any of numerous carnivorous dinosaurs of the Triassic to Cretaceous with short forelimbs that walked or ran on strong hind legs

In that sort of environment even a big theropod would constantly have been looking over its shoulder.

在那样一种环境下，即便是一头巨大的兽脚亚目食肉恐龙也会不时回头张望。

Perhaps the time has come to finally accept that archaeopteryx was just another small, feathered, bird-like theropod fluttering around in the Jurassic.

可能已经是时候最终接受‘始祖鸟’只是又一只在侏罗纪时期飞来飞去的长有羽毛的像鸟类的小兽脚亚目食肉恐龙了。

Since then, however, scientists have found a number of well-preserved theropod fossils with many more featherlike structures, corresponding to downy feathers and feathers with vanes.

无论如何，从那时开始，科学家已经找到了一定数量的保存完好的，拥有类似羽毛结构的兽脚亚目恐龙化石，这种结构和羽毛绒还有羽毛叶片符合得很好。

「Raptors look quite a bit like dinosaurs but they have much more in common with birds than they do with other theropod dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus,」 Ruben said.

「迅猛龙（raptor）看起来有点像恐龙，但是它们与其他兽脚类恐龙（theopod dinosaur）比如暴龙（Tyrannosaurus）相比，与鸟类更相似，」鲁本说。

But that does not completely explain the absence of theropod tracks.

但这并不能完全解释兽脚亚目食肉恐龙的缺位。

Paleontologists believe the meat-eating theropod dinosaur was light, agile and very fleet of foot, with three large slashing claws on each hand.

古生物学家认为这两种食肉类恐龙轻巧、灵活、速度快，而且每个蹄子有三个巨大锋利的爪子。

Instead of theropod footmarks, they found those of crocodilians.

他们发现的是鳄鱼的足迹，而不是兽脚类的。

Paleontologists are now carefully studying the closest theropod relatives of birds for clues to how this transition occurred.

古生物学家正在对鸟类的兽脚亚目最近亲进行仔细研究，以寻找这种转化的线索。

Scientists said they worked out the diet of 90 theropod species and found that a surprisingly large proportion were plant eaters.

科学家称，他们研究了90份肉食性恐龙物种的食谱，并且得出了惊人的发现：这些恐龙大部分都是食草性的。

Here we report an isolated theropod left metatarsal IV (IVPP V 18060) from the upper part of the Shishugou Formation, exposed at the Wucaiwan Locality in the northeastern part of the Junggar Basin.

描述了一件新的采自準噶尔盆地东北缘五彩湾地区石树沟组上部的兽脚类恐龙左第四跖骨标本(IVPPV 18060)。

Suggestions that they were the direct descendants of theropod dinosaurs (a group of bipedal meat-eaters that include Allosaurus, Velociraptor and Tyrannosaurus) caused quite a flap.

有人说它是兽脚恐龙的后代（兽脚恐龙是一群食肉的两足恐龙，其中包括异龙、迅猛龙与暴龙），这引起了学界很大的注意。