Lesson Three: Bone Wars 第三讲：骨头大战

当今社会，小朋友们都知道恐龙是生活在6500万年前的史前大型生物，但当时间追溯到18-19世纪，就连最聪明的科学家对着庞大的恐龙化石都百思不得其解呢！

这几百年间人类是如何一步步揭开恐龙神秘面纱的吗？科学家们又为此付出了怎样的代价呢？来，一起听老师为我们讲述“骨头大战”的故事。

牛津大学的地质学教授威廉姆·巴克兰在1815-1822年间收集了一些恐龙化石。

these are the bones he found

What scientists thought Megalasaurus looked like in 1822

威廉姆教授想象中的巨龙形象与现代古生物学家认为的形象对比

吉迪恩·曼特尔托和妻子

吉迪恩·曼特尔托妻子发现的化石

曼特尔描绘出自己想象中的Iguanadon

1825年科学家给出的禽龙复原图

2009年科学家给出的禽龙复原图

十九世纪中叶人们对恐龙的思考

Here is a picture from the 1860s of a Megalosaurus fighting an Iguanadon. This shows how people thought about dinosaurs in the mid 1800s.

The picture is completely inaccurate, but I do love the expression on their faces!

Mary Anning （1799 – 1847年）

The picture on the right is from a letter Mary Anning sent describing the Plesiosaur fossil that she has found. She was a skilled anatomical illustrator as well as an expert fossil hunter.

Mary Anning is the "she" in that famous tongue-twister

玛丽·安宁是那个有名的绕口令里的“她”。

That is the first ever painting of ancient life that is based on scientific evidence.  it was published in 1830 NOT 1820

The realization that Hadrosaurus walked on two-legs astonished people. But notice that in 1868, Hadrosaurus was depicted as dragging its tail. Nowadays we think Hadrosaurus walked with its tail held upright.

This is a modern display of Hadrosaurus bones)

这是现代的鸭嘴龙骨骼展示 。

The "Bone Wars" was the competition between Marsh and Cope to see who could discover more dinosaurs.

The character "Crow" in the book is based on Theodore Cope and the character "Mannity" is based on Othniel Marsh. 

In real life it was a Plesiasaur not a Saurian, but of course this page is making is a reference to this.

Pam Conrad did a lot of research into the history of the Bone Wars, but she changed the names and the details so that she wouldn't insult the memory or Cope and Marsh, or make their families angry.

Mary Anning = "the young girl"

So I hope you have enjoyed this lecture. And I hope it enriches your experience of reading <>. Next week I am away, but please join me in two weeks when we continue our series on Human World History with the Natufians and the discovery of Agriculture.

下次讲《发现农业 》