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Wild Europe - Genesis 肇始之初- 8
They make perfect roof tiles, but these tiles occasionally reveal something extraordinary. Perfect snapshots from 115 million years ago, back then, Solnhofen was part of a very still and salty tropical lagoon1. No scavengers could survive in these toxic2 waters, but anything that died was left undisturbed.
One casualty in particular has made Solnhofen world famous--archaeopteryx. Although it had the head and pelvis of a reptile3, the long forelimbs suggest something altogether different. They're covered in feathers. This was part reptile, part bird. Archaeopteryx marks one of the major turning points in evolutionary4 history. From these beginnings, emerged the 9000 species of birds that fill the skies today.
The next great event that Europe experienced took place a hundred million years ago. The clues lie hidden in the famous chalk cliffs of Southern England. Chalk is composed of the shells and skeletons of ancient marine5 plankton6, microscopic7 creatures, trillions and trillions of them.
words and expressions
snapshot: (n.) A photograph taken with a small hand-held camera. 快照
lagoon: (n.) A shallow body of water, especially one separated from a sea by sandbars or coral reefs. 环礁湖
archaeopteryx: (n.) An extinct primitive8 bird (genus Archaeopteryx) of the Jurassic period, having lizardlike characteristics, such as teeth and a long, bony tail. It may represent a transitional form between reptiles9 and birds. 始祖鸟
pelvis: (n.) A basin-shaped structure of the vertebrate skeleton, composed of the innominate bones on the sides, the pubis in front, and the sacrum and coccyx behind, that rests on the lower limbs and supports the spinal co
1 lagoon | |
n.泻湖,咸水湖 | |
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2 toxic | |
adj.有毒的,因中毒引起的 | |
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3 reptile | |
n.爬行动物;两栖动物 | |
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4 evolutionary | |
adj.进化的;演化的,演变的;[生]进化论的 | |
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5 marine | |
adj.海的;海生的;航海的;海事的;n.水兵 | |
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6 plankton | |
n.浮游生物 | |
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7 microscopic | |
adj.微小的,细微的,极小的,显微的 | |
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8 primitive | |
adj.原始的;简单的;n.原(始)人,原始事物 | |
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9 reptiles | |
n.爬行动物,爬虫( reptile的名词复数 ) | |
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