【龙腾网】研究表明：矮暴龙可能并不存在

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原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.com 翻译：偷吃月亮的狗 转载请注明出处

A team of researchers have discovered new information about the Tyrannosaurus Rex aging process after determining that a pair of skeletons were adolescent T-rex, not a different species altogether (AFP Photo/WIN MCNAMEE)

一个研究团队在确定了两具恐龙骨架属于幼年霸王龙，而不是新的物种之后，又有了关于霸王龙生长的新发现。

Washington (AFP) - For three decades, paleontologists the world over have been split over a provocative finding: did a dwarf species of Tyrannosaurus rex really once exist?

三十年来，世界各地的古生物学家们对一个令人兴奋的发现产生了分歧:矮暴龙真的曾经存在过吗?

- Answers in the bones -

-答案在骨头里-

In a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, researchers led by Holly Woodward of Oklahoma State University performed a microscopic analysis on samples from the interior of Jane''s tibia and femur bones, as well as from a less complete set of bones from an animal dubbed Petey.

发表在周三的《科学进展》杂志上的一项研究表示，由俄克拉荷马州立大学霍利·伍德沃德带领的研究人员通过显微镜分析了“简”的胫骨和股骨样本，以及一组从一只名叫“皮蒂”的动物取下来的不太完整的骨头。

This technique, known as paleohistology, confirmed that the two were immature individuals -- not adults, the scientists said.

科学家们认为，这项被称为“古组织学”的技术证实了这两组样本属于幼年个体，而不是成年的。

By extension, the study''s authors said, the existence of the Nanotyrannus seems very unlikely.

另外，参与研究的人员表示，矮暴龙似乎不太可能存在。

"The really cool thing about fossil bones is that a whole bone fossilizes even down to the microscopic size," Woodward told AFP.

伍德沃德对法新社说:“关于骨头化石，真正有趣的是可以从微观角度分析整块骨头。”

"We can infer growth rate, age (and) maturity level."

“我们可以推测出该个体生长速度、年龄和成熟程度。”

The researchers took extremely fine slices from the bone samples -- so thin that light could pass through them -- and then studied them under powerful microscopes.

研究人员从骨头样本中提取极薄的骨头切片——薄到光可以透过它们——然后在性能强大的显微镜下研究这些切片。

The size of the blood vessel openings revealed that the two dinosaurs were still in a phase of rapid growth at the time of death. Had they been adults, this vascularization would have been less prominent.

血管切口的大小表明，这两只恐龙在死亡时仍处于快速生长的阶段。如果它们是成年个体，则这种血管生成的现象就不会那么明显。

That is partly due to the obsession of collectors and the public with finding and displaying the most enormous T-rex skeletons possible -- unearthed sometimes to the detriment of smaller specimens.

这在一定程度上是由于收藏者和公众痴迷于寻找和展示尽可能巨大的霸王龙骨架——有时这不利于幼年霸王龙骨架的挖掘。

Unfortunately, Woodward said, only five to seven fossils of young T-rex dinosaurs are known to exist in the world, and some of those are in private collections not accessible to researchers.

伍德沃德说：‘不幸的是，目前世界上已知的幼年霸王龙化石只有五到七块，并且其中一些属于私人收藏，研究人员无法对其进行分析。“

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原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.com 翻译：偷吃月亮的狗 转载请注明出处

Alfa
Lol it took them half a century to come to a conclusion that took me five seconds.

哈哈，他们花了半个世纪得出结论，而我只花了五秒钟。

MichaelR
Nice discovery. It helps to remind me of the growth of an alligator.

不错的发现。这让我想起了鳄鱼的生长过程。

lovemexfood
It is often very difficult, or maybe even impossible to recognize the difference in fossil organisms between juvenile and "dwarf" specimens. Most of the time, you need a large population of specimens to do statistical studies, and you usually have only ONE specimen of a dinosaur, and more often than not, it is incomplete. I believe that there are only THREE complete T. rex specimens known. All the rest are fragmentary.

通常这是很难的，甚至不可能分辨出幼年生物和“侏儒”生物之间的区别。大多数时候，你需要大量的标本来做统计分析，而你通常只有一个恐龙标本，而且往往是不完整的。我认为为人所知的完整的霸王龙标本仅有三个。其余的都是残缺的。