万物简史 第461期:生命在前进(3)

 I mention all this to explain why on a gray day in February I went to the Natural History Museum in London to meet a cheerful, vaguely¹ rumpled², very likeable paleontologist named Richard Fortey. 我提这一切，是为了解释为什么我在阴沉沉的一天前往伦敦的自然史博物馆，会见一位性格开朗、有点不修边幅、非常讨人喜欢的古生物学家。他的名字叫理查德·福泰。

Fortey knows an awful lot about an awful lot. 福泰的知识面极广。

He is the author of a wry³, splendid book called Life: An Unauthorised Biography, which covers the whole pageant⁴ of animate⁵ creation. 他是一本幽默而又精彩的书的作者，书名叫做《生命：一部未经授权的传记》。该书涉及创造生命的全过程。

But his first love is a type of marine⁶ creature called trilobites that once teemed⁷ in Ordovician seas but haven't existed for a long time except in fossilized form. 但是，他最钟爱的是一种名叫三叶虫的海生动物。那种动物一度充满奥陶纪的海洋，但早已不复存在，除了以化石的形式。

All shared a basic body plan of three parts, or lobes—head, tail, thorax—from which comes the name. 三叶虫的身体都有个相同的基本结构，分为三个部分或三片叶——头、尾和胸。三叶虫的名字由此而来。

Fortey found his first when he was a boy clambering over rocks at St. David's Bay in Wales. 福泰在孩提时代就发现了第一个三叶虫化石，当时他正攀越威尔士圣戴维海湾的岩壁。

He was hooked for life. 结果，他一生都对三叶虫着了迷。

He took me to a gallery of tall metal cupboards. 他把我带到一个四周都是高高的金属柜子的陈列室。

Each cupboard was filled with shallow drawers, and each drawer was filled with stony⁸ trilobites—twenty thousand specimens⁹ in all. 每个柜子上都有许多不深的抽屉，每个抽屉里都塞满了三叶虫化石——总共有2万件标本。

It seems like a big number, he agreed, “看来真是不少，”他表示同意，

"but you have to remember that millions upon millions of trilobites lived for millions upon millions of years in ancient seas, “不过，你要记住，成万亿只三时虫在古代的海洋里生活了成亿年，

so twenty thousand isn't a huge number. 因此2万这个数字不算多。

And most of these are only partial specimens. 而其中大部分仅仅是不完整的标本。

Finding a complete trilobite fossil is still a big moment for a paleontologist." 发现一块完整的三叶虫化石对古生物学家来说，仍是一件大事。”

Trilobites first appeared—fully formed, seemingly from nowhere—about 540 million years ago, 三时虫最初出现在大约54000万年以前，

near the start of the great outburst of complex life popularly known as the Cambrian explosion, 接近复杂生命大爆发即通常所谓的寒武纪大爆发的起始时刻。它们已经完全成形，仿佛从天而降。

and then vanished, along with a great deal else, in the great and still mysterious Permian extinction¹⁰ 300,000 or so centuries later. 然后，在30000万年以后。三叶虫跟许多别的生物一起在二叠纪大灭绝的时候消失了。那次大灭绝至今仍是个谜。

1 vaguely   

adv.含糊地，暖昧地

参考例句：

• He had talked vaguely of going to work abroad.他含糊其词地说了到国外工作的事。
• He looked vaguely before him with unseeing eyes.他迷迷糊糊的望着前面，对一切都视而不见。

2 rumpled   

v.弄皱，使凌乱( rumple的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She rumpled his hair playfully. 她顽皮地弄乱他的头发。
• The bed was rumpled and strewn with phonograph records. 那张床上凌乱不堪，散放着一些唱片。 来自辞典例句

3 wry   

adj.讽刺的；扭曲的

参考例句：

• He made a wry face and attempted to wash the taste away with coffee.他做了个鬼脸，打算用咖啡把那怪味地冲下去。
• Bethune released Tung's horse and made a wry mouth.白求恩放开了董的马，噘了噘嘴。

4 pageant   

n.壮观的游行；露天历史剧

参考例句：

• Our pageant represented scenes from history.我们的露天历史剧上演一幕幕的历史事件。
• The inauguration ceremony of the new President was a splendid pageant.新主席的就职典礼的开始是极其壮观的。

5 animate   

v.赋于生命，鼓励；adj.有生命的，有生气的

参考例句：

• We are animate beings,living creatures.我们是有生命的存在，有生命的动物。
• The girls watched,little teasing smiles animating their faces.女孩们注视着，脸上挂着调皮的微笑，显得愈加活泼。

6 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

7 teemed   

v.充满( teem的过去式和过去分词 )；到处都是；（指水、雨等）暴降；倾注

参考例句：

• The pond teemed with tadpoles. 池子里有很多蝌蚪。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Ideas of new plays and short stories teemed in his head. 他的脑海里装满了有关新的剧本和短篇小说的构思。 来自辞典例句

8 stony   

adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的

参考例句：

• The ground is too dry and stony.这块地太干，而且布满了石头。
• He listened to her story with a stony expression.他带着冷漠的表情听她讲经历。

9 specimens   

n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人

参考例句：

• Astronauts have brought back specimens of rock from the moon. 宇航员从月球带回了岩石标本。
• The traveler brought back some specimens of the rocks from the mountains. 那位旅行者从山上带回了一些岩石标本。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 extinction   

n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种

参考例句：

• The plant is now in danger of extinction.这种植物现在有绝种的危险。
• The island's way of life is doomed to extinction.这个岛上的生活方式注定要消失。