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There was just a huge range of little tiny fossils in these rocks,
這些巖石中包藏著大量微小的化石，
which were telling us in fantastic detail just what was going on at this time
含有關(guān)于那個時期相當(dāng)豐富的信息，
and there was no need to guess anymore, we could actually see the order in which things were going extinct
毫無疑問，我們能從中了解到生物滅絕的順序，
and get the full extinction story right from the beginning all the way through to the end.
從而從頭到尾了解整個滅絕過程。
For the first time he was able to work out exactly what had happened.
他將首次揭露當(dāng)時到底發(fā)生了什么。
It was a complete surprise.
結(jié)果令人大吃一驚。
The extinction had occurred in 3 distinct phases.
大滅絕經(jīng)歷了3個獨立的階段。
The extinction crisis first begins on land
大滅絕首先是在陸地上開始的，
and what we see is species of plants, species of animals start disappearing about 40,000 years this goes on for.
陸地上的動植物都相繼滅亡，這一階段大約持續(xù)了4萬年。
This was the first phase, a period when some, but by no means all, land species died.
這是第一階段，這一時期導(dǎo)致部分而不是全部陸地物種滅亡。
And then what happens next at about 40,000-45,000 years after the crisis has begun
接下來在大滅絕開始后的40000-45000年間，
is that we see a really quite sharp, abrupt extinction in the seas at this time,
是一個非常劇烈而突然的海洋物種滅絕時期，
so this is the marine extinction event, much shorter and sharper than what we see on land.
這就是海洋生物大滅絕事件比先前陸地上的短暫迅猛得多。
So the second phase of the extinction was the abrupt death of virtually everything in the sea.
看來大滅絕的第二階段導(dǎo)致所有海洋生物極速滅亡。
Then came the third phase as the extinction moved back to the land.
接下來就是第三階段，大滅絕再次殺回陸上。
Following on from that we then see the culmination of the land extinction,
在那之后便是陸地物種滅絕的高潮，
so we start losing all our typical plants and all our typical animals as well,
所有最典型的動植物都開始消失，
and this carries on to a point of about 80,000 years after the extinction began.
這一階段一直持續(xù)到大滅絕開始后大約8萬年。
