Imagine being a fossil: touring the world's great museums,
想象自己若成为化石：在世界各大博物馆之间游走，
inspiring awe in onlookers of all ages, posing for hordes of fawning photographers.
使各年龄层的游客们都心怀敬畏，在大批殷勤的摄影师面前摆造型。
Sound like something you'd like? Well, good luck!
听起来觉得还不错？那么，祝你好运！
At least 99.9% of creatures that have ever lived aren't preserved in the fossil record.
至少99.9%曾经存在过的生物没能成为化石。
But forget about them, everyone else will, and listen up!
不过不用管它们，因为剩下的都会成为化石，仔细听好！
If you want your corpse in the exclusive 0.01% Club, the Hall of Preserved Fossil Fame, it will not be easy. You better work!
如果你想要你的遗骨成为那0.01%，进入名人化石保存室，这并不容易。你最好要努力！
Step one: die. It's a cold, hard fact of fossilization.
第一步：死亡。成为化石的过程是冰冷无情的。
Everything paleontologists find was once alive and, at some point, died.
古生物学家发现的一切都是曾经活过，并且最终死掉的。
We'll skip the details and assume you had a long, fulfilling life so we can get to what is really important -- how you die.
我们把细节跳过，假设你拥有长久而幸福的一生，然后再来看看最关键的部分--你怎么死的。
There are many ways to become a fossil, so let's highlight your top death options.
变成化石的方式有很多，我们着重聊聊那些高端一些的死法。
You could get yourself trapped in tree sap, which, when hardens, turns into amber and can survive intact for millions of years.
你可以将自己裹在树的汁液中，汁液会凝固变成琥珀，可以完好无损的保存几百万年。
But unless you find a really big tree to sit under,
但除非你找到一棵足够大的树，
amber preservation will likely remain the domain of insects and other very small animals.
不然琥珀很可能只会保存昆虫和其他很小很小的动物尸体。
Generally, the right place to be if you want to end up a fossil
如果你想成为化石，一般来讲，
is wherever sediment is actively being deposited, like a lake or an ocean floor.
最好的地方是沉积物容易保存的地方，像湖底或海底。
A mountaintop or prairie? Not good!
山顶或大草原？不靠谱！
You need to get buried, the faster the better, because the longer you hang around on the surface,
你要被埋起来，埋的越快越好，因为你暴露在外的时间越久，
the more likely you'll get eaten, scavenged, or otherwise destroyed before ever having a chance to get preserved.
在能够得到机会长久保存之前，就越可能被吃掉、被捡走或者被破坏。
If you can get buried someplace with little to no oxygen, like a bog or a deep lake bottom, even better.
如果你被埋在一个地方，一个缺少氧气甚至无氧的地方，像泥塘或者深湖底，那就更好了。
That lack of oxygen will slow down your decay and give you more time to fossilize.
缺氧会减缓你尸体的腐烂，给你更多时间变成化石。
So, let's say you're lucky enough to die and get buried in a shallow sea under muddy, sandy sediments.
那么，假设你幸运地死掉并且被埋在浅海，在泥泞的、布满砂石的沉积物下。
What's your next move? One option is a process called permineralization.
下一步干吗呢？一种选择是经历所谓的石化过程。
While all your soft parts decay away, your bones get saturated with mineral-rich waters.
伴随着你身上柔软的部分都慢慢腐烂，你的骨骼充满富含矿物质的海水。
Bit by bit, microscopic crystals precipitate out of these waters to fill in the empty spaces and pores in your bones.
渐渐地，这些海水中凝结的微小晶体填充进你骨骼里的细孔。
Otherwise, you'd better hope the sediments around you harden while your bones decay away
不然，你最好盼着在你骨骼渐逝时，你周边的沉积物硬化，
and another sediment or mineral fills in the spaces your bones leave behind, creating a perfect cast of your skeleton.
有别的沉积物或矿物填充你骨骼留下的空间，铸造成完美的骨骼造型。

Over time, the sediments around your fossil will lithify or turn into rock. But you're not in the clear yet!
久而久之，你身体化石周围的沉积物将岩石化或者变成岩石。但你还是不能放心！
Many things could happen to those sedimentary rocks that might destroy your chances of getting discovered.
这些沉积岩还会发生很多变化，并且可能导致后人没办法发现你身体变成的化石。
They could get uplifted into a mountain range and eroded away
它们可能因造山运动而被抬升，再经侵蚀而流失
or carried along in an oceanic plate and subducted back into the Earth's mantle, melting your fossil into hot mush.
或是随著海洋板块被带入地壳之中，将化石熔化殆尽。
Fingers crossed your rock surroundings will get gently lifted up by plate tectonics, sea levels will change,
穿流过你周围的岩石会通过板块构造慢慢抬升，海平面会变化，
and you'll end up under dry land close to the surface,
你最终会在干燥的陆面下接近地表，
but not so close that erosion from wind and rain wipes you away before someone can come find you.
但又不是特别近，所以在你被发现之前，表层的岩石被风雨侵蚀流失。
The last step in this long process, an intrepid paleontologist has to come find you.
这个漫长过程的最后一步，那就是一位勇敢的古生物学家必须要找到你。
Maybe she's a research scientist scouting for fossils your age and type or just an amateur collector hoping for a fortuitous find.
也许她是一名研究员，四处寻找你这样年龄和类型的化石，或者只是业余收藏者，期待偶然的发现。
She whacks away at layers of rock above you or spots your fossil exposed in a creek bank after a flood.
她打碎你上面的层层岩石，或者在河边经过一场洪水后，你化石的一部分露出来。
And there you are, a magnificent scientific discovery, millions of years in the making!
你就这样出现了，一个重大科学发现，经历几百万年的磨砺！
She and her colleagues gently extract you from the surrounding sediment,
她和她的同事们小心翼翼地把你从周围沉积物中取出，
measure and photograph all the bits and pieces they find,
对他们发现的一点一滴测量、拍照，
and begin the complex task of reconstructing how and when you lived based on the evidence they find in your bones.
然后基于他们在你骨骼中发现的证据开始复杂的工作，重现你是如何以及在何时生活过。
Paleontologists will be some of your biggest fans along with all those admiring crowds at the museum.
古生物学家，还有博物馆里那些欣赏的众人，会是你的一部分超级粉丝。
You made it! You spent years underground in obscurity, shedding blood, sweat, tears, and your internal organs.
你成功了！你在地下默默无闻了那么多年，流血、流汗、流泪、失去五脏六腑。
You worked yourself to the bone until your bones disintegrated and were replaced by minerals and sediments.
拼命到只剩形骸，直到你的骨骼分解，被矿物和沉积岩取代。
But it was all worth it because you're a famous fossil! Now, you better hold that pose!
但这一切都值得，因为你成了著名的化石！现在，保持那个姿势别动！