纪录片《进化缺环》 第6期 鱼石螈

Some could then have evolved on land.

有的后来在陆地上进化

Their fins became legs, they grew five fingers and toes, they started to walk.

它们的鳍变成了腿，长出了5根趾或爪，它们开始行走

They became tetrapods, our ancestors. Limbs had developed so they could do what we all do: walk on land.

它们变成了四足动物——我们的祖先，四肢的进化使它们具备了和我们一样的本领：在地上行走

The drying pools theory seemed to explain everything,

干涸水塘的理论似乎能解释一切

both why we had grown our legs and from what we'd evolved.

包括我们长出腿的原因以及我们从何而来

All they needed to confirm it was to find that very first tetrapod,

现在他们只需找出最早的四足动物就能证明一切

the creature into which the fish had evolved once it was on the land.

这种动物正是鱼类在陆地上进化的结果

If it was, as they'd predicted, an animal with five fingers and toes then the whole thing would make sense.

如果这真和他们预料的那样，这只动物有5根趾和爪，那么整件事就都说得通了

Many would seek this mythical beast and for years no one found it,

很多人都在寻找这只神秘的动物，可是数年来都一无所获

In the 1930s a team of Swedes made a series of trips to Greenland,

上世纪30年代，一个瑞典科研小组在格陵兰作了一系列堪察

one of the few places in the world with outcrops of Devonian rock.

那里是世界上少数几个裸露着泥盆纪岩层的地区之一

Their mission: to find that first creature with legs.

他们的任务是寻找第一只有腿的动物

Among the party Erik Jarvik, Jarvik's team found what everyone had been searching for

Erik Jarvik是研究小组的一员，Jarvik的小组找到了所有人梦寐以求的东西

fossils of the very first creature with legs rather than fins. They called it ichthyostega.

最早长出腿脚，而不是鳍的动物的化石。他们把它命名为“鱼石螈”。