SSS 2009-01-28
时间：2018-12-24 作者：英语课 分类：Scientific American(一)月
This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Cynthia Graber. This will just take a minute.
Triceratops, as the name suggests, were huge dinosaurs 2 adorned 3 with three horns on their heads. Scientists now say those horns may have been a sort of battle bludgeon. Andrew Farke is a curator at the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology in California. He became curious about that headgear. Farke and colleagues wanted to investigate whether Triceratops fought each other with their horns. Which posed a problem: obviously, we can’t go back in time to watch the animals interact. So the researchers resorted to some techniques out of a Cretaceous CSI.
They examined more than 400 museums specimens 4 of Triceratops and another closely related one-horned dinosaur 1 called Centrosaurus. They scanned the skulls 6 for injuries around where Triceratops might have locked horns and wrestled 7. Their assumption was that if the horns were just for display, both species would show few scars.
But the Triceratops had 10 times more skull 5 injuries than their Centrosaurus cousins. The most likely explanation is that they probably jabbed each other in the head while fighting. The researchers published their findings in the journal Public Library of Science ONE. They also caution that the horns could have served more than one purpose—perhaps fighting and flaunting 8.
Thanks for the minute for Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Cynthia Graber.
- Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击？
- He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。
- The brontosaurus was one of the largest of all dinosaurs. 雷龙是所有恐龙中最大的一种。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years. 恐龙绝种已有几百万年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- The walls were adorned with paintings. 墙上装饰了绘画。
- And his coat was adorned with a flamboyant bunch of flowers. 他的外套上面装饰着一束艳丽刺目的鲜花。
- Astronauts have brought back specimens of rock from the moon. 宇航员从月球带回了岩石标本。
- The traveler brought back some specimens of the rocks from the mountains. 那位旅行者从山上带回了一些岩石标本。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
- He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。
- One of the women's skulls found exceeds in capacity that of the average man of today. 现已发现的女性颅骨中，其中有一个的脑容量超过了今天的普通男子。
- We could make a whole plain white with skulls in the moonlight! 我们便能令月光下的平原变白，遍布白色的骷髅！