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Ancient animal behaviour —— Jurassic lark
遠古動物行為：侏羅紀雨燕
How the pterosaur caught its supper
翼龍是如何逮到晚餐的
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PALAEOETHOLOGY, working out how long-extinct animals behaved, is a subject whose practitioners can never, definitively, be proved right.
古行為學，作為一門研究那些早已滅絕的動物的行為的學科，其研究者永遠不可能證明自己的理論是確鑿無誤的，
But that does not stop them trying.
但這一點從來沒有阻止過他們對真相的探索。
The latest effort, to be presented later this month to the International Symposium on Pterosaurs in Rio de Janeiro, is an attempt by Michael Habib of the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles, and Mark Witton at the University of Portsmouth, in Britain, to work out how one of the most peculiar of the flying reptiles of the Jurassic earned its living.
本月晚些時候，將於裡約熱內盧舉行的國際翼龍目研討會將展示該領域最新一項研究成果，南加州大學的 Michael Habib 和普利茅斯大學的 Mark Witton 進行瞭該項研究，目的在於弄清楚侏羅紀最神奇的飛行類爬行動物之一是如何捕捉食物的。
Anurognathus and its relatives have been known for 90 years.
蛙嘴龍及其近親為人類瞭解已有 90 年。
They were the size of swifts and until now it had been thought that, like swifts, they chased around the sky after insects — a technique known as hawking.
它們體型如雨燕般大小，直到今天，人們一直認為它們像雨燕一樣在天空中到處疾飛追逐昆蟲—即一種被稱為飛行捕食的攝食策略。
Dr Habib and Dr Witton believe this is wrong.
兩位博士 Habib 和 Witton 認為這種理論是錯誤的，
They suspect instead that Anurognathus sat in wait for its prey, and then sallied forth to intercept it like a surface-to-air missile.
他們猜想蛙嘴龍反而是靜待獵物，然後像地空導彈一樣突然騰空截擊。
They came to this conclusion by comparing Anurognathus with 36 birds and 20 bats from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.
在將蛙嘴龍與取自斯密森學會博物館的 36 種鳥和 20 種蝙蝠進行對比後，Habib 和 Witton 做出這一推論。
Using a mix of computerised tomography and mundane measurements with callipers, they assessed the lengths, widths, thicknesses, densities and bending potential of the bones of the modern animals and compared them with those gleaned from Anurognathus fossils.
他們綜合瞭計算機斷層攝影術和使用卡鉗的普通測量方法，分析評估瞭現代動物骨骼的長度，寬度，厚度，密度及彎曲度可能性，並將它們和從蛙嘴龍化石中搜集到的數據進行對比。
Anurognathus's mouth, they found, was similar to the mouths of nightjars, which also sally after prey.
他們發現，蛙嘴龍的嘴與夜鷹相似，後者也是突襲獵物的。
Moreover, the pterosaurs' legs and wings were stronger than those of any comparable bird or bat, reinforcing the idea that they could leap rapidly into the air.
另外，翼龍的腿和翅膀要比任何可以相提並論的鳥類和蝙蝠都要強壯，這一點強化瞭它們可以迅疾騰空的觀點。
Their conclusion was that Anurognathus did indeed feed by sallying — and probably more effectively than any living creature.
兩位博士 Habib 和 Witton 的結論是，蛙嘴龍的確是突然騰空襲擊獵物的—而且它們的狩獵有可能比任何生物都要更高效。
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