暴龙是从一种儿童体型的恐龙进化而来的

暴龙是从一种儿童体型的恐龙进化而来的

History’s most frightening dinosaur, the Tyrannosaurus rex, came from a long line of smaller creatures.

历史上最可怕的恐龙，暴龙，来自一长串较小的生物。

Scientists have identified a new relative of the Tyrannosaurus rex, also known as T. rex. Scientists say this relative was only about one-meter high, the height of a small child.

科学家们已经确定了暴龙的一个新的“亲戚”，也就是所谓的霸王龙。科学家说，这个“亲戚”仅仅一米高，相当于小孩子的身高。

American Sterling Nesbitt, a paleontologist, discovered the dinosaur. He told the Associated Press that if the ancient creature raised its head, an adult human maybe “would be looking at it in the eye.”

美国古生物学家斯特林·内斯比特发现了这只恐龙，他告诉美联社，如果这个古老的生物抬起头，一个成年人类可能会“正看着它的眼睛”。

Nesbitt is with the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. In 1998, he found the creature’s remains while serving as a volunteer on a dig in New Mexico with a famous paleontologist. At the time, Nesbitt was just 16 years old.

内斯比特在弗吉尼亚州布莱克斯堡的弗吉尼亚理工学院和州立大学工作。1998年，他在新墨西哥州的一次挖掘中与一位著名的古生物学者一起发现了这种生物的遗骸。当时，内斯比特只有16岁。

For about 20 years, scientists were not sure what to make of the remains, until other small relatives of T. rex were discovered.

大约20年来，科学家们一直不确定如何处理这些遗骸，直到发现了霸王龙的其他小亲戚。

“The small group of tyrannosauroid dinosaurs would give rise to some of the biggest predators that we’ve ever seen,” noted Nesbitt. He is the lead author of a report of the bones. The findings were published earlier this month in the scientific journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

内斯比特指出：“这一小群霸王龙会产生我们所见过的一些最大的食肉动物。”他是骨头报告的主要作者。这一发现在本月早些时候发表在科学杂志“自然、生态与进化”上。

The new dinosaur is called Suskityrannus hazelae. The name comes from a word in the language of the Zuni, a Native American tribe. It describes another small, but modern predator: the coyote.

这种新的恐龙被称为Suskityrannus hazelae，这个名字来自于美洲土著部落祖尼语中的一个词，它描述了另一个体形很小，但生活在现代的掠食者：郊狼。

Scientists say the dinosaur dates back 92 million years, about 20 million years before the T. rex walked the Earth. The newly discovered cousin weighed between about 20 and 40 kilograms. It was three times longer than it was tall. That is almost nothing compared to the nine-ton T. rex.

科学家们说，这种恐龙可追溯到9200万年前，大约在霸王龙出现的2000万年前，新发现的表亲体重在20到40公斤之间，是它身高的三倍多，与九吨重的霸王龙相比算不了什么。

Suskityrannus hazalae is not the first or even smallest member of the Tyrannosaurus family tree. But Nesbitt said it provides the best example of how this family of smaller dinosaurs evolved into the frightening star of movies and television shows.

Suskityrannus hazalae不是暴龙家族中的第一位，甚至也不是最小的成员。但是内斯比特说，它提供了一个最好的例子，说明这个小恐龙家族是如何演变成电影和电视节目中可怕的明星的。

Hans-Dieter Sues is a paleobiologist with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. He suggested it was an important find.

汉斯-迪特尔·苏斯是华盛顿史密森学会的古生物学家，他认为这是一个重要的发现。

“Suskityrannus is the first really good record of the early tyrannosaurs in North America,” he wrote in an email. He was not involved in the study.

他在一封电子邮件中写道：“Suskityrannus是北美早期霸王龙的第一个非常好的记录。”他没有参与这项研究。

Scientists are not sure why these meat-eaters were not especially big compared with other dinosaurs alive at the time. So it is unclear why they later evolved to be so huge.

科学家们不清楚为什么这些食肉动物与当时活着的其他恐龙相比不是特别大，所以现在还不清楚为什么它们后来进化得如此庞大。

Nesbitt said the newly discovered species is probably among the last of the little dinosaurs. It was bigger than earlier members of the species and had big feet needed for speed — something the T. rex lost.

内斯比特说，新发现的物种可能是最后的小恐龙之一，它比这个物种的早期成员要大得多，而且它还需要很大的脚来保持速度-这正是霸王龙所缺失的。

I’m Jonathan Evans.

乔纳森·埃文斯报道。

Words in This Story

paleontologist – n. a scientist who studies the remains of animals and plants that lived very long ago especially in the time of dinosaurs

predator(s) – n. an animal that lives by killing and eating other animals

author – n. a person who has written something

journal – n. a magazine that reports on things of special interest to a particular group of people

coyote – n. a small wild animal that is related to dogs and wolves and that lives in North America

evolve(d) – v. to change or develop slowly often into a better, more complex, or more advanced state

paleobiologist – n. a scientist who studies the biology of animals and plants that lived very long ago especially in the time of dinosaurs