Kenneth Lacovara: Hunting for dinosaurs showed me our place in the universe
Kenet Lakovara (Kenneth Lacovara): Lov na dinosauruse mi je pokazao naše mesto u univerzumu
In his quest to understand the largest dinosaurs to have walked the Earth, Lacovara blends exploration with the latest imaging and modeling techniques from engineering to medicine. Full bio
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that all paleontologists use.
koju svi paleontolozi koriste.
odgovarajuće starosti.
must be sedimentary rocks.
must be naturally exposed.
moraju da budu prirodno izloženi.
and get yourself on the ground,
i bacite se na tlo,
that you will find fossils.
geological intervals.
određenih geoloških razdoblja.
rocks of the right age,
odgovarajuće starosti,
really old rocks of the Paleozoic --
zaista stare stene iz paleozoika -
and a quarter-billion years old.
i četvrtine milijarde godina.
you won't find them.
nećete ih tamo naći.
rocks of the Mesozoic,
između 235 i 66 miliona godina.
of the right age at this point,
pronaći stene odgovarajuće starosti
are written in rocks,
su ispisani u stenama,
geologists would rejoice.
geolozi bi bili srećni.
offer every possible insult
na sve načine povređuju
soon after being written.
neposredno nakon stvaranja.
of long-gone landscapes.
o pejzažima koji su odavno nestali.
under the advancing sands of time
ispod trajnog protoka vremena
our dead, rocky companion --
našeg mrtvog, stenovitog pratioca -
with creative and destructive forces
od stvaralačkih i destruktivnih sila
njen geološki metabolizam.
by the Apollo astronauts
astronauti sa Apola
of the Solar System.
kao i Sunčev sistem.
face the perils of a living lithosphere.
suočene su sa opasnostima žive litosfere.
of mutilation, compression,
unakazivanja, sabijanja,
sparušavanja i pečenja.
are incomplete and disheveled.
nepotpuni i neuredni.
in the rock record
u zapisima u stenama
until relatively recently.
sve do relativno nedavno.
indeksni katalog za geologe -
for geologists --
learned to record their thoughts
naučili kako da beleže svoje misli
inscrutable to humans.
nedokučivi za ljude.
of our own planet
of the 19th century
of James Hutton's "Theory of the Earth,"
"Teorije o Zemlji" Džejmsa Hatona,
reveals no vestige of a beginning
ne otkriva trag svog početka
of William Smith's map of Britain,
mape Britanije Vilijama Smita,
certain types of rocks might occur.
gde se određeni tipovi stena mogu naći.
we should be in the Jurassic,"
trebalo bi da smo u dobu jure",
we should find the Cretaceous."
trebalo bi da nađemo doba krede."
da nađete dinosauruse
a fossil in a sedimentary rock,
u sedimentnim stenama,
by magma, like a granite,
nastalim od magme
that's been heated and squeezed.
koje su zagrejavane i sabijane.
particularly lived in deserts;
da su dinosaurusi živeli u pustinjama;
that's a desert today,
koje je danas pustinja,
too many plants covering up the rocks,
koje prekrivaju stene
exposing new bones at the surface.
uvek otkrivaju nove kosti na površini.
sticking out of the rock.
in Southern Patagonia.
u Južnoj Patagoniji.
on the ground there
you'll find fossils or not;
da pronađete fosile ili ne;
that is scientifically significant?
nešto što je od značaja za nauku?
a fourth part to our formula,
dodaću četvrti deo našoj formuli,
paleontologists as possible.
od drugih paleontologa.
other paleontologists.
drugi paleontolozi.
that's relatively unexplored,
koje je relativno neistraženo,
of not only finding fossils
ne samo da nađete fosile,
that's new to science.
što je nepoznato u nauci.
for finding dinosaurs,
za nalaženje dinosaurusa
sedimentary rocks of the right age,
sedimentne stene odgovarajuće starosti,
by paleontologists.
nisu posećivali paleontolozi.
that bone was isolated.
and there wasn't another bone around.
nije bilo drugih kostiju u blizini.
the next year for more.
sledeće godine po još.
of that next field season,
još jedan femur od dva metra,
sa 145 drugih kostiju
really brutal field seasons,
zaista brutalne sezone na terenu,
of that great beast wrapping around me.
te velike zveri kako se obmotava oko mene.
the new species of dinosaur,
novu vrstu dinosaurusa,
"Dreadnoughtus schrani."
"Dreadnoughtus schrani".
from snout to tail.
25,9 metara od njuške do repa.
at the shoulder,
do dva i po sprata
it weighed 65 tons.
bio je težak 65 tona.
"Was Dreadnoughtus bigger than a T. rex?"
"Da li je drednotus bio veći od ti reksa?"
about being a paleontologist
kad ste paleontolog
you get to name it.
na vama je da je imenujete.
that these giant, plant-eating dinosaurs
da su ovi džinovi, dinosaurusi biljojedi,
lumbering platters of meat
nezgrapni pladanji mesa
and they can be territorial --
mogu biti teritorijalni -
or a rhino or a water buffalo.
ili nosorogom ili vodenim bizonom.
far more people than do the grizzly bears.
daleko više ljudi nego medvedi grizli.
65-ton Dreadnoughtus
drednotusa od 65 tona
incredibly dangerous,
would have had nothing to fear.
a ona sama ne bi imala čega da se plaši.
would've had to have been
bi morala da bude
radiate heat into the environment,
da otpušta toplotu u okruženje,
as a super-efficient feeding mechanism.
kao superefikasan mehanizam hranjenja.
in one place and with that neck
na jednom mestu i tim vratom
while expending very few.
a gubeći svega nekoliko.
a bulldog-like wide-gait stance,
širok stav hoda, nalik onom kod buldoga,
when you're literally as big as a house,
kad ste bukvalno veliki kao kuća,
ribs break and pierce lungs.
pucaju rebra i cepaju pluća.
in life -- even once.
Dreadnoughtus carcass was buried
of bacteria, worms and insects,
bakterije, crvi i insekti,
su pretpele kratak preobražaj,
like the entombing rock.
poput grobne stene.
of sediment accumulated,
weighed in like a stony glove
se obrušio poput kamene rukavice
each bone in a stabilizing embrace.
držao svaku kost u stabilnom zagrljaju.
everlasting and unchanging
trajan i nepromenljiv
for another 12 million years
narednih 12 miliona godina
in a fiery apocalypse.
da zbriše njihovu hegemoniju.
Pojavili su se sisari.
evolved the odd trick of sentient thought.
neobičan trik svesnog razmišljanja.
particularly fast or strong.
nisu bili naročito brzi ili jaki.
u teritorijalnom osvajanju;
of territorial conquest,
they encountered,
na koji su naišli,
and metalworking and painting
i metalostrugarstvo i slikanje
take 12 particularly excellent apes
da odvedu 12 naročito izvrsnih majmuna
Homo sapiens on the planet,
Homo sapiensa na planeti,
trod on the grave of the magnificent titan
nagazi na grob veličanstvenog titana,
of Southern Patagonia.
entering the fossil record
upiše u fosilni arhiv
the improbable becomes the probable.
neverovatno postaje verovatno.
living and dying on an old planet
koja žive i umiru na staroj planeti
nebrojeno mnogo fosila,
an asteroid hits the Earth
asteroid pogađa Zemlju
and it's the one that we have.
a to je ova koju imamo.
was not inevitable.
of that asteroid far from Earth
tom asteroidu udaljenom od Zemlje
our planet by a wide margin.
da on uveliko promaši našu planetu.
the dinosaurs were wiped out,
tokom kog su dinosaurusi zbrisani,
for the modern world as we know it
savremenog sveta kakvog znamo,
already enjoyed by the dinosaurs.
u kojim su već uživali dinosaurusi.
Cambrian ancestors
led us to this very particular reality.
nas je dovelo baš do ove stvarnosti.
lay underground for 77 million years.
leže pod zemljom već 77 miliona godina.
sveta dinosaurusa
and understanding
of the Missouri River
than a gurgle of water
in a boulder in a pasture,
na šljunku na pašnjaku,
runs a few hundred yards
of the Missouri, near St. Louis,
u blizini Sent Luisa
that that river is a big deal.
da je ta reka velika stvar.
and look at the Missouri,
i pogledajte u Misuri
allow us to see it as anything special.
da vidimo bilo šta naročito.
to anything special,
and a thousand more solar systems
i još hiljade solarnih sistema
i zadivljujući i zadivljujuće neverovatni,
both amazing and amazingly improbable,
and they would not have our history.
i ne bi imali našu istoriju.
that we could've had.
koje smo mogli da imamo.
did we ever get a good one.
i, ala, kako dobra beše.
su bili stvarni.
su bile stvarne.
and pill bugs the length of a car
i drvne vaši veličine automobila
fifth mass extinction,
petog masovnog izumiranja na svetu,
through no fault of their own.
bez sopstvene krivice.
and they didn't have a choice.
tells us that our place on this planet
nam govori da naše mesto na ovoj planeti
and potentially fleeting.
an environmental disaster
ekološku katastrofu
that is so broad and so severe,
koja je toliko zamašna i ozbiljna
the sixth extinction.
šestim izumiranjem.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Kenneth Lacovara - PaleontologistIn his quest to understand the largest dinosaurs to have walked the Earth, Lacovara blends exploration with the latest imaging and modeling techniques from engineering to medicine.
Why you should listen
Paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara famously unearthed some of the largest dinosaurs ever to walk our planet, including the super-massive Dreadnoughtus, which at 65 tons weighs more than seven T.Rex.
When he's not excavating fossils from far-flung locations, Lacovara works on the cutting edge of applying 21st-century technology to the study of dinosaurs. By using 3D imaging, 3D printing, robotics, and medical modeling techniques, his work is helping to shift our perspective of giant herbivorous dinosaurs from their historic portrayal as hapless lumbering prey to that of fearsome, hulking, hyper-efficient eating machines.
Lacovara led the effort to create the Rowan University Fossil Park in suburban Mantua Township, New Jersey. The quarry preserves a rich cache of marine fossils that Lacovara is using to shed light on the calamitous events that wiped out the dinosaurs.
Kenneth Lacovara | Speaker | TED.com