万物简史(MP3+中英字幕) 第401期:浩瀚的海洋(20)
日期:2018-05-09 15:47

(单词翻译:单击)

According to one estimate, there could be as many as thirty million species of animals living in the sea, most still undiscovered. The first hint of how abundant life is in the deep seas didn't come until as recently as the 1960s with the invention of the epibenthic sled, a dredging device that captures organisms not just on and near the seafloor but also buried in the sediments beneath. In a single one-hour trawl along the continental shelf, at a depth of just under a mile, Woods Hole oceanographers Howard Sandler and Robert Hessler netted over 25,000 creatures—worms, starfish, sea cucumbers, and the like—representing 365 species.
据一项估计,海洋里可能生活着多达3000万种动物,大多数尚未被发现。直到20世纪60年代,由于发明了拖网,我们才第一次意识到深海的生物确实丰富。那是一种挖掘装置,能捕捉到的不光是海底和海底附近的生物,而且是埋在沉淀物下面的生物。在大约1.5公里的深处,伍兹霍尔海洋研究所的海洋学家霍华德·桑德勒和罗伯特·赫斯勒在带着大陆架的一个小时的拖捞中就捕捉到25000个动物——其中有软体虫、海星、海参等等,代表了365个生物种类。
sea bottom

Even at a depth of three miles, they found some 3,700 creatures representing almost 200 species of organism. But the dredge could only capture things that were too slow or stupid to get out of the way. In the late 1960s a marine biologist named John Isaacs got the idea to lower a camera with bait attached to it, and found still more, in particular dense swarms of writhing hagfish, a primitive eel-like creature, as well as darting shoals of grenadier fish. Where a good food source is suddenly available—for instance, when a whale dies and sinks to the bottom—as many as 390 species of marine creature have been found dining off it. Interestingly, many of these creatures were found to have come from vents up to a thousand miles distant. These included such types as mussels and clams, which are hardly known as great travelers.
即使在深达将近5公里的地方,他们也发现了大约3700个动物,代表差不多200个生物种类。但是,拖捞只能抓到那些太慢或太笨而来不及让路的家伙。20世纪60年代末,海洋生物学家约翰·艾萨克斯想出个办法,把带有饵食的照相机放到海里,发现了更多的动物,尤其是大群大群不停蠕动的盲鳗,那是一种鳗似的原始动物,以及大群大群来回穿梭的长尾鳗,据发现,只要哪里突然出现丰富的食料——比如一头沉到海底的死鲸——便会事多达390种海洋动物前来进食。有意思的是,据发现,这些动物啦许多,来自1600公里以外的喷气口。其中包括蚌和蛤蜊,而据知它们很少出远门。

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重点单词
  • inventionn. 发明,发明物,虚构,虚构物
  • dredgen. 挖泥机,捞网 v. 用挖泥机疏浚 v. 把粉撒在
  • shelfn. 架子,搁板
  • sledn. 雪撬 v. 用撬搬运,乘撬
  • baitn. 饵,引诱 vt. 嘲笑,纵犬攻击,以饵引诱,放饵
  • continentaladj. 大陆的
  • particularadj. 特殊的,特别的,特定的,挑剔的 n. 个别项目
  • availableadj. 可用的,可得到的,有用的,有效的
  • organismn. 生物体,有机体
  • abundantadj. 丰富的,充裕的