猪肉、牛肉、鸡肉的味道，我们都熟悉。可能有人会好奇，恐龙的肉会是什么味道呢？今天来看一篇《大众科学》(popularscience) 杂志上的文章： how would dinosaur meat taste?《大众科学》是美国，乃至世界上最大的一份科普类的电子月刊杂志，创刊于1872年，迄今已被翻译成30多种语言，在至少45个国家发行。权威性，内容质量上绝对让人放心。因为是大众科普内容（popular science content），所以很适合我们了解知识，学习英语，掌握词汇之用。因为是科普类，所以这本杂志的特点就是内页色彩丰富，欣赏性很强。
本期聚焦的主题是：食物。那我们就来看看这篇文章。藕色的底色很温馨。to getan idea of the flavor of dinosaur, you should probably think of roasting achicken. after all, birds are the last living theropods, a group ofanimals that includes the humble fowl and the mighty tyrannosaurus rex. beastsof the mesozoic era are so closely related to the dinnertime staplethat it’s reasonable to assume a similarity between the two, says steve brusatte,a paleontologist at the university of edinburgh.想知道恐龙肉味道如何，你可能觉得它像烤鸡的味道。毕竟鸟类是最后生存的兽脚亚目恐龙，一群包括低级飞禽和巨大的霸王龙的动物。爱丁堡大学的古生物学家stevebrusatte说：中生代的野兽们与我们餐桌上的主食密切相关，所以我们有理由假设这两种味道有相似性。这段涉及到了几个术语，可以看看他们涉及到的词根和词缀。theropod兽脚亚目恐龙mesozoic era中生代由词根medhyo-组成。同样由该词根组成的单词由medium,mediate, amid, mean,mediocre,mediterranean, middle, midwife, minge等。staple 主食（主要是粮食性食品，米饭、馒头等）paleontologist古生物学家 -ist表示人的名词后缀that’snot to say a steak cut from the tyrant lizard king would taste exactly like thedrumstick of a barnyard clucker. depending on which of the morethan 700 known dino-species was being served, you might detect hints of steeror deer instead.这并不是说狂暴蜥蜴王身上的一块肉和农家粮仓前咯咯叫的鸡的琵琶腿味道一样。看你品尝的是已知的700种恐龙的哪一类，你尝出来的味道可能是牛肉味也可能是鹿肉味。drumstick除了鼓槌，还有（煮熟的鸡或其他禽类的）腿下端，琵琶腿的意思clucker咯咯叫steer除了掌舵，还有名词食用公牛的意思that’sbecause two of the biggest factors that determine the flavor profile of ananimal are how it moves and what it eats. nimble prehistoric predators,like compsognathus, and armored herbivores that swung their heavy tailsto defend themselves, like stegosaurus, relied on fast-twitch muscles, whichfacilitate short bursts of speed. such tissue carries relatively littleblood, making it more of a white meat. larger reptiles, like thelong-necked apatosaurus, lumbered along on slow-twitch muscles that hadthe endurance to carry their immense bulk. that type of flesh contains loads ofoxygen-storing myoglobin, similar to a red meat such as beef.两个决定一种动物的味道的最大因素是：他们怎么运动以及他们吃什么。灵活的史前捕猎者如秀颌龙以及依靠硕大尾巴保护自己的食草甲龙，如剑龙依靠的是快速收缩的肌肉，因为它可以增加他们的爆发力。这样的肌肉组织需要血液相对较少，所以它们的肉比较白。大的爬行动物，如长颈雷龙步态较慢，肌肉收缩缓慢，因为能够提起自己巨大的躯体。这种恐龙的肉则含有很多肌红蛋白，与红肉如牛肉类似。nimble行动灵活的herbivore食草动物 herb 表示食物和吞咽的词根gwora-构成。同词根的词有devour,omnivorous(杂食的)， voracious (贪婪的，贪吃的)carnivores tend to be gamy, so meat eaters, including velociraptors and the fish-loving baryonyx, might be a bit too strong for most palates. but dining on a slabof hadrosaur, ornithomimosaur, or another beast that chowed down on plants would bring to mind venison, bison, or perhaps ostrich.食肉动物的肉则味道浓重，包括迅猛龙和以鱼为食的重爪龙。这些恐龙的口重一些。鸭嘴龙或似鸟龙的一片肉或其他食草野兽的肉尝起来则像鹿肉、野牛肉或鸵鸟肉。palate 上颚，味觉slab 厚片chow down大快朵颐venison鹿肉ofcourse, all of this is hypothetical, at least until someone figures out a wayto engineer dino dna and raise prehistoric protein. but then, there’s alwaysthe risk that they’d eat us instead.当然，以上都是基于假设的思考，至少目前人类还没有研究出恐龙的dna,也没有培养出史前蛋白。但也许我会反过来会被恐龙吃掉。
发表评论