那些“不死的”恐龙传言

Dave Hone

Work on dinosaurs for long enough and do enough engagement and outreach1） activities， and a few myths and misconceptions will come up again and again. For all that films like Jurassic Park and documentaries like Planet Dinosaur helped drag the general view of dinosaurs into the 21st century， a good number of people are decades behind the research. Some of the things listed below were rejected by the scientific community almost as soon as they were first hypothesised2） but have somehow rooted in the public consciousness， recycled endlessly by cheap knock-off3） books and media coverage.

若是你研究恐龙的时间足够长，开展的宣传和服务活动足够多，你就会反复遇到一些传言和错误的观念。虽说有像《侏罗纪公园》这样的电影和诸如《恐龙星球》这样的纪录片帮助21世纪的人们了解恐龙的概况，但很多人对恐龙的认识依然比科研成果落后好几十年。下列一些观点几乎在假设之初就未能得到科学界的认可，不过却不知怎的在公众意识中扎了根，并被廉价的仿冒书和媒体的报道无休止地利用。

Dinosaurs Were All Big

Some dinosaurs were truly huge and many， indeed most， dinosaurs when adult were big compared with modern terrestrial4） mammals. However， there were plenty of species the size of cows， sheep， small dogs and even those more the size of a cat or chicken. Birds aside， the smallest dinosaurs we know of were only about 200 g as adults.

They Died Out for Any of Dozens of Reasons Except the Right One

There's an endless supply of ideas about what killed off the dinosaurs. From the obviously mad （aliens hunted them） to the impractical （they all died of diseases or mammals ate all their eggs） to the reasonable but no longer strongly supported （rise in greenhouse gasses）， there's plenty of ideas out there. More than one hundred have been proposed， but the only well supported and universally accepted theory is that of an asteroid5） impact and subsequent6） global devastation.

They Were Stupid

I doubt many were smart， but most people seem to regard all dinosaurs as being dumb as a bag of hammers7）. I think this is linked to the idea that dinosaurs were somehow evolutionary failures and that being dumb was part of this.

Intelligence is hard enough to quantify8） in living species， let alone extinct ones， but there's evidence for things like social behaviours and group living， parental care and the like， and at least some dinosaurs had relatively large brains for their body size. Few might have been intellectual titans9）， but not all could have really been total fools and many were probably much smarter than they are generally given credit for.

They Were Slow/

Super Fast

The old idea of super-slow， clumsy dinosaurs still hasn't quite died out. But they were not just huge lizards gasping from footstep to footstep but were instead largely active and agile10） animals.

The interesting counter11） to this are those who took Jurassic Park a bit too literally and now think Velociraptor12） could hit 60 miles an hour， or Tyrannosaurus13） 30 mph or more， when in fact modern analyses suggest these are absolute exaggerations.

恐龙都是大块头

一些恐龙的体型的确很庞大，许多恐龙，更确切地说是大多数恐龙在成年后都要比现代陆栖哺乳动物大。不过，有许多种类的恐龙却只有牛、羊、小狗那么大，甚至还有个头更接近猫或鸡那么大的。除了鸟类，我们所知的体型最小的恐龙成年后只有大约200克的样子。

恐龙灭绝的原因有多种，

可其中没有一个是对的

关于是什么使恐龙灭绝的观点不可胜数。从明显异想天开的观点（外星人猎杀恐龙）到不切实际的观点（恐龙都死于疾病或哺乳动物吃光了恐龙蛋），再到说得通却不再有有力证据支撑的观点（温室气体增加），五花八门，无所不有。人们已经提出了上百种观点，但是唯一有根有据且普遍为人所接受的理论是，一次小行星撞击地球及其随后给全球带来的灾难导致了恐龙灭绝。

恐龙都很笨

我并不确定很多恐龙都聪明，但是大多数人似乎认为所有恐龙都傻不愣登的。我觉得这与如下观点有关：恐龙不知何故成为进化的失败者，而其生性愚蠢正是进化失败的部分表现。

现存物种的智商量化起来都很难，更别提绝迹的物种了。但是有证据表明，恐龙有社会性行为、群居、亲代抚育等诸如此类的现象，而且至少有一些恐龙的大脑相对其身体尺寸而言算得上很大。少数恐龙很可能还智力超群，但并非所有恐龙就真的全都是十足的傻瓜，很多可能比人们一般认为的更聪明。

恐龙行动迟缓或者非常快

关于恐龙行动超级迟缓和笨拙的旧观念仍然没有完全消失。但是恐龙远不只是每走一步都气喘吁吁的大蜥蜴，相反，大多都是非常好动、身手敏捷的动物。

与此相对的一个有趣的看法是，那些曾对《侏罗纪公园》有点儿太当真的人如今认为迅猛龙时速可达60英里，或认为霸王龙时速能达30英里或以上。而事实上，现代分析表明这些绝对是夸大其词。

恐龙的尾巴拖在地上

显然，从恐龙被认为特别像爬行动物、就跟蜥蜴一样的那一刻起，时至今日仍然有尾巴拖地的恐龙出现。单是恐龙的尾骨和肌肉的结构就能表明这种观点是错误的，但最有说服力的应该是，人们目前收集到的恐龙的脚印几乎不可胜数，但却都没有恐龙尾巴拖地留下的印记与之相伴。

蜥脚类恐龙生活在沼泽或水中

这是又一个在科学界只短暂出现过，但是如今依然会在相关书籍和媒体文章中出现的观点。巨大的长颈蜥脚类恐龙曾被认为体型过于硕大，无法在陆地上生存，因此在走动的时候一定要有一部分身体浸在水中——尽管这样的观点存在着一些相当明显的问题，比如它们会浮起来这个事实，比如要是浸入水中那么深的话蜥脚类恐龙的肺就会被挤瘪，再比如那些脚印化石表明这类恐龙在陆地上行走。

霸王龙是虔诚的食腐动物

这是杰克·霍纳提出的一个非常新的观点，但这个观点从未得到过古生物学家们的大力支持（显然连霍纳本人都没真正把它当回事儿），而且已经被许多研究和评论批评得面目全非。尽管如此，该观点在初次提出时所获得的媒体报道量意味着它会反复出现在世人的面前，也意味着一些人会对此深信不疑。

5. asteroid [??st?r??d] n. 小行星（在火星和木星的轨道之间绕太阳运行的小星球之一）

6. subsequent [?s?bs?kw?nt] adj. 随后的，接下来的

7. dumb as a bag of hammers： 愚蠢至极

8. quantify [?kw?nt?fa?] vt. 用数量来表示；使量化

9. titan [?ta?tn] n. 庞大、强壮又非常聪明的人

10. agile [??d?a?l] adj. 敏捷的；灵活的

11. counter [?ka?nt?（r）] n. （与……）相对的事物；（……的）对立面

12. velociraptor [v??l?s??r?pt?（r）] n. 迅猛龙，生长于白垩纪后期的一种恐龙

13. tyrannosaurus [t??r?n??s??r?s] n. 霸王龙，又名暴龙，是最著名的食肉恐龙。

14. reptilian [rep?t?li?n] adj. 有爬行动物特征的

15. anatomy [??n?t?mi] n. 结构

16. killer [?k?l?（r）] n. 致命的物质（或事物）

17. sauropod [?s??r?p?d] n. 蜥脚类恐龙，有很长的颈和尾巴，曾是陆地上最大的动物。

18. submerge [s?b?m??d?] vi. 浸没

19. scavenger [?sk?v?nd??（r）] n. 食腐动物，指主要靠进食腐肉为生的动物。

20. float [fl??t] vt. 提出（想法等）；实行（计划等）

21. Jack Horner： 杰克·霍纳（1946～），美国古生物学家，担任《侏罗纪公园》系列电影的技术顾问。

22. palaeontologist [?p?li?n?t?l?d??st] n. 古生物学家

Dinosaurs Dragged Their Tails on the Ground

Obviously dating from the time when dinosaurs were considered especially reptilian14） and lizard-like， dinosaurs posed with their tails dragging still turn up to this day. The anatomy15） of the tail bones and muscles alone suggest this is wrong， but the killer16） should be the near endless collections of dinosaur footprints not accompanied by marks left by dragging tails.

Sauropods17） Lived in Swamps/Water

This is another idea that lasted only briefly in scientific circles but which still appears today in books and media articles. The giant long-necked sauropods were thought too big to survive on land and so must have walked about while partially submerged18） in water—despite fairly obvious problems such as the fact that they would float， and that if submerged that far their lungs would collapse， and fossilised footprints show them walking on land.

Tyrannosaurus Was a Dedicated Scavenger19）

A much more recent idea floated20） by Jack Horner21）， this idea never gained much support from palaeontologists22） （and apparently even Horner never really thought much of it） and it has been sunk by a number of studies and reviews. Nevertheless， the coverage this got when it was first suggested means that it shows up repeatedly and is fiercely clung to by some.