侏羅紀搏擊俱樂部 第139期:地球剛剛度過一次冰期

This makes hunting for the Mega Lion nearly impossible.

這就讓擬獅的捕獵有了極大難度。

Without heavy cover to hide his body, he is unable to get close enough to ambush his prey.

沒有嚴實的掩護來遮擋住它身體，它就沒法靠近獵物伏擊它的獵物。

His weakness is his size and his inability to run down faster prey.

它的弱點就是它的體型和無法追趕較快的獵物。

Two apex predators occupying the same space is unusual.

兩種頂級掠食者在同一地區(qū)生活并不尋常。

Possibly, they lived during different eras?

它們可能是來自不同時期嗎?

We find both lions and short face bears at Rancho La Brea and other sites around the North American continent.

在拉布雷亞瀝青坑和北美大陸的其它地點，我們都發(fā)現(xiàn)了擬獅和短面熊。

That indicates that at least at times, they shared the same territory.

這表明起碼在某一時段，它們分享同一片領(lǐng)地。

The discovery of both lion and bear in the La Brea Tar Pits proves without any doubt that these two predators lived at the same time in the same place.

在拉布雷亞瀝青坑發(fā)現(xiàn)了擬獅和短面熊，毫無疑問證明了這兩種掠食者生活在同一時期同一地區(qū)。

And as added proof, the bones of both have been carbon dated and this proves that they lived together.

作為附加證據(jù)，兩者的骨頭都做過碳同位素測年，這也證明了它們曾一起生活。

The trap cave was probably on a migration trail, a place where both beasts would have hunted.

地穴陷阱可能就在遷徙路線上，這兩種動物都曾在這里捕獵。

It's a site where, for the last 100,000 years, animals have been simply dropping in, and so many of them have dropped in that we have excavated about 5% of deposit and gotten over 40,000 bones.

這個地點，在持續(xù)的十萬年里，動物們不斷失足墜入，掉下去的動物非常之多，我們僅僅挖掘出其中百分之五就有了超過四萬塊骨頭。

And amongst the bones, we've gotten complete skeletons of the American lion and the short-faced bear.

在這些骨頭里面，我們有美洲擬獅和短面熊完整的骨架。

But knowing that these two gigantic animals hunted in the same terrain only deepened the mystery.

不過知道這兩種巨型動物在同一地區(qū)狩獵只會加深謎團。

It's very rare for two top predators to hunt in the same territory.

兩種頂級掠食者在同一地區(qū)狩獵，是非常少見的現(xiàn)象。

Then, another clue came to light.

但是又有一條線索浮現(xiàn)出來。

Paleontologists went back 10,000 years, and examined an earth that had just come out of an Ice Age.

古生物學家回溯到一萬年前，發(fā)現(xiàn)當時的地球剛剛度過一次冰期。

What they found was a world in turmoil.

他們發(fā)現(xiàn)的是一個混亂的世界。

We can look at the geological record of earth at that time and see that there were dramatic climate changes taking place.

我們可以看一看那一時期地球的地質(zhì)記錄，能夠看到當時正發(fā)生著劇烈的氣候變化。

One of the most amazing pieces of evidence is found in solid rock.

最奇妙證據(jù)之一發(fā)現(xiàn)于堅固的巖石。

It shows that huge glaciers had been slowly moving southward for thousands of years, but then receded at an alarming rate.

它表明巨大的冰川已經(jīng)緩慢地向南部推進了數(shù)千年，然后又以驚人的速度后退。

This is pretty clear evidence that the environment was not only changing, it was changing very rapidly.

這是很明確的證據(jù)，表明環(huán)境不僅在改變而且在急速改變。