Nizar Ibrahim: How we unearthed the spinosaurus

Prevoditelj: Martina Juranic Recezent: Anja Kolobarić

These dragons from deep time are incredible creatures.

Zmajevi iz davnine nevjerojatna su stvorenja.

They're bizzarre,

Bizarni su,

they're beautiful,

predivni

and there's very little we know about them.

i malo znamo o njima.

These thoughts were going through my head

Te su mi misli prolazile kroz glavu

when I looked at the pages of my first dinosaur book.

listajući stranice moje prve knjige o dinosaurima.

I was about five years old at the time,

Imao sam pet godina

and I decided there and then

i tada sam odlučio

that I would become a paleontologist.

da ću bit paleontolog.

Paleontology allowed me to combine my love for animals

Paleontologija mi je omogućila da spojim svoju ljubav prema životinjama

with my desire to travel to far-flung corners of the world.

i želju za putovanjem u zabačene kutke svijeta.

And now, a few years later, I've led several expeditions

I sada, nekoliko godina poslije, vodio sam nekoliko ekspedicija

to the ultimate far-flung corner on this planet, the Sahara.

u krajnje zabačeni dio planete, Saharu.

I've worked in the Sahara because I've been on a quest

Radio sam u Sahari jer sam bio u potrazi

to uncover new remains of a bizarre, giant predatory dinosaur

za novim ostacima bizarnog, divovskog dinosaura predatora

called Spinosaurus.

Spinosaurusa.

A few bones of this animal have been found

Kosti te životinje ronađene su

in the deserts of Egypt

u egipatskoj pustinji

and were described about 100 years ago by a German paleontologist.

i prije otprilike 100 godina opisao ih je njemački paleontolog.

Unfortunately, all his Spinosaurus bones were destroyed in World War II.

Nažalost, sve njegove kosti Spinosaurusa uništene su u Drugom svjetskom ratu.

So all we're left with are just a few drawings and notes.

Ostalo je tek nekoliko njegovih crteža i bilješke.

From these drawings,

Iz tih crteža

we know that this creature, which lived about 100 million years ago,

znamo da je taj stvor živio prije otprilike 100 milijuna godina,

was very big,

bio je velik,

it had tall spines on its back, forming a magnificent sail,

imao je visoke kralješke na leđima u obliku veličanstvenog jedra

and it had long, slender jaws, a bit like a crocodile,

i dugačku, tanku čeljust, pomalo nalik na krokodila,

with conical teeth,

s klinastim zubima

that may have been used to catch slippery prey, like fish.

koje je vjerojatno koristio za lov skliskog plijena poput ribe.

But that was pretty much all we knew

I to je bilo otprilike sve što smo znali

about this animal for the next 100 years.

o toj životinji sljedećih 100 godina.

My fieldwork took me to the border region between Morocco and Algeria,

Terenski rad odveo me na granicu između Maroka i Alžira,

a place called the Kem Kem.

na mjesto pod imenom Kem Kem.

It's a difficult place to work in.

Nije tu lako raditi.

You have to deal with sandstorms and snakes and scorpions,

Morate se boriti s pješčanim olujama, zmijama i škorpionima,

and it's very difficult to find good fossils there.

vrlo je teško tamo pronaći dobre fosile.

But our hard work paid off.

Ali naš se težak rad isplatio.

We discovered many incredible specimens.

Pronašli smo puno nevjerojatnih primjeraka.

There's the largest dinosaur bone

Ovo je najdulja kost dinosaura

that had ever been found in this part of the Sahara.

kad nađena u tom dijelu Sahare.

We found remains of giant predatory dinosaurs,

Našli smo ostatke divovskih dinosaura predatora,

medium-sized predatory dinosaurs,

srednje-velikih dinsosaura predatora

and seven or eight different kinds of crocodile-like hunters.

i sedam ili osam različitih vrsta grabežljivaca nalik krokodilima.

These fossils were deposited in a river system.

Ti su se fosili nataložili u riječnom sustavu.

The river system was also home to a giant, car-sized coelacanth,

Riječni sustav bio je stanište i divovskog Coelicantha veličine auta,

a monster sawfish,

čudovišnom pilanu,

and the skies over the river system were filled with pterosaurs,

a nebo iznad riječnog sustava bilo je napučeno pterosaurima,

flying reptiles.

letećim gmazovima.

It was a pretty dangerous place,

Bilo je to poprilično opasno mjesto,

not the kind of place where you'd want to travel to if you had a time machine.

nije to baš mjesto koje biste htjeli posjetiti da imate vremenski stroj.

So we're finding all these incredible fossils of animals

Nalazili smo te nevjerojatne životinjske fosile

that lived alongside Spinosaurus,

koji su živjeli u vrijeme Spinosaurusaa,

but Spinosaurus itself proved to be very elusive.

ali sam Spinosaurus činio se nedostižan.

We were just finding bits and pieces

Nalazili smo samo komadiće

and I was hoping that we'd find a partial skeleton at some point.

i nadao sam se da ćemo u jednom trenutku naći djelomičan kostur.

Finally, very recently,

Konačno, nedavno,

we were able to track down a dig site

uspjeli smo pronaći nalazište

where a local fossil hunter found several bones of Spinosaurus.

gdje je lokalni lovac na fosile pronašao kosti Spinosaurusa.

We returned to the site, we collected more bones.

Vratili smo se na nalazište i sakupili još kostiju.

And so after 100 years we finally had another partial skeleton

I tako smo nakon 100 godina konačno dobili još jedan djelomičan kostur

of this bizarre creature.

tog bizarnog stvorenja.

And we were able to reconstruct it.

Mogli smo ga i rekonstruirati.

We now know that Spinosaurus had a head

Sada znamo da je Spinosaurus imao glavu

a little bit like a crocodile,

pomalo nalik krokodilu,

very different from other predatory dinosaurs,

znatno drugačiju od ostalih dinosaura predatora,

very different from the T. rex.

znatno drukčiju od Tiranosaura.

But the really interesting information came from the rest of the skeleton.

Vrlo zanimljive informacije smo dobili od ostatka kostura.

We had long spines,

Imao je dugačku kralježnicu

the spines forming the big sail.

s kralješcima koji su oblikovali ogromno jedro.

We had leg bones, we had skull bones,

Našli smo kosti nogu, lubanje,

we had paddle-shaped feet, wide feet --

stopala u obliku vesla, široka stopala --

again, very unusual, no other dinosaur has feet like this --

također vrlo neobična, nijedan drugi dinosaur nema takva stopala.

and we think they may have been used to walk on soft sediment,

Smatramo da ih je koristio za hodanje po mekanom mulju

or maybe for paddling in the water.

ili možda za veslanje po vodi.

We also looked at the fine microstructure of the bone,

Proučili smo i mikrostrukturu kostiju,

the inside structure of Spinosaurus bones,

unutrašnju strukturu kostiju Spinosaurusa

and it turns out that they're very dense and compact.

i ispada da su vrlo guste i kompaktne.

Again, this is something we see in animals that spend a lot of time in the water,

To je također karakteristika životinja koje provode mnogo vremena u vodi.

it's useful for buoyancy control in the water.

Potrebne su za kontrolu plovnosti po vodi.

We C.T.-scanned all of our bones and built a digital Spinosaurus skeleton.

Napravili smo CT-snimak svih kostiju i izgradili digitalni kostur Spinosaurusa.

And when we looked at the digital skeleton,

Kada smo promotrili digitalni kostur,

we realized that yes, this was a dinosaur unlike any other.

shvatili smo da je to bio dinosaur kao nijedan drugi.

It's bigger than a T. rex,

Veći je od Tiranosaura

and yes, the head has "fish-eating" written all over it,

i glava mu je prilagođena jedenju ribe,

but really the entire skeleton has "water-loving" written all over it --

a cijeli je kostur prilagođen životu u vodi:

dense bone, paddle-like feet, and the hind limbs are reduced in size,

guste kosti, stopala u obliku vesla, i kraći stražnji udovi,

and again, this is something we see in animals

što je karakteristika životinja

that spend a substantial amount of time in the water.

koje provode mnogo vremena u vodi.

So, as we fleshed out our Spinosaurus --

Dodali smo meso našem Spinosaurusu i

I'm looking at muscle attachments and wrapping our dinosaur in skin --

promatrajući našeg Spinosura s dodatcima mišića te obloženog kožom,

we realize that we're dealing with a river monster,

shvaćamo da se radi o vodenom čudovištu,

a predatory dinosaur, bigger than T. rex,

dinosauru predatoru, većem od Tiranosaura,

the ruler of this ancient river of giants,

vladaru drevnih vodenih divova

feeding on the many aquatic animals I showed you earlier on.

koji se hranio vodenim životinjima koje sam vam pokazao ranije.

So that's really what makes this an incredible discovery.

I to je ono što ovo čini nevjerojatnim otkrićem.

It's a dinosaur like no other.

To je dinosaur kao niti jedan drugi.

And some people told me, "Wow, this is a once-in-a-lifetime discovery.

Ljudi su mi rekli: "Ovo je otkriće koje se događa jednom u životu.

There are not many things left to discover in the world."

Nema više puno toga za otkriti na ovom svijetu."

Well, I think nothing could be further from the truth.

Uopće se ne slažem s time.

I think the Sahara's still full of treasures,

Mislim da je Sahara još uvijek prepuna blaga

and when people tell me there are no places left to explore,

i kada mi ljudi kažu da nema preostalih mjesta za istraživanje,

I like to quote a famous dinosaur hunter, Roy Chapman Andrews,

citiram poznatog lovca na dinosaure Roya Chapmana Andrewsa

and he said, "Always, there has been an adventure just around the corner --

koji je rekao: "Pustolovine uvijek čekaju iza ugla,

and the world is still full of corners."

a svijet je prepun uglova."

That was true many decades ago

To je vrijedilo prije mnogo desteljeća

when Roy Chapman Andrews wrote these lines.

kada je Roy Chapman Andrews napisao te retke.

And it is still true today.

A vrijedi i danas.

Thank you.

Hvala.

(Applause)

(Pljesak)