挖掘过去6

I was already impressed with the Prosauropod tooth, but Paul wanted to show me why he'd really bought me to this barren hillside. A leg and rib bone from an entirely different dinosaur. This particular dinosaur is what we think is a new species of large plant-eating dinosaur, and one that's actually a close relative of the Sauropod dinosaurs. This animal is quite important because it comes from near the time when the Sauropods started to get very large and actually went down onto all fours. So this animal is walking around on its hind limbs, like most Prosauropods. But it has a number of features that are a bit more like Sauropods. It seems to be, if you like, caught in the act just before it goes down on all fours and becomes a true Sauropod, this seems to be something in the transition between those two grades of dinosaur. This discovery looks like the missing link between the Prosauropods and the four-legged giants that came later, and Paul seems very sure about what has been found.

原蜥蜴的牙齿已让我颇为惊奇，不过保罗还想带我参观这贫瘠山坡上。他起初想让我看的东西，即另一种恐龙的胫骨和肋骨。 我们认为这只特别的恐龙属于首次出土的一类大型食草恐龙，实际上，它与蜥脚目恐龙极为相似，它的发现意义非凡，因为它的出现时间，刚好是在蜥脚目恐龙体型变大，前肢落地 开始四足行走前后。这种生物像大多数原蜥蜴一样，是用后肢行走的。但它也具有几个蜥脚目恐龙的特点，它可以说是 被当场抓获。刚巧定格在前肢落地，进化至蜥脚目前介于两种恐龙之间，是进化链的中间一环。 这一发现，补全了进化纽带，成功连接原蜥蜴与巨型蜥脚目恐龙，保罗对此言之凿凿。