“恐龍洞穴”揭示恐龍蹲伏行走

“恐龍洞穴”揭示恐龍蹲伏行走

Old photos from Mount Morgan’s sealed off ‘Dino Cave’ have shed light onto new and unusual Aussie dinosaur behaviours, thanks to University of Queensland research.

根據(jù)昆士蘭大學(xué)的研究，來自摩根山封閉的“恐龍洞穴”的舊照片，揭示了澳大利亞恐龍新的和不尋常的行為。

For a decade, a Mount Morgan cave in central Queensland known for the highest dinosaur track diversity on the entire eastern half of Australia has been closed to the public, restricting research to the site.

10年來，昆士蘭州中部的摩根山洞穴(Mount Morgan cave)一直沒有對公眾開放，限制了對該地區(qū)的研究。該洞穴以澳大利亞整個東部一半的恐龍足跡多樣性最高而聞名。

Although UQ palaeontologist Dr Anthony Romilio has had success searching for images of the tracks, he has only recently been provided with new images of different dinosaur’s footprints at the site by the Mount Morgan Historical Museum.

雖然昆士蘭大學(xué)的古生物學(xué)家安東尼·羅米里奧(Anthony Romilio)博士已經(jīng)成功地找到了這些足跡的圖像，但直到最近摩根山歷史博物館才向他提供了不同恐龍腳印的新圖像。

“These photographs of fossil footprints have been on museum-display for years,” Dr Romilio said.

“這些化石腳印的照片已經(jīng)在博物館展出多年了。”羅米里奧博士說。

“Up until now, it was unknown what type of dinosaurs made these tracks or what the tracks meant.

“到目前為止，人們還不知道這些腳印是什么類型的恐龍留下的，也不知道這些腳印意味著什么。”

“A typical dinosaur track of this kind look like those made by birds, but these are shaped like broad-handled forks.”

“這類典型的恐龍足跡看起來像鳥類留下的足跡，但它們的形狀像寬柄叉子。”

Upon further inspection, Dr Romilio revealed that the dinosaur must have created the tracks while crouched.

經(jīng)過進(jìn)一步的觀察，羅米里奧博士透露，恐龍一定是在蹲伏時留下這些足跡的。

“It’s very strange behaviour, and we don’t yet know why it did this,” Dr Romilio said.

“這是非常奇怪的行為，我們還不知道它為什么會這樣。”羅米里奧博士說。

“You can rule out predatory stalking behaviour, as this set of tracks was made by a two-legged plant eater called an ornithopod.

“可以排除掠食性跟蹤行為，因為這組足跡是由一種叫做鳥腳亞目的兩腿食草恐龍留下的。”

“And interestingly, this crouching dinosaur was taking bigger steps than other ‘normal’ walking dinosaurs.

“有趣的是，這種蹲伏的恐龍比其他‘正常’行走的恐龍邁的步子更大。”

“This unusual posture likely made the prehistoric animal more stable allowing them to quickly cross the muddy shore of an ancient lake.”

“這種不尋常的姿勢可能使史前動物更加穩(wěn)定，從而使它們能夠快速穿過一個古老湖泊泥濘的岸邊。”

Dr Romilio is keen to investigate this mysterious dinosaur despite all of the unknowns.

羅米里奧博士熱衷于研究這種神秘的恐龍，盡管它還有許多未知之處。