The T Rex’s tiny baby arms might have been way more useful than they seem

霸王龙的小胳膊可能比看上去更有用


Running into a Tyrannosaurus rex in the wild would have been a truly frightening thing for just about any animal that roamed the earth between 65 million and 80 million years ago, and for an obvious reason. The mighty meat-eater was huge in size and had a mouth built to turn bones into powder. but nobody was afraid of its puny little arms… or were they?

在野外遇到霸王龙对6500万到8千万年前在地球上游荡的任何动物来说都是一件真正可怕的事情。原因很明显,这只巨大的食肉动物体型庞大,有一张能把骨头变成粉末的嘴。但没有人害怕它的小胳膊。

AsLive Sciencereports, a new study presented at a recent meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology took a close look at how T. rex’s arms would have functioned, and it makes some bold predictions.

在最近的一次脊椎动物古生物学会会议上发表了一项新的研究,对霸王龙手臂的功能进行了仔细观察,并做出了一些大胆的预测。

Just how T. rex used its arms and for what purpose has been hotly debated for years and years. Some believe the arms didn’t do much of anything, whileothers have suggestedthat the tiny limbs flailed wildly with sharp claws that could have seriously injured prey or foes.

霸王龙是如何使用它的手臂的,为了什么目的,多年来人们一直在激烈争论。有些人认为手臂并没有起到什么作用,而另一些人则暗示说,这些细小的前肢利用锋利的爪子疯狂地撕扯,可能严重伤害了猎物或敌人。

This latest round of research approaches things from a different angle, seeking to determine the range of movement of the arms as a clue to their usefulness. The researchers studied the limbs of two distant modern relatives, the alligator and turkey, for hints. What the team concluded is that the T. rex could likely have turned its hands inward if it wanted to, and it may have used its arms to hold prey in place or pull it closer.

最新一轮的研究从一个不同的角度来探寻,试图确定手臂的运动范围,以此作为它们有用的线索。研究人员研究了鳄鱼和火鸡这两个远近现代近亲的四肢,以寻找线索。研究小组得出的结论是,如果霸王龙想要的话,它可能会把手向内转。而且它可能用手臂抓住猎物,或者把它拉得更近。

The idea here is that the T. rex knew its jaws were its most potent weapon and so it used its arms to keep prey at the perfect biting distance. We’ll of course never know for sure unless we could somehow watch a T. rex or similar upright carnivore find a meal, but the researchers are confident in what the fossils and modern animals tell them about how the dinosaur could move its limbs.

这里的想法是,霸王龙知道它的下颌是它最有力的武器,所以它用它的手臂保持猎物在完美的咬合距离。我们当然永远无法确定,除非我们能以某种方式观察到霸王龙或类似的直立食肉动物寻找食物,但研究人员对此充满信心,化石和现代动物告诉他们恐龙如何移动四肢。