I must look rather strange to you, all covered in spines, without even a face.
对你来说我长得很奇怪吧，全身长满了刺，连张脸都没有。
But I've taken many forms during my life.
但我在成长过程中拥有许多不同的面貌。
I started out just like you: a tiny egg in a watery world. My parents never knew each other.
我一开始跟你一样：只是水世界中一颗小小的卵。我的父母互不相识。
One moonlit night before a storm, thousands of urchins, clams and corals released trillions of sperm and eggs into the open sea.
在暴风雨前月光皎洁的那一夜，成千上万的海胆、蛤蜊和珊瑚，在海洋中释放出上亿的精卵。
My father's sperm somehow met my mother's egg, and they fused. Fertilization.
我父亲的精子奇迹似地遇见了我母亲的卵子，然后他们结合了！受精。
Instantly, I became an embryo the size of a speck of dust.
很快地，我变成一颗灰尘般大小的胚胎。
After a few hours of drifting, I cleaved in two, then four, then eight cells.
漂泊数小时后，我分裂成两个，然后四个，接着八个细胞。
Then so many, I lost count. In less than a day, I developed a gut and a skeleton.
然后多到都数不清了。一天内，我长出了肠道和骨架。
I became a rocket ship, a pluteus larva.
我变成了一个飞船状的长腕幼虫。
I floated through the world of plankton, searching for tiny algae to eat.
我在浮游生物界中漂泊，找微小的藻类来吃。
For weeks, I was surrounded by all kinds of organisms, larvae of all sorts.
有好几个星期的时间我被各种有机体、各类型的幼虫围绕着。
Most are so different from their adult form that biologists have a tough time figuring out who they are.
这些幼虫与它们的成虫长的完全不一样，使生物学家得费力地辨别它们的身份。
Try matching these youngsters to their parents.
试着找出它们的父母是谁。
This veliger larvae will turn into a snail; this zoea, into a crab; and this planula, into a clytia jelly.
这只缘膜幼虫会变成海螺；这是海蟹幼虫；这个浮浪幼虫则会变成水母。
Some of my young companions are easier to picture as grown-ups.
有些我的儿时玩伴很容易和成体联想在一起。
These baby jellies, known as ephyrae, already resemble their beautiful but deadly parents.
这些水母宝宝，也就是蝶状幼体，已经和它们父母一样美丽而致命。

Here in the plankton, there's more than one way to get your genes into the next generation.
在浮游生物界，把基因传递到下一代的方法不只一种。
Most Medusa jellies make special structures called polyps, that simply bud off babies with no need for sex. Salps are similar.
大多数的水母体有特别的息肉构造，使它们可经由无性的出芽生殖繁衍子代。樽海鞘也是。
When food is abundant, they just clone themselves into long chains.
当食物充足时，它们复制自己成长链状。
The plankton is full of surprises when it comes to sex. Meet the hermaphrodites.
而在交配上，浮游生物界充满了惊奇。见见这些雌雄同体的生物们。
These comb jellies and arrow worms produce, store and release both sperm and eggs.
栉水母和箭虫同时制造、储存并释放精子及卵子。
They can fertilize themselves, or another.
它们可以让自己或其他个体的卵子受精。
When you're floating in a vast sea, with little control over who you may meet, it can pay to play both sides of the field.
当你在汪洋中游荡、不知道会遇见谁时，同时扮演正反两种角色非常值回票价。
The majority of species here, however, never mate, nor form any sort of lasting bonds. That was my parents' strategy.
这里大多数的物种，不会建立或维持长久的亲子关系。这就是我父母使用的策略。
There were so many of us pluteus larvae, I just hid in the crowd, while most of my kin were devoured.
我们的长腕幼虫数量庞大，当其他人被猎食时，我藏身在群众之中以自保。
Not all parents leave the survival of their offspring to chance.
并不是所有的父母都让后代的生存由机率决定。
Some have far fewer young and take much better care of them, brooding their precious cargo for days, even months.
有些物种生的子代较少，但对他们的照顾也较多，花了几天甚至是几个月的时间孵化他们的宝贝。
This speedy copepod totes her beautifully packaged eggs for days.
这种敏捷的桡足动物把它美丽的卵藏在嘴中数天。
This Phronima crustacean carries her babies on her chest, then carefully places them in a gelatinous barrel.
这类甲壳动物把它的宝宝们带在胸腔内，然后小心翼翼的将它们放置在胶状圆筒内。
But the black-eyed squid takes the prize.
但黑眼乌贼在这方面最厉害。
She cradles her eggs in long arms for nine months, the same time it takes to gestate a human infant.
它把宝宝们呵护在触手囊袋中长达九个月，跟人类的怀孕周期一样长。
Eventually, all youngsters have to make it on their own in this drifting world.
但最终，这些孩子们还是得在这个漂流的世界走出自己的路。
Some will spend their whole lives in the plankton, but others, like me, move on.
有些就一辈子当个浮游生物，但包含我在内的其他人就不同。
A few weeks after I was conceived, I decided to settle down, and metamorphosed into a recognizable urchin.
我出生几个星期后，我决定留在这里，转型成一只真正的海胆。
So now you know a bit of my story.
现在，你对我的故事应该有所了解了。
I may just be a slow-moving ball of spines, but don't let my calm adult exterior fool you.
也许我是个动作慢的刺球，但请别被我冷静、成熟的外观给骗了。
I was a rocket ship. I was a wild child.
我曾是个太空飞船。我曾是个放荡游子。