles per hour, and run for much greater distances.

不過(guò)這種巨熊，前后一樣的長(zhǎng)腿，是一種特別的適應(yīng)性，那也許能讓這種熊達(dá)到超過(guò)45英里的時(shí)速，而且能奔跑更長(zhǎng)的距離。