雷龙摆尾！
Dino's Tail Might Have Whipped It Good
雷龙摆尾！
Researchers built a physical model of the tail of the late Jurassic dinosaur Apatosaurus and found that its tail tip could have moved at supersonic speed to produce a whip-crack sound
研究员根据侏罗纪后期的迷惑龙的尾巴结构，制造了一个模型。他们发现尾巴模型能够以超音速的速度摆动，产生巨大的抽鞭声。
撰文 怀特·吉布斯（Wayt Gibbs）
翻译 M
审稿 邰伦玥
It seems the first resident of Earth to break the sound barrier wasn't Chuck Yeager, after all. He was about a hundred million years too late.
看起来，地球上第一个打破音障的住户终究不是查克·叶格。因为他比迷惑龙迟了差不多十万年。
Apatosaurus was a cousin of Brontosaurus,but even bigger—with a 40-foot-tail more than three feet thick at the butt end but no wider than your pinky at the tip. That dainty end made the tail too fragile for clubbing attackers. So what was it for? Maybe this: [bullwhip crack]
迷惑龙是雷龙的表亲， 但比雷龙更大——他的尾巴长达40尺，在粗的一端有3尺厚——但在尖端却比你的小指还要细。那精细的一端使得尾巴过于脆弱而无法打击进犯者，那么它有什么作用？也许是这样。【鞭打的声音】
The idea that Apatosaurus might have used its tail like a bullwhip—to scare off predators, communicate or even show off for potential mates—gained traction about 20 years ago. That’s when paleontologist Philip Currie of the University of Alberta teamed with Nathan Myhrvold to create a computer simulation that showed the whip-cracking tail was plausible. Myhrvold is the founder and CEO of Intellectual Ventures—an invention firm in the Seattle suburbs—where I’m executive editor.
认为迷惑龙的尾巴的作用类似牛鞭的理论——用于惊吓捕食者、相互交流、甚至用于炫耀以吸引异性，在20年前／开始吸引人们的注意。于是那时，来自阿尔塔伯大学的古生物学家飞利浦·居里与内森·梅尔沃德合作，通过计算机模拟表明尾巴鞭打理论是正确的。梅尔沃德是高智发明的创始人与CEO。高智发明是一家位于西雅图郊区的发明机构，本人是其执行编辑。
This week at a meeting of the Society for Vertebrate Paleontology, Myhrvold, Currie and Dhileep Sivam, also of Intellectual Ventures, unveiled a quarter-scale physical model of an Apatosaurus tail made from aluminum vertebrae and steel tendons. [Supersonic Sauropods: The Physical Model (p. 214)]
这周，在古生物学会议上，梅尔沃德，居里与同样来自智能发明的迪利普·西万，揭示了一个四分之一尺寸的迷惑龙尾巴构造模型。其椎骨用铝制造，并用钢材打造了肌腱。[Supersonic Sauropods: The Physical Model (p. 214)]
Give the big end of the model a strong push and pull, and it does this: [audio of model crack]. Our analysis of high-speed video of the tail in action found that the tip moves at more than 800 miles an hour—fast enough to break the sound barrier and create a small sonic boom.
在模型的粗端用力推拉后，它会这样【鞭打的声音】。我们分析了高速摄像机中尾巴模型的动作，发现其尖端以800英里/小时的速度挥动——这速度足以突破音障并产生一个小型音爆。
A full-size apatosaur whipping its tail in this way could probably have produced a sound loud enough to shatter human eardrums. Which must have really gotten their attention back in the late Jurassic.
一头正常尺寸的迷惑龙如此挥动它的尾巴所产生的声响大概能撕裂人类的耳膜。因此若是回到侏罗纪，迷惑龙一定会非常引人注意。
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京ICP备11000850号-1
京公网安备11010502039775号 信息网络传播视听节目许可证0111611号
国家科技基础条件平台