顶级掠食者

这样的巨鳄能在这样的生态系统中轻松担当顶级掠食者的角色。

Such megacrocs , then , could easily have acted as top predators in this ecosystem .

他们可能填补了曾经是狼的顶级掠食者的空缺。

They may also be filling an empty niche for a top predator that was once filled by wolves .

当然除非生态系统的顶级掠食者——即是能捕杀成年的鸟脚亚目食草恐龙的——并不完全是恐龙。

Unless , of course , the top predator of the system - the one that could hunt down adult ornithopods - was not a dinosaur at all .

而科学试图不落窠臼。今年，在拉斯维加斯召开的古脊椎生物学会会议上，一些发言人问到中生代顶级掠食者是否全是恐龙，结论是“否”。

Science , though , tries to look beyond the obvious , and at this year 's meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Palaeontology , held in Las Vegas , some of the speakers asked whether the top predators of the Mesozoic era really were all dinosaurs . Their conclusion was " no. "