評論
打印
Finding that fish fossil proved easy. By the turn of the 19th century
尋找那條魚的化石好像并不難。到了19世紀末
all eyes were on a Devonian group called the lobe-finned.
所有目光都聚集在泥盆紀的一類魚身上，它們叫做肉鰭魚
Lobe-finned uniquely have a bone structure in their fins that seems to be a precursor to our legs and arms
肉鰭魚的鰭內有獨特的骨結構，看起來像是腿或胳膊的前身
and one particular lobe-finned, the long extinct eusthenopteron had all the leg bones except the feet and toes.
尤其是一類肉鰭魚--早已滅絕的真掌鰭魚，幾乎擁有所有腿骨，只是少了足和趾
Here in these fossils the limb was just laid out simply beautifully
這些化石中伸展出來的肢非常完整，
and it was so easy to turn it in your mind into a tetrapod when these bones,
不難想象它將進化成四足動物，這些骨頭，
the 1 and the 2 bones, they were, they were laid out and there were these
這一根和這兩根骨頭都已伸長
bits in the, the, the ankle and the, the wrist and so on.
另外還有踝部和腕部的骨塊，等等
Absolutely fantastic, beautiful material, clinched it really.
真是太神奇了，非常好的資料，把它都串起來了
What they thought they'd clinched was the fish from which we all came, the ancestor without legs,
他們所說的串起來的就是我們起源的那種魚，一個沒有腿的祖先
and early last century scholars developed a theory to explain why it might have evolved legs and started walking.
上世紀初，有學者提出了一種理論，用來解釋它為何進化出腿并開始行走
That brutal Devonian sun must have been the cause of droughts.
泥盆紀毒辣的陽光一定是引起干旱的原因
Fish would have been trapped in drying pools and faced death.
魚可能困在日漸干涸的水塘中，面臨著死亡的威脅
To survive a few eusthenopterons must have dragged themselves on their fins,
為了活下去，一小部分真掌鰭魚不得不用它們的鰭撐著身體
as mudskippers do today, out of the puddles in search of deeper water.
像今天的彈涂魚那樣，從水坑爬到深水里去。
