【Native Speaker每日综合训练—44系列】【44-04】科技 Dinosaur

Cassidy大洁洁

内容：Cassidy大洁洁 编辑：Cassidy大洁洁

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这一次训练是关于恐龙，大家会遇到很多不认识的单词，尤其是恐龙名称和对其的形容描述等。不要被吓到，You can do it!

Part I: Speaker

Mammals Might Have Slept Through Dino Destroyer
October 30, 2014 |By Karen Hopkin

You’d think that the asteroid that hit Earth 66 million years ago with enough force to wipe out the dinosaurs would be tough to sleep through. But a new study suggests that the ability to engage in extended hibernation might be what saved ancestral mammals from extinction at the end of the Cretaceous. The hypothesis is in the Proceedings of the Royal Society (B).

It’s thought that global wildfires engulfed the planet for a year or more after the Chicxulub impact. That’s a long time to stay out of harm’s way. Small mammals most likely burrowed underground.

But could they last that long without coming up for air? Yes—if they were hibernating.

We know that bears can sleep through winter. But rabbit-sized Madagascar mammals called tenrecs have got that beat. Researchers tagged two dozen tenrecs with devices that recorded their body temp. And then released ‘em back in the wild.

Most of the tenrecs got killed by dogs or snakes or poachers. But a couple tunneled into the sand where they proceeded to snooze until the researchers dug them up nine months later.  

The findings reveal that on occasion the best way to make it through a crisis is to just take a long nap.

—Karen Hopkin

Source: Scientific American
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/mammals-might-have-slept-through-dino-destroyer/

[Rephrase 1]

Cassidy大洁洁

Part II: Speed

New dinosaur found in Portugal, largest terrestrial predator from Europe
Date: March 5, 2014 | Source: PLOS

[Time 2]
A new dinosaur species found in Portugal may be the largest land predator discovered in Europe, as well as one of the largest carnivorous dinosaurs from the Jurassic, according to a paper published in PLOS ONE on March 5, 2014 by co-authors Christophe Hendrickx and Octavio Mateus from Universidade Nova de Lisboa and Museu da Lourinhã.

Scientists discovered bones belonging to this dinosaur north of Lisbon. They were originally believed to be Torvosaurus tanneri, a dinosaur species from North America. Closer comparison of the shin bone, upper jawbone, teeth, and partial tail vertebrae suggest to the authors that it may warrant a new species name, Torvosaurus gurneyi.

T. gurneyi had blade-shaped teeth up to 10 cm long, which indicates it may have been at the top of the food chain in the Iberian Peninsula roughly 150 million years ago. The scientists estimate that the dinosaur could reach 10 meters long and weigh around 4 to 5 tons. The number of teeth, as well as size and shape of the mouth, may differentiate the European and the American Torvosaurus. The fossil of the upper jaw of T. tanneri has 11 or more teeth, while T. gurneyi has fewer than 11. Additionally, the mouth bones have a different shape and structure. The new dinosaur is the second species of Torvosaurus to be named.

"This is not the largest predatory dinosaur we know. Tyrannosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, and Giganotosaurus from the Cretaceous were bigger animals," said Christophe Hendrickx. "With a skull of 115 cm, Torvosaurus gurneyi was however one of the largest terrestrial carnivores at this epoch, and an active predator that hunted other large dinosaurs, as evidenced by blade shape teeth up to 10 cm." Fossil evidences of closely related dinosaurs suggest that this large predator may have already been covered with proto-feathers. Recently described dinosaur embryos from Portugal are also ascribed to the new species of Torvosaurus.
[313 words]

Source: Science Daily
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140305191427.htm

New feathered predatory fossil sheds light on dinosaur flight
Date:July 15, 2014 | Source:Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

[Time 3]
A new raptorial dinosaur fossil with exceptionally long feathers has provided exciting insights into dinosaur flight. A paper published in Nature Communications on July 15, 2014 asserts that the fossil -- discovered by an international team led by Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM) paleontologist Dr. Luis Chiappe -- has a long feathered tail that Chiappe and co-authors believe was instrumental for decreasing descent speed and assuring safe landings.

The 125-million-year-old dinosaur, named Changyuraptor yangi, was found in the Liaoning Province of northeastern China. The location has seen a surge of discoveries in feathered dinosaurs over the last decade. The newly discovered, remarkably preserved dinosaur sports a full set of feathers cloaking its entire body, including the extra-long tail feathers. "At a foot in length, the amazing tail feathers of Changyuraptor are by far the longest of any feathered dinosaur," said Chiappe.

Analyses of the bone microstructure by University of Cape Town (South Africa) scientist, Dr. Anusuya Chinsamy, shows that the raptor was a fully grown adult, and tipping the scale at nine pounds, the four-foot-long Changyuraptor is the biggest of all four-winged dinosaurs. These microraptorine dinosaurs are dubbed "four-winged" because the long feathers attached to the legs have the appearance of a second set of wings. In fact, the long feathers attached to both legs and arms of these ancient predators have led researchers to conclude that the four-winged dinosaurs were capable of flying. "Numerous features that we have long associated with birds in fact evolved in dinosaurs long before the first birds arrived on the scene," said co-author Dr. Alan Turner of Stony Brook University (New York). "This includes things such as hollow bones, nesting behavior, feathers…and possibly flight."

How well these creatures used the sky as a thoroughfare has remained controversial. The new discovery explains the role that the tail feathers played during flight control. For larger flyers, safe landings are of particular importance. "It makes sense that the largest microraptorines had especially large tail feathers -- they would have needed the additional control," added Dr. Michael Habib, a researcher at the University of Southern California and a co-author of the paper.

The discovery of Changyuraptor consolidates the notion that flight preceded the origin of birds, being inherited by the latter from their dinosaurian forerunners. "The new fossil documents that dinosaur flight was not limited to very small animals but to dinosaurs of more substantial size," said Chiappe. "Clearly far more evidence is needed to understand the nuances of dinosaur flight, but Changyuraptor is a major leap in the right direction."
[425 words]

Source: Science Daily
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/07/140715142407.htm

50 years after finding its giant arms, scientists have put this strange dinosaur’s pieces together
By Rachel Feltman October 22

[Time 4]
A long-mysterious dinosaur now has a nearly complete skeleton, revealing a form much more unusual than scientists had predicted.

Nearly 50 years ago, paleontologists uncovered some fearsome dino arms. At 2.4 meters long, they held the record for the longest forelimbs of any two-legged animal. But these remains, which belonged to a species of dinosaur that would be named Deinocheirus, didn’t yield much information – other than the arms, paleontologists only found a few ribs and pieces of vertebrae.

These remains were unique enough to distinguish the skeleton from other, previously known species. But the pieces weren’t complete enough to paint an accurate picture of the creature they’d once belonged to.

Now, researchers report in a new Nature paper, the hunt for the Deinocheirus is complete. After finding two more partial skeletons in 2006 and 2009 (and then tracking down missing pieces from each dig that had already been poached and sold into private collections when researchers arrived), Deinocheirus is complete enough to find its place in the tree of life – and for scientists to model its appearance and gait in the video looped above.

Deinocheirus mirificus, (whose name means “unusual horrible hand”) is indeed a member of the ornithomimosaurs, a group of dinosaurs that vaguely resembled modern ostriches, as was theorized when its arms were discovered. But it was by far the biggest, and it had a whole host of features that haven’t been seen in its cousins.

The dinosaur, which lived 70 million years ago around Mongolia, had a large, tooth-less snout that flared out like a duck’s bill. Its curved spine probably formed a sail-like fin, and its feet were unusually broad. These flat-bottomed toes may have helped the dinosaur forage for food in aquatic areas by keeping it from sinking into mud. Because its bill is similar to an herbivore’s but its stomach contents seem to contain fossilized fish, the researchers believe that Deinocheirus mirificus was omnivorous.

The researchers write in their study that Deinocheirus’s surprising figure should serve as a reminder that incomplete skeletons can be very misleading.

“The discovery of the original specimen almost half a century ago suggested that this was an unusual dinosaur, but did not prepare us for how distinctive Deinocheirus is—a true cautionary tale in predicting body forms from partial skeletons, even for animals in which the rela- tionships are known,” the authors write.
[395 words]

Source: The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2014/10/22/50-years-after-finding-its-giant-arms-scientists-have-put-this-strange-dinosaurs-pieces-together/

Most Dinosaurs May Have Sported Birdlike Feathers
July 24, 2014 |By Tanya Lewis and LiveScience

[Time 5]
Steven Spielberg's "Jurassic Park" might need a little more revising — a newly discovered dinosaur species offers hints that feathers were much more common among the ancient beasts than once thought.

Researchers unearthed hundreds of fossils of a new genus and species of plant-eating dinosaur called Kulindadromeus zabaikalicus in Siberia that sports both feathers and scales. The finding suggests that most dinosaurs had feathers, which they used for insulation or attracting mates, only later relying on the fringes for flight, according to a study detailed today (July 24) in the journal Science.

"Here, for the first time, we have found featherlike structures in a dinosaur [that] is far from the lineage leading to birds," said study co-author Pascal Godefroit, a paleontologist at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Belgium.

Scientists have long known that birds descended from dinosaurs. Since the mid-1990s, paleontologists in China have been finding feathered dinosaur skeletons from about 20 different groups, but they all belonged to a single lineage, theropods, which includes Tyrannosaurus rex and velociraptors. In fact, some scientists believe T. rexmay have sported some feathers itself.

Godefroit and his colleagues found hundreds of skeletons of the same species, from a lineage of plant-eating dinosaurs known as ornithischians, which lived about 160 million years ago during the middle to late Jurassic period. Researchers found the fossils buried in the bottom of what appears to have been a large lake.

"It was a small animal, not very impressive," Godefroit said. It was about 4.9 feet (1.5 meters) long; walked on two long, slender legs; and sported very short arms, he said.
[266 words]

[Time 6]
The little dinosaur skeleton was equipped with preserved long filaments resembling downy feathers around its arms and legs. Because the animal couldn't fly, the scientists think these filaments may have served as insulation. The specimen also had more-complex feathers that it may have used to entice mates, Godefroit said. The animal had a long tail, covered in large, thin scales.

The preservation of soft tissues such as feathers and scales is extremely rare, the researchers said, which explains why relatively few feathered dinosaur fossils have surfaced before. "The conditions for preserving feathers are really exceptional," Godefroit said.

"This is the first time birdlike feathers have been found in dinosaurs that are not closely related to birds," said Darla Zelenitsky, a paleontologist at the University of Calgary in Canada, who was not involved in the research. "This unexpectedly reveals that such feathers would likely have been present in most groups of dinosaurs," Zelenitsky told Live Science in an email.

Steve Brusatte, a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, agreed that feathers probably existed in the common ancestor of all dinosaurs. The idea is not a new one, he said; two other fossils of plant-eating dinosaurs found in China had simple, filamentlike feathers, but it was debatable whether these were related to bird feathers, or evolved independently. Now, this new evidence "seals the deal that feathers were also present in plant-eating dinosaurs," Brusatte told Live Science.

As for the fossil scales, they resemble modern birds' scales, which are actually aborted feathers, the researchers said. In chickens, for example, genes in the skin control the development of feathers. If these genes are modified, the chicken will sprout feathers on its legs, like that of an English chicken. Perhaps primitive dinosaurs had already developed this genetic mechanism of preventing feathers from developing in certain parts of their bodies, Godefroit said.

More fossils must be found in order to determine if other groups of dinosaurs besides theropods and ornithischians had feathers, the researchers said. "We found [feathered fossils] in one locality in Siberia, and we will look around now to see if we can find more," Godefroit said.
[355 words]

Source: Scientific American
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/most-dinosaurs-may-have-sported-birdlike-feathers/

Cassidy大洁洁

Part III: Obstacle

Scientists Report First Semiaquatic Dinosaur, Spinosaurus

[Paraphrase 7]
WASHINGTON (Sept. 11, 2014)—Scientists today unveiled what appears to be the first truly semiaquatic dinosaur, Spinosaurus aegyptiacus. New fossils of the massive Cretaceous-era predator reveal it adapted to life in the water some 95 million years ago, providing the most compelling evidence to date of a dinosaur able to live and hunt in an aquatic environment. The fossils also indicate that Spinosaurus was the largest known predatory dinosaur to roam the Earth, measuring more than 9 feet longer than the world’s largest Tyrannosaurus rex specimen. These findings, published today in the journal Science, are also featured in the October National Geographic magazine cover story available online Sept. 11. In addition, Spinosaurus will be the subject of a new exhibition at the National Geographic Museum, opening Sept. 12, as well as a National Geographic/NOVA special airing on PBS Nov. 5 at 9 p.m.

An international research team — including paleontologists Nizar Ibrahim and Paul Sereno from the University of Chicago; Cristiano Dal Sasso and Simone Maganuco from the Natural History Museum in Milan, Italy; and Samir Zouhri from the Université Hassan II Casablanca in Morocco — found that Spinosaurus developed a variety of previously unknown aquatic adaptations. The researchers came to their conclusions after analyzing new fossils uncovered in the Moroccan Sahara and a partial Spinosaurus skull and other remains housed in museum collections around the world as well as historical records and images from the first reported Spinosaurus discovery in Egypt more than 100 years ago. According to lead author Ibrahim, a 2014 National Geographic Emerging Explorer, “Working on this animal was like studying an alien from outer space; it’s unlike any other dinosaur I have ever seen.”

The aquatic adaptations of Spinosaurus differ significantly from earlier members of the spinosaurid family that lived on land but were known to eat fish. These adaptations include:

• Small nostrils located in the middle of the skull. The small size and placement of the nostrils farther back on the skull allowed Spinosaurus to breathe when part of its head was in water.
• Neurovascular openings at the end of the snout. Similar openings on crocodile and alligator snouts contain pressure receptors that enable them to sense movement in water. It’s likely these openings served a comparable function in Spinosaurus.
• Giant, slanted teeth that interlocked at the front of the snout. The conical shape and location of the teeth were well-suited for catching fish.
• A long neck and trunk that shifted the dinosaur’s center of mass forward. This made walking on two legs on land nearly impossible, but facilitated movement in water.
• Powerful forelimbs with curved, blade-like claws. These claws were ideal for hooking or slicing slippery prey.
• A small pelvis and short hind legs with muscular thighs. As in the earliest whales, these adaptations were for paddling in water and differ markedly from other predatory dinosaurs that used two legs to move on land.
• Particularly dense bones lacking the marrow cavities typical to predatory dinosaurs. Similar adaptations, which enable buoyancy control, are seen in modern aquatic animals like king penguins.
• Strong, long-boned feet and long, flat claws. Unlike other predators, Spinosaurus had feet similar to some shorebirds that stand on or move across soft surfaces rather than perch. In fact, Spinosaurus may have had webbed feet for walking on soft mud or paddling.
• Loosely connected bones in the dinosaur’s tail. These bones enabled its tail to bend in a wave-like fashion, similar to tails that help propel some bony fish.
• Enormous dorsal spines covered in skin that created a gigantic “sail” on the dinosaur’s back. The tall, thin, blade-shaped spines were anchored by muscles and composed of dense bone with few blood vessels. This suggests the sail was meant for display and not to trap heat or store fat. The sail would have been visible even when the animal entered the water.
  

More than a century ago, German paleontologist Ernst Freiherr Stromer von Reichenbach first discovered evidence of Spinosaurus in the Egyptian Sahara. Sadly, all of Stromer’s fossils were destroyed during the April 1944 Allied bombing of Munich, Germany. Ibrahim, however, was able to track down Stromer’s surviving notes, sketches and photos in archives and at the Stromer family castle in Bavaria to supplement Stromer’s surviving publications.

The new Spinosaurus fossils were discovered in the Moroccan Sahara along desert cliffs known as the Kem Kem beds. This area was once a large river system, stretching from present-day Morocco to Egypt. At the time, a variety of aquatic life populated the system, including large sharks, coelacanths, lungfish and crocodile-like creatures, along with giant flying reptiles and predatory dinosaurs.

The most important of the new fossils, a partial skeleton uncovered by a local fossil hunter, was spirited out of the country. As a result, critical information about the context of the find was seemingly lost, and locating the local fossil hunter in Morocco was nearly impossible. Remarked Ibrahim, “It was like searching for a needle in a desert.” After an exhaustive search, Ibrahim finally found the man and confirmed the site of his original discovery.

To unlock the mysteries of Spinosaurus, the team created a digital model of the skeleton with funding provided by the National Geographic Society. The researchers CT scanned all of the new fossils, which will be repatriated to Morocco, complementing them with digital recreations of Stromer’s specimens. Missing bones were modeled based on known elements of related dinosaurs. According to Maganuco, “We relied upon cutting-edge technology to examine, analyze and piece together a variety of fossils. For a project of this complexity, traditional methods wouldn’t have been nearly as accurate.”

The researchers then used the digital model to create an anatomically precise, life-size 3-D replica of the Spinosaurus skeleton. After it was mounted, the researchers measured Spinosaurus from head to tail, confirming their calculation that the new skeleton was longer than the largest documented Tyrannosaurus by more than 9 feet. According to Sereno, head of the University of Chicago’s Fossil Lab, “What surprised us even more than the dinosaur’s size were its unusual proportions. We see limb proportions like this in early whales, not predatory dinosaurs.”

Added Dal Sasso, “In the last two decades, several finds demonstrated that certain dinosaurs gave origins to birds. Spinosaurus represents an equally bizarre evolutionary process, revealing that predatory dinosaurs adapted to a semiaquatic life and invaded river systems in Cretaceous North Africa.”
[1055 words]

Source: National Geographic
http://press.nationalgeographic.com/2014/09/11/scientists-report-first-semiaquatic-dinosaur-spinosaurus/

tantan08

time 2 2.19
time 3 2.54
time 4 2.52
time 5 2
time 6 2.19

cyndichiang

Speaker
It is hard for dinosaurs to sleep through when asteriods hitted the earth and cause the global fires.
Scientists found that small-sized mammals' hibernation prevented them from extinction. e.g.

Obstacle:4'21''
Scientists found fossil of the first truly semiaquatic dinosaur, Spinosaurus,which a huge predator.
Feathers about the Spinosaurs
Scientist created 3-d model based on existing skeletons and they surprised not only at the its giant boby,but also the limbs that are simlilar with the limbs on early whales.
This finding means dinosaurs had invaded aquatic system.

cherry6891

44-04
Obstacle
Scientists unveiled what appeared to be truly semiaquatic dinosaur.
The international team got that conclusion after checking the fossils unearthed from M.
The specific characteristic of the dinosaur and how this organ adopted to the environment at that time.
Scientists found the same kind of fossils,unluckily all the fossils are destroyed in 1944.
After finding the fossils again,researchers used a digital model to create anatomically and found that this dinosaur is longer than longest documented T and the body is unusual proportion.

mozhiwanjia

Cassidy大洁洁 发表于 2014-11-4 22:25
Part III: Obstacle
Scientists Report First Semiaquatic Dinosaur, Spinosaurus

掌管 6        00:09:02.97        00:27:48.23
掌管 5        00:03:25.77        00:18:45.26
掌管 4        00:02:17.14        00:15:19.48
掌管 3        00:04:08.03        00:13:02.34
掌管 2        00:05:30.09        00:08:54.30
掌管 1        00:03:24.21        00:03:24.21

seraph797979

Cassidy大洁洁 发表于 2014-11-4 22:25
Part II: Speed
New dinosaur found in Portugal, largest terrestrial predator from Europe
...

2,1'51
3,2'31
4,2'37
5,1'34
6,2'04

conglomerator

Time 2: 1:40

A new dinosaur species found in Portugal, which was used to be believed to be the same species as the American ones. But the teeth and mouth bones structure suggests that it s a different specie, and it is on top of the food chain, though it is not the largest predator.

Time 3: 2:39

A new dinosaur’s fossil with feather tail discovered in Laoning province. The fossil is from an adult dinosaur. It shows that the dinosuar had feather tail, which scientists assume to control landing and adds to the proof of dinosaurs flying before birds coming into the scene. Although the discovery is important, there are still a lot of works to do.

Time 4: 2:44

Other parts of a particular kind of dinosaur’s fossil ,whose arm fossil was discovered 50 years ago, have been discovered, which allow scientists to complete the picture of the particular kind of dinosaur. How other parts were discovered and the dinosaur’s unique feathers are described in the passage. The story shows that partial fossil can be very misleading.

Time 5: 1:30

New findings in Siberia shows that feathers are much more common among dinosaurs than once thought.  It was thought that feather-like structure belongs to lineage leading to birds, but it is not proved not so by the new findings. Fossils were founded in China first showed the feather-like structure, which leads to same specie. New findings link feather-like structure to a different specie, which is plant-eating.

Time 6: 2:04

Feather is very difficult to preserve, that is why so little feathered dinosaur fossil was discovered. However, the discoveries show that feather may be not only for flying, but for insulation or mating. There is a theory that dinosaurs may have developed particular genes to prevent feathers developing from certain parts of their body, but more proofs are needed. Scientists are trying to discover more around the Siberia site.

Obstacle: 6:30

Newly discovered dinosaur’s fossils shows that dinosaurs may had been adapted to water. Several adaptations are described. Scientists have managed to use modern tech to put the first found pieces of fossils, newly found ones and the missing parts which are modeled based on known elements of related dinosaurs together to generate a 3-D model. A lot of troubles were overcome to find the first discovered pieces and locate the newly discovered ones. The model shows at least two distinct characteristics, and suggests dinosaurs adaption to semiaquatic life.

成成儿

好难啊，记不住细节
【time 1】4'47''
research finds that small mammals can go to burrow in order to survive from collision by asteroid just as they can hibernate.

【time 2】2'26''25'''
this article gives the result of a finding that there is a new dinosaur species. the bones show that it is very large.
and the number(less than 11) and the big size of its teeth show that it is one the biggest predators to hunt other dinosaurs.

【time 3】3'52''67'''
this passage talks about the importance of a finding of dinosaur which has the long feathers which benefit to decrease the speed of descend and to land.
the arms and legs of this dinosaur are covered by long feathers. It is controversial that the birds are evolved from dinosaurs,
but the this finding is essential.

【time 4】3'46''40'''
this passage talks about the process of completing a dinosaur's fossil. first is two large arms, indicating that the dinosaur is very distinct.

【time 5】1'57''18'''
this part shows that it is more common than the dinosaur has feathers than previously thought.
evidences form china have shown this hypothesis.
a newly founded dinosaur is small.

【time 6】2'43''96'''
this part shows more evidence about the bird feather-like dinosaur. the previous dinosaur fond in china is debatable for its feather is simple and not very like bird's feather.
however, the newly one which is small is important evidence that dinosaur is ancestor of birds, even though its feather is not likely used to fly but more like to insulate.

【time 7】8'7''83'''
this passage talks about the evidences to demonstrate a kind of dinosaur is semiaquatic.
there are various evidences, such as characteristics that adapt to breathe in the water, walk in the water not on land, catch fish and so on.
other findings also show the possibility of semiaquatic dinosaur and these finding is useful to study the connection between dinosaur and birds.