《我心愛的雷龍》作者Brian Switek：Bones, a time capsule of a life（圖靈訪談）

Guest：

Brian Switek（布賴恩·斯威特克）

從小就是個恐龍迷，現在仍未走出“恐龍期”，並設法把玩泥巴和做獠牙怪獸踐踏遠古泥漿的白日夢變成了正當職業。為此，他舉家搬到了恐龍化石豐富的猶他州，併成為一名自由職業者，在撰寫部落格、專欄和圖書之餘，作為志願者參與恐龍挖掘和研究活動。

著作包括：《書之於石》（Written in Stone）、《我心愛的雷龍：一本寫給大人的恐龍書》、《國家地理》雜誌專刊——“恐龍紀元”（When Dinosaurs Ruled）、《史前捕食者》(Prehistoric Predators)。

《我心愛的雷龍：一本寫給大人的恐龍書》就將帶領大家一覽恐龍研究的最新進展，通過最新的發現和技術進步一窺恐龍生活的諸多奧祕，比如恐龍的性生活、恐龍的社會性、恐龍的羽毛、恐龍的病痛，以及最重要的，恐龍的崛起和滅亡。我們將會發現，雖然恐龍的形象和自然史發生了諸多改變，但這些改變只是讓曾經的朋友更加鮮活生動，也更具魅力。
“雷龍”（正確的名字應該是迷惑龍）是本書的吉祥物，也是我們對恐龍的看法不斷改變的歷史縮影。它從未真正地存在過，只是科學探索旅途中的一次悽美錯誤。因為科學的進步，它遭受了兩次滅絕。追尋著我們熱愛的恐龍身影，將會看到科學如何幫助科學家從冰冷的化石中復原出恐龍生活的鮮活細節，而一個多世紀來人們又在探索恐龍奧祕的過程中走過了哪些彎路，以及為什麼我們該這麼在意恐龍。

• 亞馬遜2013年最佳科學讀物之一
• 入選《出版者週刊》2013年春季十大科學圖書
• 評入蘋果iBookstore2013年4月的“最佳圖書”之列
• Hudson Bookseller（圖書網站）2014年3月份的“月度最佳讀物”

這是一本集知識性、趣味性和消遣性為一體的好書。2013年該書英文版發行時，我曾應邀在英國《自然》雜誌上發表一篇書評，對該書進行了介紹和評論。現在，我非常欣喜地看到該書中文版的發行，相信這是給熱愛古生物學和演化生物學的中文讀者的一件難得禮物。——徐星（中科院古脊椎動物與古人類研究所古生物學家）

要想了解你在小學時熟悉的恐龍現在變成了什麼樣子，這本書可能再合適不過……準備好迎接驚喜。在你長大的時候，恐龍也經歷了一場驚人的鉅變。不信問問你遇到的五歲小孩。——《紐約時報》

不僅是對恐龍感興趣的人，任何對科學、科學史或自然世界感興趣的人，應該都會被這本書所吸引。而對於那些試圖跟上對恐龍頭頭是道的自家孩子的父母，這本書將會提供必要的小抄。——《泰晤士報文學增刊》

Transcripts：

Chinese version

My Beloved Brontosaurusis one of Amazon's best science books. Turing feels quite honored to introduce this great book into China. What do you think makes it so successful? Or could you tell us its unique places compared with other science books?

I wrote My Beloved Brontosaurus because there wasn't a good book about dinosaurs for adults on why the science of why the "terrible lizards" keep changing. There are plenty of children's books about dinosaurs, and many titles for paleontologists, but I realized that there was no popular audience book for adults explaining why we don't say "Brontosaurus" anymore, why dinosaurs have feathers now, and more. So I think the book struck a chord with many people who grew up with a love of dinosaurs but lost track of them along the way. The book is a way to reconnect with old prehistoric friends.

The book's name is interesting and thought-provoking. Deeply rooted as this giant is in the popular imagination, however, science proves that it never existed. Why would you use brontosaurus as the book name?

"Brontosaurus" is a totem, or a mascot. When I was a child, this herbivore was the embodiment of everything dinosaurs were. They were big, drab, and lived in swamps. Now the reality is different. I picked "Brontosaurus" as the book's star because it was a way to compare the old image of dinosaurs with what has changed as science makes new discoveries. It's a lesson that science is always questioning, altering how we see prehistoric life and the rest of the world around us.

Could you still remember the feelings when you first saw the skeleton on display as a little boy?

Yes, I still get similar feelings when I visit a fossil hall I've never been to before. Dinosaurs like Apatosaurus are among the few things that can still make us feel small and give us a pure sense of awe about nature. It's a sense of unfiltered wonder, curious as to what these animals looked like, how they moved, what they sounded like, and otherwise lived.

In the book, there appear scores of thigh bones and tail bones from which scientists extrapolate dinosaur's size and weight. But how could that work on skin? How could scientists figure out dinosaur's fuzzy skin from their bones?

There's far more to the dinosaur fossil record than bones. Tracks, for example, form an important part of the dinosaur story, revealing their behavior. But as for fuzz, exceptional fossils from China, the Americas, and elsewhere around the world have shown that many dinosaurs had coverings of fluff, bristles, and feathers. These spectacular specimens preserve body coverings as well as the bones, giving us an idea of what dinosaurs really look like.

I'm curious about the reasons that keep your passion for dinosaurs long enough to earn a lifelong job concerning dinosaur's study. For the majority, people seldom keep alive to their former interests when faced with major selection and job finding.

I came back to dinosaurs late. I always loved them, but I never expected to have a career writing about them. In short, I was in college and I was very frustrated with my courses. I felt like I was not learning what I was passionate about. So I started reading books and scientific papers on my own time, writing about what I was learning on a blog. Over time, that led to work blogging about fossils for magazines and other publications in the U.S., and after a few years I was able to support myself full time as a science writer. It was a difficult path, but my curiosity for prehistoric creatures would not go away. That drove me to the career I have today, writing about extinct species as well as joining university and museum teams to dig up new bones every summer.

Could you recommend some books for children to know dinosaur?

I wrote a book with artist Julius Csotonyi called Prehistoric Predators, all about meat-eating dinosaurs and other extinct carnivores. I also like the book Boy, Were We Wrong About Dinosaurs! by Kathleen Kudlinski. It's in the same spirit as My Beloved Brontosaurus, showing how science has changed what we thought about dinosaurs.

Imaging you could go back to the age of dinosaurs, what's the most wanted scene you would like to experience?

I would like to take a stroll across a Jurassic floodplain of the sort that's preserved at Dinosaur National Monument in my home state of Utah. It would have been a lush place, the land covered in ferns with tall stands of conifers in between meandering rivers. This was the home of dinosaurs like Stegosaurus, Ceratosaurus, and, of course, Apatosaurus. If I could pick any time in the Age of Dinosaurs to go back to, it'd be then.

What do those bones mean to you, symbols of death or vitality?

We often think of bones in terms of death. We only see them after something has died, and we use them as symbols as warning. Just look at the label of a toxic chemical, or the cover of a heavy metal album. But paleontology is all about drawing secrets of life from bones. We look for clues about size, movement, growth, diet, and more. We start from the bones and work towards the living, drawing out what we can. Look at a bone and you are seeing a time capsule of a life.

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