With his miniature model of an adult Trex for reference, along with the growing patterns of close relatives of tyrannosaurs, it's possible to work out the likely proportions of the baby. The starting point for the sculpture is a simple illustration.
以成年恐龙的微缩模型为例,随着霸王龙的近亲属的类型增多,计算出大致的婴儿比例是有可能的。雕塑的出发点是一个简答的例证。
So, let's start up. Trex usually an adult, its skull is a great weight to measure because it's so big. But in babies, the skull's gonna be thinner. The rule is always that the orbit is gonna be larger. Also when you look at human babies, we notice they're about three heads tall, whereas in an adult human which is anywhere from seven to nine depending on how tall they are.
所以,我们开始吧。头盖骨很重因为它太大了。但是恐龙宝宝,头骨就轻多了。规律是头骨会随着时间长大。至于人类的婴儿,我们能注意到婴儿的身长大约是头部长度的三倍,而成人的身高是头部长度的7倍到9倍不等,这取决于他们有多高。
Do you find yourself as you're looking at other people's reconstructions and thinking, "oh god, they've got that wrong?"
你会在看到别人的重建作品时,思考:“哦,上帝,他们怎么都错了,不是吗?”
Yes. There are a bunch of people who are out there, who were coming from maybe film or special effects or something like that. They are doing this kind of work from a lessonformed background. So I'm very privileged to work with a scientist. And that's definitely an asset that I don't dare forget.
是的,那里有很多这样的人,他们来自电影或者特效之类的。他们学过一些和恐龙有关的课程。所以我很荣幸能和科学家一起工作。这肯定算是我财富了,我不敢忘记。
He is looking nice, this little Trex.
他看上去不错,这个宝贝龙。
But with limited fossil remains, the reconstruction has room for creative license.
但是有限的化石使得创造在重建工作中发挥作用。
Can you draw me another baby Trex based on the same evidence but taking it off from a bit of a different direction?
你能依据相同的证据,从一个不同的方向画出另一个宝贝龙吗?
Sure. Let's do the same thing. We have a head. There's a lot of evidence that some of them might have feathers, and that maybe some of them, when they were young, would have had some sort of downy covering that would have left in adulthood so that it would have been shed before they were fully grown.
当然,我们来做同样的事情。有很多证据表明,它们中的一些可能有羽毛,可能还有一些,在它们年轻的时候,身上有层柔软的绒毛,在成年的时候就会脱落,在完全长大之前没有了羽毛。
This little baby is looking extraordinarily birdlike. It has really long legs. Is this a reasonable interpretation?
这个宝贝龙看上去非常像鸟。它有很长的腿。这算是一个合理的解释吗?
There is nothing that says that it can't be this way.
没有人说不可能是这样的。
Right. They are fantastic. The same creature but they are very different. Even without the feathers here, the length of the legs is quite extraordinary in this one. And I love the feathers. I mean that just immediately makes it look like a completely different creature. It shows you that there's quite a bit of room for artistic maneuver, I think, in these reconstructions.
没错,它们都很棒。同样的生物却大不相同。即使宝贝龙没有羽毛,但是腿的长度却是非常特别的。我爱羽毛。我是说有了羽毛宝贝龙就变成一个完全不同的生物。我认为,这些重建为你提供了相当大的艺术机动空间。
Yes. Definitely. Definitely.
是的。就是这样的。