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| ■サンディエゴ野生動物園のダイノ・マウンテンでは、本物そっくりの動く恐竜が展示された |
 You're walking in the forest when you run into a triceratops being terrorized by a T-rex! No, you haven't stumbled onto the making of the next Jurassic Park sequel...you're at Dino Mountain, the newest exhibit at the San Diego Wild Animal
Park.
 The exhibit features 20 life-size robots, representing over 100 million years of North American dino-domination. What makes this attraction so unique is its emphasis on scientific accuracy.
Each dinosaur is handcrafted by a team of scientists, artists, sculptors
and engineers. The dinosaurs' proportions, movement and behavior are all based on the latest paleontological data.
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| ■鋭い足でしとめた獲物を食べるユタラプトル |
 As visitors walk the tree-covered hillside, they'll meet the ferocious Utahraptor, enjoying a light meal. This human-sized predator used its dagger-like feet to bring down its prey. Dinosaurs like Utahraptor were probably the ancestors of modern birds.
Hard to imagine your parakeet eating like this.
 Don't step on the chirping nest of baby hadrosaurs! These duckbilled dinosaurs are thought to have cared for their young, using their headcrests as trumpets to warn each other of danger.
 And be sure to bring an umbrella to protect you from the poison-spitting
dilophosaurus. One of the oldest dinosaurs on display, this meateater was adapted for
life in the desert. A large headcrest helped cool this dino down, as it
looked for prey to poison!
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| ■科学的に正確なロボット恐竜を製作するため、あらゆるデータを集めてレプリカを作る |
 These giant beasts are made by the Dinamation Corporation, a company which
specializes in scientifically accurate robotic dinosaurs.
 Before a dinosaur is created, a team of scientists and artists put together
an information package, complete with casts, photos and data of every specimen found for that dinosaur. A life-size replica is sculpted in clay. Details
such as skin texture are taken from fossil impressions where possible. A mold is then made from the clay model and used to cast the dinobot's rubber
flesh.
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| ■筋肉の役割をする空気圧縮シリンダーを装備したロボットの骨格がアルミで作られる |
 Meanwhile, a robotic skeleton is being built of aluminum. Most of its muscles are pneumatic, a series of air-compression cylinders controlled by a computer.
 Now the artists add mass to the gargantuan body. They carefully sculpt the foam rubber padding that surrounds the robot's skeleton.
 Next, the pieces of flesh are added. There is a slight overlap, which allows the rubber skin to move and wrinkle realistically. A final coat of latex holds everything together. It's hard to be ferocious when your seams are showing!
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| ■表面をおおうゴム製の肌を張り合わせていく |
 Next, a coat of primer is sprayed onto the mechanical beast. She's now ready for her final paint
job! Since skin color is not preserved in the fossil record, color schemes are based on existing animals, scientific speculation and a bit of artistic guesswork.
 Once the paint is dry, she's ready to be brought to life. The paleontologists now work with computer programmers to design the dinosaur's movements.
This digital choreography is downloaded into a small computer which controls the dinosaur's piston-powered
muscles. A burst of air in the piston causes a set of powerful jaws to snap shut.
 Like a scene from Jurassic Park, the dinobots are strapped into trucks and shipped off to their new home at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Dinosaur Mountain
will be open until September 1998.
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