評論
打印
By 1987 Clack was off to this apparent goldmine of tetrapods,
1987年，Clack出發(fā)前去尋覓這個顯露的四足動物寶藏
taking along a student, Per Ahlberg. It was a big undertaking.
隨行的是當(dāng)時還是學(xué)生的Per Ahlberg，這是一項艱巨的任務(wù)
And of course it was possible that we were going to find almost nothing, or at least nothing new,
當(dāng)然我們很可能一無所獲，或者至少找不到新的東西
so the potential was there on the one hand for a spectacular success
所以那里的前景是一方面可能獲得巨大的成功
and on the other hand for a considerable embarrassment.
另一方面也可能受到重重阻礙
At first it looked more like embarrassment.
一開始，看起來更像是受到了阻礙
As the week wore on, or the first two weeks wore on we still hadn't found the, the locality that we were looking for.
時間一天天過去，最初兩周我們都沒能找到我們一直尋求的地點。
We were beginning to think are we on the right mountain?
我們開始思考我們是不是爬錯了山
Then Clack saw something.
后來，Clack有了發(fā)現(xiàn)
It was covered with dirt and soil. It very nearly got thrown on the scrapheap,
它被泥土覆蓋住了，差點把它扔進了垃圾堆
but fortunately we brushed some of the dirt off and we could see part of a skull.
幸運的是，我們刷走了一些泥土，看到了一部分頭骨
Clack's team had not found the transitional form between fish and tetrapods,
Clack的小組并沒有找到魚和四足動物之間的過渡型物種
but she had found something almost as rare.
但她卻找到了另一種非常罕見的動物
It was another species of Devonian tetrapod, a species called acanthostega,
它是另一種泥盆紀(jì)四足動物，叫做棘螈
different from Jarvik's but clearly sharing the same 2ncestry and, therefore, also related to humans.
它和Jarvik的動物不太一樣，但它們顯然來自同一個祖先，所以它也和人類有關(guān)
Acanthostega was only the second complete Devonian tetrapod ever to be found.
棘螈是迄今發(fā)現(xiàn)的第二只完整的泥盆紀(jì)四足動物
