英语听力：探索发现 2012-06-03 恐龙是怎样的炼成的—7

 Darren, I do love these museum collections when you come behind the scenes and you suddenly feel that you are surrounded by treasures. And it's amazing to think that there are new discoveries to be made in here as well.

 

That's right in a way. There are almost too many specimens¹ for the number of experts out there. There is always new stuff to find in collections. You aren't necessary to go out to a field and look for dinosaurs³. You can just rummage⁴ through museum floors. You will find something new.

 

Recently Darren and a colleague did exactly that. They came across a bone which had been lying on a museum shelf since Victorian times. It may look unremarkable but with several unique features, it didn't fit with anything which had been found before. And it was enough for them to describe a new species. 

 

Wasn’t it really exciting to name a whole new species of dinosaur²?

 

Yeah, yeah, we realized straightaway, but wow, this is something completely new. Naming a new species, you know, not such a big deal, is quite easy to do.

 

Really?

 

The finding, there are...

 

It's to me. You think there’d be a kind of once in a lifetime. Wow. I’ve named a new species of a dinosaur, but no?

 

No, it is a certain huge sways of the tree of life. There’s very little work that’d been done. Really, it’s quite easy to find new species. We’re in a golden age of dinosaur discovery. There’s about 50 new species of dinosaurs named every year.

 

Really?

 

About 90% of all named dinosaurs have been named since about 1990. If you were to generate a discovery curve of dinosaurs overtime⁵, you would have a curve that shaped like this. And we are currently on the steep upward curve of the graph. 

 

Why do you think there is such a craze for naming new dinosaurs at the moment?

 

Regions of the world have been explored more. They haven’t been really looked at much beforehand. So places like southern South America, much of the central Asia, parts of Africa and Australia, more and more people are going out to those places, finding new dinosaurs and bringing them back. 

 

And the more we find, the more complete our understanding of the world of the dinosaurs becomes. It makes you realize just what a vast body of knowledge we now master about these extinct animals. So as a paleontologist can come along, look at a single bone and say, this must be a whole new species. And it also makes you wonder how many other dusty, unloved specimens are sitting there on store shelves, just waiting to be recognized.

1 specimens   

n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人

参考例句：

• Astronauts have brought back specimens of rock from the moon. 宇航员从月球带回了岩石标本。
• The traveler brought back some specimens of the rocks from the mountains. 那位旅行者从山上带回了一些岩石标本。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 dinosaur   

n.恐龙

参考例句：

• Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击？
• He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。

3 dinosaurs   

n.恐龙( dinosaur的名词复数 )；守旧落伍的人，过时落后的东西

参考例句：

• The brontosaurus was one of the largest of all dinosaurs. 雷龙是所有恐龙中最大的一种。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years. 恐龙绝种已有几百万年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 rummage   

v./n.翻寻，仔细检查

参考例句：

• He had a good rummage inside the sofa.他把沙发内部彻底搜寻了一翻。
• The old lady began to rummage in her pocket for her spectacles.老太太开始在口袋里摸索，找她的眼镜。

5 overtime   

adj.超时的，加班的；adv.加班地

参考例句：

• They are working overtime to finish the work.为了完成任务他们正在加班加点地工作。
• He was paid for the overtime he worked.他领到了加班费。