万物简史(MP3+中英字幕) 第480期:生命在前进(22)
日期:2018-11-09 17:00

(单词翻译:单击)

The Cambrian explosion, if that's the word for it, probably was more an increase in size than a sudden appearance of new body types, Fortey says. "And it could have happened quite swiftly, so in that sense I suppose it was an explosion." The idea is that just as mammals bided their time for a hundred million years until the dinosaurs cleared off and then seemingly burst forth in profusion all over the planet, so too perhaps the arthropods and other triploblasts waited in semimicroscopic anonymity for the dominant Ediacaran organisms to have their day. Says Fortey: "We know that mammals increased in size quite dramatically after the dinosaurs went—though when I say quite abruptly I of course mean it in a geological sense. We're still talking millions of years."
“寒武纪大爆发,如果可以这么称呼的话,更可能是个儿变大,而不是新体形的突然出现,”福泰说,“这种情况可能发生得很快,因此在那个意义上可以说是一次爆发。”这话的意思是,像哺乳动物那样磨蹭了l亿年,直到恐龙让道,然后才似乎突然之间在全球大量增加。节肢动物和别的三胚层动物也是一样。它们以半微生物的形态默默地等待,等着占支配地位的埃迪亚卡拉动物群没落。福泰说:“我们知道,恐龙一走,哺乳动物的个儿戏剧性地变大了——虽然我说相当突然,但我当然是从地质学的意义上说的。我们仍然在谈论几百万年。”
寒武纪

Incidentally, Reginald Sprigg did eventually get a measure of overdue credit. One of the main early genera, Spriggina, was named in his honor, as were several species, and the whole became known as the Ediacaran fauna after the hills through which he had searched. By this time, however, Sprigg's fossil-hunting days were long over. After leaving geology he founded a successful oil company and eventually retired to an estate in his beloved Flinders Range, where he created a wildlife reserve. He died in 1994 a rich man.
顺便说一句,雷金纳德·斯普里格最后还是得到了一份荣誉,虽然来得晚了一点。有个早期的主要的“属”像几个物种那样以他的名字命名,被称之为斯普里格属。整个儿发现在后来被叫做埃迪亚卡拉动物群,以他寻找化石的山区名字命名。然而,到那个时候,斯普里格寻找化石的年代早已过去。他离开地质学以后建立了一家很成功的石油公司,最后隐退到他心爱的弗林德斯山脉中的一处庄园并在那里创建了一个野生物保留地。他1994年去世时已经是个富豪。

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重点单词
  • dominantadj. 占优势的,主导的,显性的 n. 主宰者
  • appearancen. 外表,外貌,出现,出场,露面
  • overdueadj. 过期的,未兑的,迟到的
  • profusionn. 丰多,大量,浪费
  • eventuallyadv. 终于,最后
  • swiftlyadv. 迅速地,敏捷地
  • measuren. 措施,办法,量度,尺寸 v. 测量,量
  • incidentallyadv. 附带地,偶然地,顺便地
  • planetn. 行星
  • estaten. 财产,房地产,状态,遗产