万物简史 第486期:多灾多难的生命进程(6)

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　　There was also an omnivorous¹ and unsettling new type of predator² on the scene, 而且，出现了一种新的无所不吃的、令人不安的捕食者。

　　one so perfectly³ designed for attack that it has scarcely changed in all the long eons since its emergence⁴: the shark. 这种动物的体型完全适用于攻击。自出现以来，它在漫长的历史时期里几乎没有变化。它就是鲨鱼。

　　Never would there be a more propitious⁵ time to find an alternative environment to water. 因此，找一个取代水的环境的最佳时刻终于到了。

　　Plants began the process of land colonization⁶ about 450 million years ago, 大约45000万年以前，植物开始了占领陆地的进程。

　　accompanied of necessity by tiny mites⁷ and other organisms that they needed to break down and recycle dead organic matter on their behalf. 与其为伴的还有必不可少的小螨虫和其他动物。植物需要它们来为自己分解死去的有机物质。使之再循环。

　　Larger animals took a little longer to emerge, but by about 400 million years ago they were venturing out of the water, too. 大动物过了更长的时间才出现，但到了大约4亿年以前，它们也大胆地从水里爬了出来。

　　Popular illustrations have encouraged us to envision the first venturesome land dwellers⁸ as a kind of ambitious fish: 许多通俗插图给我们这样的一种印象：第一批冒险爬上陆地生活的是一种雄心勃勃的鱼：

　　something like the modern mudskipper, which can hop⁹ from puddle¹⁰ to puddle during droughts—or even as a fully¹¹ formed amphibian¹². 它的样子有点像现代的弹涂鱼。在旱季能从一个水塘跳到另一个水塘，或者甚至是一种完全成形的两栖动物。

　　In fact, the first visible mobile residents on dry land were probably much more like modern wood lice, sometimes also known as pillbugs or sow bugs¹³. 实际上，陆地上第一批可见的、能四处活动的居民很可能更像现代的潮虫，有时候也被称之为球潮虫或鼠妇。

　　These are the little bugs (crustaceans, in fact) that are commonly thrown into confusion when you upturn¹⁴ a rock or log. 这些都是小虫子（实际上是甲壳纲动物），要是你翻起一块岩石或一根木头，它们常常会惊恐万状。

　　For those that learned to breathe oxygen from the air, times were good. 对于那些学会了从空气中呼吸氧气的动物来说，日子是不错的。

　　Oxygen levels in the Devonian and Carboniferous periods, when terrestrial life first bloomed, were as high as 35 percent (as opposed to nearer 20 percent now). 在陆地生命大幅度增加的泥盆纪和石炭纪，空气中的氧的浓度高达35%（现在是将近20%）。

　　This allowed animals to grow remarkably¹⁵ large remarkably quickly. 因此，动物能以惊人的速度长到惊人的个儿。

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