Dinosaur Hunters

Dinosaur Hunters by Kate McMullen illustrated by John R Jones

《恐龙猎手》 作者：凯特·麦克马伦 插画：约翰·R·琼斯

Secrets in stone. Jim Jensen was a famous dinosaur hunter. He discovered a meat -eater that no one had ever seen before. He also found a giant dinosaur. He called it Super Sorus, a super lizard. Jim Jensen was one of the best dinosaur hunters of his time. That's how he got the nickname Dinosaur Jim. Of course dinosaurs don't live on earth today. The last ones disappeared about 65 million years ago. So how could Dinosaur Jim hunt dinosaurs if there weren't any around?

藏在石头里的秘密。吉姆·詹森是有名的恐龙猎手，他发现了一种前所未见的 食肉恐龙。他还找到过一种巨型恐龙，给它起名叫超级 索鲁斯，意思是超级蜥蜴。吉姆·詹森是他那个时代最厉害的恐龙猎手之一。 这就是他绰号“恐龙吉姆”的由来。当然啦，现在地球上已经没有恐龙生存了。 最后一批恐龙大约在6500万年前就消失了。那既然周围没有恐龙，恐龙吉姆要怎么捕猎 恐龙呢？

To find out, imagine the earth 150 million years ago. Many seas are warm and shallow. The ground is covered with mosses and ferns. There are many tall trees with fan -shaped leaves. Dinosaurs of all shapes and sizes roam the earth.

要找到答案，咱们先想象一下1.5亿年前的地球是什么样的。 很多海洋温暖又浅，地面上长满了苔藓和蕨类植物。 到处都是长着扇形叶片的高大树木。 大大小小、形态各异的恐龙在地球上四处漫步。

Some of the dinosaurs are the size of a chicken. Other dinosaurs are as tall as a four -story building. Some have scales and tail spikes. Some have feathers. There are no people yet. It is the middle of the Mesozoic era. It is the age of dinosaurs.

有些恐龙只有小鸡那么大。 还有些恐龙有四层楼那么高。 有些恐龙长着鳞片和尾刺。 有些恐龙长着羽毛。 那时还没有人类出现。 现在是中生代中期。 这是属于恐龙的时代。

Picture a gigantic Apatosaurus walking on a riverbank. This Apatosaurus is old and weak. It bends its long neck and takes one last drink from the river. Then it falls on its side in the mud. It is dead. Most of the soft flesh of the Apatosaurus is quickly eaten by animals. The rest rots away. In time, the hard bones sink into the mud. The mud protects the bones. They do not rot away. For millions of years, the bones lie under the ground. Rain falls, it sips down through the ground, dissolving in minerals in the rocks. The rainwater carries these minerals along as it trickles down to the bones. Like all bones, the Apatosaurus bones are filled with tiny holes. The rainwater sips into these holes. The water evaporates. But the minerals in the water stay and harden in the bones. Little by little, what once was bone turns to stone. The bones of the Apatosaurus are now stone. They are fossils.

想象一只巨大的迷惑龙正走在河岸边。 这只迷惑龙又老又虚弱。 它弯下长长的脖子，最后一次喝了河里的水。 然后它侧身倒在了泥地里。 它死了。 迷惑龙身上大部分软肉很快就被其他动物吃掉了。 剩下的部分也慢慢腐烂掉了。 过了一段时间，坚硬的骨头沉进了泥里。 泥土保护着这些骨头。 它们不会腐烂了。 数百万年来，这些骨头一直躺在地下。 雨水落下，渗进地下，溶解了岩石里的矿物质。 雨水带着这些矿物质慢慢往下渗，流到了骨头所在的位置。 和所有骨头一样，迷惑龙的骨头上布满了细小的孔洞。 雨水渗进了这些孔洞里。 水分蒸发掉了。 但是水里的矿物质留了下来，在骨头里慢慢变硬。 一点一点地，原本的骨头慢慢变成了石头。 迷惑龙的骨头现在变成石头了。 它们就是化石。