Mini T. Rex Recovered

发现微型恐龙 Mini T. Rex Recovered

Ask any young dinosaur fanatic about the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex and you’ll probably get a fairly accurate description: huge reptile, big head, powerful jaws, tiny little arms. Scientists had thought that the animal evolved its bizarre proportions as it grew to its gargantuan stature. But in this week’s issue of the journal Science, paleontologist Paul Sereno describes a newly discovered miniature tyrannosaurid that evolved millions of years earlier—and has all the attributes of the larger one.
当你问任何一个年轻的恐龙爱好者关于强有力的暴龙rex，你可能得到一个非常精确的描述：巨大的爬行动物，很大的头，强有力的颚，极小的手臂。科学家过去认为这种动物在长成巨大体型的过程中进化成了这种奇特的比例。但是本周的发布的journal Science中，古生物学家paul sereno描述了一个新发现的早进化一百万年的小型的暴龙——它有着大型暴龙的所有特征。
The tiny dino had been excavated in Mongolia illegally and sold to a private collector. He contacted Sereno to evaluate the preserved tyrannosaurid. Sereno agreed to do so if the dinosaur was donated to science, and eventually returned to China.
这个小型的恐龙曾在蒙古非法的发掘出来，然后卖给了一个私人收藏家。他联系sereno来评估这个恐龙标本。sereno同意了，条件是把恐龙标本捐给科学界，并且最终返还中国。
The dinosaur is about nine feet long and had an estimated weight of only 150 pounds. But it’s all there—the tiny arms, the huge head, the large teeth and muscular jaw. A hundred-twenty-five million years later, that animal’s descendants had ballooned into an almost exact replica more than 90 times larger. Sereno and his colleagues say the body plan must have been a successful structure for hunting prey—and ultimately thrilling dinosaur lovers everywhere.
这具恐龙大约九英尺长，体重大约只有150英磅。但是构造完好——小手臂，巨大的头，大型的牙齿，强壮的颚。一亿两千五百万年之后，这种动物的后代急剧的成长为超过90倍的复制品。sereno和他的同事们指出，这种身体的成长势必成为一种捕猎的成功的身体结构——也最终震撼了各地的恐龙爱好者。