Nizar Ibrahim: How we unearthed the Spinosaurus
尼扎爾.伊布拉欣: 我們是如何挖掘出棘龍的
Nizar Ibrahim scours Northern Africa for clues to what things were like there in the Cretaceous period. A 2015 TED Fellow, he has spearheaded the recent search for the semi-aquatic dinosaur Spinosaurus. Full bio
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真是不可思議的生物,
are incredible creatures.
we know about them.
through my head
第一本與恐龍有關的書籍時,
my first dinosaur book.
to combine my love for animals
far-flung corners of the world.
I've led several expeditions
數次考察工作,
on this planet, the Sahara.
撒哈拉大沙漠,
I've been on a quest
a bizarre, giant predatory dinosaur
have been found
by a German paleontologist.
were destroyed in World War II.
在第二次世界大戰中被毀壞,
a few drawings and notes.
about 100 million years ago,
forming a magnificent sail,
形成一個帆狀物,
a bit like a crocodile,
to catch slippery prey, like fish.
例如魚類。
all we knew
between Morocco and Algeria,
阿爾及利亞的邊界附近,
進行實地考察,
and snakes and scorpions,
good fossils there.
體積如此龐大的恐龍骨骸化石,
in this part of the Sahara.
predatory dinosaurs,
of crocodile-like hunters.
in a river system.
to a giant, car-sized coelacanth,
were filled with pterosaurs,
to travel to if you had a time machine.
incredible fossils of animals
共同生存過的動物的化石,
to be very elusive.
a partial skeleton at some point.
一副局部的骨骼。
several bones of Spinosaurus.
發現了幾塊棘龍的骨骸化石,
we collected more bones.
也收集到更多的骨骸化石,
had another partial skeleton
屬於此奇異生物的局部骨骸。
Spinosaurus had a head
predatory dinosaurs,
came from the rest of the skeleton.
骨架的其餘部分。
dinosaur has feet like this --
從未在其他恐龍身上發現過,
used to walk on soft sediment,
在鬆軟的沉澱物上行走,
microstructure of the bone,
very dense and compact.
且十分緊實,
that spend a lot of time in the water,
生物來說很常見,
control in the water.
and built a digital Spinosaurus skeleton.
並建立一副棘龍的數位化骨架,
at the digital skeleton,
a dinosaur unlike any other.
written all over it,
喜好捕魚的恐龍,
"water-loving" written all over it --
and the hind limbs are reduced in size,
後肢的尺寸減小,
we see in animals
of time in the water.
and wrapping our dinosaur in skin --
以及還原其皮膚時—
with a river monster,
比雷克斯霸王龍還巨型,
I showed you earlier on.
an incredible discovery.
this is a once-in-a-lifetime discovery.
這真是一輩子只有一次的發現,
to discover in the world."
further from the truth.
still full of treasures,
仍隱藏著很多寶藏,
no places left to explore,
這世上已再沒有地方可被探索時,
Roy Chapman Andrews,
一位著名的恐龍探索家的名言,
an adventure just around the corner --
而世上轉角處仍無處不在。」
寫下這句說話時,
wrote these lines.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Nizar Ibrahim - PaleontologistNizar Ibrahim scours Northern Africa for clues to what things were like there in the Cretaceous period. A 2015 TED Fellow, he has spearheaded the recent search for the semi-aquatic dinosaur Spinosaurus.
Why you should listen
Paleontologist Nizar Ibrahim, a postdoc at the University of Chicago, wanted to uncover the mystery of the Spinosaurus, a gigantic predatory dinosaur whose only known remains were lost during World War II. After identifying a new skeleton at a dig in North Africa, Ibrahim made the landmark conclusion that the Spinosaurus may have been the largest carnivorous dinosaur to ever live. Its crocodile-like head, dense bones, short legs, and wide, paddle feet suggest it was a water dweller unlike any other. “The entire skeleton has water-loving river monster written all over it,” he says.
Ibrahim is a TED Fellow and a National Geographic Emerging Explorer.
Nizar Ibrahim | Speaker | TED.com