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LaurenSallan_2017U-_如何在演化中胜出和在大灭绝中存活_
Congratulations. 恭喜。
By being here, listening, alive, a member of a growing species , you are one of history's greatest winners -- the culmination of a success story four billion years in the making. 能在这里, 能够听,能活着, 身为一个不断成长之物种的一员, 你就是历史上最伟大的赢家之一, 花了四十亿年形成之成功故事高点。
species:n.[生物]物种;种类; culmination:n.顶点;高潮; success story:n.获得巨大成功的人(或事物);
You are life's one percent. 你是生命的前 1%。
The losers , the 99 percent of species who have ever lived, are dead -- killed by fire, flood, asteroids , predation , starvation , ice, heat and the cold math of natural selection . 输家们, 其余 99% 曾经存在过的物种 都死了; 死因包括大火、洪水、小行星、 掠食、饥荒、冰、热, 以及物竞天择的冷酷数学。
losers:n.输者,败者:(loser的复数) asteroids:n.[天]小行星(asteroid的复数); predation:n.捕食;掠夺; starvation:n.饿死;挨饿;绝食; natural selection:n.自然选择;物竞天择;
Your ancestors, back to the earliest fishes, overcame all these challenges. 你们的祖先, 回推到最早的鱼类, 克服了各种挑战。
overcame:v.克服(overcome的过去式);
You are here because of golden opportunities made possible by mass extinction . 你们会在这里, 是因为大灭绝所带来的黄金机会。
mass:n.块,团; adj.群众的,民众的; v.聚集起来,聚集; extinction:n.绝种;
(Laughter) （笑声）
It's true. 是真的。
The same is true of your co-winners and relatives . 对你的共同赢家、 亲戚们而言也是如此:
relatives:n.亲戚;亲属;同类事物;(relative的复数)
The 34,000 kinds of fishes. 三万四千种鱼类。
How did we all get so lucky? 我们怎么会这么幸运？
Will we continue to win? 我们能继续赢下去吗？
I am a fish paleobiologist who uses big data -- the fossil record -- to study how some species win and others lose. 我是鱼类的古生物学家, 用大数据,化石记录, 来研究为什么有些物种能赢, 其他的则输了。
paleobiologist:n.古生物学家(paleobiology的变形); fossil:n.化石;老人;老古董;adj.从地下发掘出来的;化石的;属于旧时代的;陈腐的;
The living can't tell us; they know nothing but winning. 还活着的无法告诉我们; 他们对「赢」一无所知。
So, we must speak with the dead. 所以我们必须与已死的对话。
How do we make dead fishes talk? 我们要如何让死鱼说话？
Museums contain multitudes of beautiful fish fossils , but their real beauty emerges when combined with the larger number of ugly , broken fossils , and reduced to ones and zeros. 博物馆有许多美丽的鱼化石, 但要让它们真正的美浮现, 要把它们与更多丑陋、 破碎的化石结合, 然后再缩减为一和零。
multitudes:n.众多;大量;群众;民众;人群;(multitude的复数) fossils:n.[古生]化石(fossil复数形式); emerges:vi.浮现;摆脱;暴露; ugly:adj.丑陋的;邪恶的;令人厌恶的;
I can trawl a 500-million-year database for evolutionary patterns. 我可以在一个五亿年 资料庫中搜寻演化模式。
trawl:n.拖网;排钩;vi.用拖网捕鱼;vt.用拖网捕鱼; evolutionary:adj.进化的;发展的;渐进的;
For example, fish forms can be captured by coordinates and transformed to reveal major pathways of change and trends through time. 比如, 鱼的形式可以用座标来表示, 然后转换来揭示 随时间发生的主要改变路径和趋势。
captured:adj.捕获的;被俘的;v.捕获;占领;引起;(capture的过去式和过去分词) coordinates:n.[数]坐标;相配之衣物;v.使协调;使调和(coordinate的第三人称单数形式); transformed:v.使改变形态;使改变外观(或性质);(transform的过去分词和过去式) reveal:v.显示;透露;揭露;泄露;n.揭露;暴露;门侧,窗侧; pathways:n.小路;小径(pathway的复数); trends:n.趋势;倾向;动态;动向;(trend的第三人称单数和复数)
Here is the story of the winners and losers of just one pivotal event I discovered using fossil data. 以下是个关于赢家和输家的 关键事件的故事, 是我用化石资料发现的。
pivotal:adj.关键的;中枢的;枢轴的;n.关键事物;中心事物;
Let's travel back 360 million years -- six times as long ago as the last dinosaur -- to the Devonian period; a strange world. 让我们回到 3.6 亿年前── 比最后一只恐龙在世的时间 还要往回推六倍的时间── 回到泥盆纪; 一个奇怪的世界。
Armored predators with razor-edge jaws dominated alongside huge fishes with arm bones in their fins. 下巴有剃刀边缘的武装掠食者 和鱼鰭中有手臂骨的大鱼是主宰者。
Armored:adj.装甲的; predators:n.捕食性动物;实行弱肉强食的人(或机构);掠夺者;(predator的复数) dominated:v.支配;控制;左右;影响;(dominate的过去式和过去分词)
Crab-like fishes scuttled across the sea floor. 像螃蟹的鱼类沉在海底。
scuttled:n.天窗;煤桶;筐;vi.逃避;急促地跑;vt.使船沉没;破坏;
The few ray-fin relatives of salmon and tuna cowered at the bottom of the food chain . 鲑鱼和鲔鱼的少数辐鰭亲戚 畏缩地待在食物链的最底层。
salmon:n.鲑鱼;大马哈鱼;鲑肉色;鲑鱼肉;橙红色,粉橙色;adj.浅澄色的; cowered:vi.退缩;抖缩;蜷缩;弯腰屈膝; food chain:n.食物链;
The few early sharks lived offshore in fear. 少数早期的鲨鱼,恐惧地住在近海。
offshore:adj.离岸的;[海洋]近海的;吹向海面的;adv.向海面,向海;
Your few four-legged ancestors, the tetrapods , struggled in tropical river plains. 你们的四只脚祖先,即四足动物, 在热带河流边的平原上挣扎求生。
four-legged:adj.四足的;有四根桅樯的; tetrapods:n.四足动物(tetrapod的复数);四肢类; struggled:v.奋斗;努力;争取;艰难地行进;抗争;(struggle的过去式和过去分词) tropical:adj.热带的;热情的;酷热的;
Ecosystems were crowded. 生态系统很拥挤。
Ecosystems:n.生态系统(ecosystem的复数);
There was no escape, no opportunity in sight. 无处可逃, 眼前也没有机会。
Then the world ended. 接着世界末日了。
(Laughter) （笑声）
No, it is a good thing. 不,这是好事。
96 percent of all fish species died during the Hangenberg event, 359 million years ago: an interval of fire and ice. 所有鱼种中的 96% 都死亡了, 这是 3.59 亿年前的 泥盆纪后期灭绝事件: 这是段火与冰的时期。
interval:n.间歇;音程;休息时间;(其他事情)穿插出现的间隙;
A crowded world was disrupted and swept away. 拥挤的世界被中断、被彻底泯灭了。
disrupted:破坏;使瓦解;使分裂;使中断;使陷于混乱(disrupt的过去分词形式); swept:v.扫除(sweep的过去式和过去分词);adj.扫频的;
Now, you might think that's the end of the story. 你们可能认为故事就到此为止。
The mighty fell, the meek inherited the earth, and here we are. 强大者阵亡,温顺者继承了地球, 我们就在这里了。
mighty:adj.强而有力的;巨大的;非凡的;adv.非常;很;极其; meek:adj.温顺的;谦恭的;驯服的; inherited:v.继承(金钱、财产等);接替(责任等);继任;(inherit的过去式和过去分词)
But winning is not that simple. 但,要赢并没有那么简单。
The handful of survivors came from many groups -- all greatly outnumbered by their own dead. 许多族群的少量生存者── 这些族群都是死亡数远高于存活数。
greatly:adv.很,大大地;非常; outnumbered:v.(在数量上)压倒,比…多;(outnumber的过去式和过去分词)
They ranged from top predator to bottom-feeder, big to small, marine to freshwater . 从最上层的掠食者到最下层的都有, 从大到小都有, 从海洋到淡水都有。
marine:adj.海的;海产的;海生的;海船的;n.(尤指美国或英国皇家)海军陆战队士兵; freshwater:adj.淡水的;无经验的;n.淡水;内河;湖水;
The extinction was a filter . 灭绝是一种过滤。
filter:n.滤波器;过滤器;滤光器;滤声器;v.过滤;渗入;(用程序)筛选;缓行;
It merely leveled the playing field . 它只是把游乐场给变平等了。
merely:adv.仅仅,只不过;只是; leveled:n.水平; adj.水平的; vi.瞄准; vt.使同等; playing field:n.运动场;操场;
What really counted was what survivors did over the next several million years in that devastated world. 真正重要的是在接下来的数百年间, 生存者在那荒芜的世界中做了什么。
devastated:adj.不安的,混乱的,震惊的; v.彻底破坏; (devastate的过去分词和过去式)
The former overlords should have had an advantage . 先前的最高统治者应该会有优势。
overlords:n.领主,庄主,大王;(overlord的复数) advantage:n.有利条件:优势:优点:
They became even larger, storing energy, investing in their young, spreading across the globe, feasting on fishes, keeping what had always worked, and biding their time. 牠们变得更大了, 储存能量, 投资在孩子身上, 散布到全球, 享用鱼类, 保持向来的运作,等待牠们的时机。
investing:v.投资;投入(时间、精力等);(invest的现在分词) feasting:v.尽情享用(美味佳肴);(feast的现在分词) biding:v.等候,忍耐(bide的现在分词形式);
Yet they merely persisted for a while , declining without innovating , becoming living fossils. 但,牠们只坚持了一下子, 没有创新而衰落, 变成了活化石。
persisted:v.持续(persist的过去分词);坚持不懈; for a while:adv.片刻;暂时;一会儿;一时; declining:v.减少;下降;衰弱;谢绝;婉言拒绝;(decline的现在分词) innovating:n.创新;v.革新(innovate的现在分词);创立;
They were too stuck in their ways and are now largely forgotten. 牠们太执着在自己的方式, 现在大多已被遗忘。
largely:adv.主要地;大部分;大量地;
A few of the long-suffering ray-fins, sharks and four-legged tetrapods went the opposite direction. 少数长期遭受苦难的辐鰭鱼类、 鲨鱼和四足动物, 走的路则完全相反。
long-suffering:adj.坚忍的;长期忍受的;n.忍耐;坚忍;长期受苦;
They became smaller -- living fast, dying young, eating little and reproducing rapidly. 牠们变小了── 生命过得很快,很早逝, 吃得少,繁殖快。
reproducing:v.复制;繁殖(reproduce的ing形式);重述;
They tried new foods, different homes, strange heads and weird bodies. 牠们尝试新食物, 不同的家园, 奇怪的头和怪异的身体。
weird:adj.奇怪的;奇异的;离奇的;n.命运;宿命;命运女神;
(Laughter) （笑声）
And they found opportunity, proliferated , and won the future for their 60,000 living species, including you. 牠们找到机会,增殖, 为牠们六万个现存物种赢得了未来, 包括你们。
proliferated:vi.增殖;扩散;激增;vt.使激增;
That's why they look familiar . 那就是为何牠们很眼熟。
familiar:adj.熟悉的;常见的;亲近的;n.常客;密友;
You know their names. 你们知道牠们的名字。
Winning is not about random events or an arms race . 要赢的重点不是随机发生的事件或军备竞赛。
random:adj.[数]随机的;任意的;胡乱的;n.随意;adv.胡乱地; arms race:n.军备竞赛;
Rather, survivors went down alternative , evolutionary pathways. 而是幸存者走向 替代道路、演化的路径。
alternative:adj.供选择的;选择性的;交替的;n.二中择一;供替代的选择;
Some found incredible success, while others became dead fish walking. 有些找到了极大的成功, 其他的则是「行尸走鱼」。
incredible:adj.难以置信的,惊人的;
(Laughter) （笑声）
A real scientific term. 这是真的科学术语。
scientific:adj.科学的,系统的;
(Laughter) （笑声）
I am now investigating how these pathways to victory and defeat repeat across time. 我现在在研究 这些通往胜利和失败的路径 如何随时间而重覆发生。
investigating:v.调查;研究;审查;(investigate的现在分词)
My lab has already compiled thousands upon thousands of dead fishes, but many more remain. 我的实验室已经收集了 数以千计的死鱼, 但还有很多其他的。
compiled:adj.编译的;v.编辑(compile的过去分词);
However, it is already clear that your ancestors' survival through mass extinction, and their responses in the aftermath made you who you are today. 然而,已经能清楚知道, 你们祖先在大灭绝中存活下来, 而牠们在事件后的反应, 造成了现在的你们。
survival:n.幸存,残存;幸存者,残存物; responses:n.回答,答复;反应;响应;(response的复数) aftermath:n.后果;余波;
What does this tell us for the future? 这告诉我们什么关于未来的讯息？
As long as a handful of species survive, life will recover. 只要还有少数物种存活, 生命就会恢复。
As long as:conj.只要;长达;如果;既然;
The versatile and the lucky will not just replace what was lost, but win in new forms. 能随机应变的、运气好的物种, 不只会取代已失去的, 还会以新形式来赢。
versatile:adj.多才多艺的;通用的,万能的;多面手的;
It just might take several million years. 只是会花上数百万年。
Thank you. 谢谢。
(Applause) （掌声）