征程

Part One Palaeozoic

Cold Blood and Scales

第一篇 古生代

冷血与鳞片的时代

第1章 The Ch...

Part One Palaeozoic

Cold Blood and Scales

第一篇 古生代

冷血与鳞片的时代

第1章 The Chengjiang Biota: Dawn of the Vertebrates

澄江生物群：脊椎动物的出现

The forces of biological competition and predation, environmental change, and simple chance winnowed the field of early animal life, eliminating some creatures and thereby creating ecological space in which others could flourish.

生物竞争和捕食的力量、自然环境的改变，以及单纯的机遇在早期动物的生命中进行筛选，剔除了某些动物，也因此为其他动物的繁盛提供了生态空间。

[Key Transition 1: The Beginnings of the Backbone] 大事件1：脊梁骨的起源

What emerges clearly from the fossil record and the anatomy of modern hagfish, lampreys and sharks is that the evolution of vertebrae was not a sudden event.

化石记录以及现生盲鳗、七鳃鳗和鲨鱼的解剖结构明确地告诉我们，脊椎的演化显然不是一个突然的过程。

第2章 The Xiaoxiang Fauna: Fishing for Answers

潇湘动物群：“钓出”真正的答案

As greatly modified lobe-finned fish, we humans stroll about on our pelvic fins and use our pectoral fins to turn the pages of books like the one you are reading now.

我们人类其实就是一种“超级改进版“的肉鳍鱼，我们用“腹鳍”四处行走，并用“胸鳍”翻动书的书页，就像你现在正在做的这样。

[Key Transition 2: To Jaw-Jaw is Always Better] 大事件2 ：有颌的感觉真好

Vertebrates of different types use their jaws to crush the throats of prey animals, slice and grind their way through tough vegetation, and filter plankton out of seawater.

不同的脊椎动物用不同的方式使用它们的颌，有些用来咬破猎物的喉咙，有些切碎研磨植物，又或者从海水中过滤藻类。

第3章 The Zhongning Fauna: A New Breed of Vertebrate

中宁动物群：脊椎动物的新类型

Amid these remains of fierce predators and heavily armoured prey, a single jaw fragment measuring less than 10 cm in length and retaining only small denticles rather than true teeth might seem unremarkable.

就在这些凶猛的捕食者和重装甲的猎物的残骸之间，一段不起眼的颌骨化石隐匿其中。

[Key Transition 3: Fish Nearly Out of Water] 大事件3：即将离开水的鱼

The somewhat ironic upshot is that the first tetrapod limbs were probably used more for swimming than for walking.

值得玩味的是，最早的四足动物的四肢很可能更多地用于游泳而不是行走。

第4章 The Dashankou Fauna: Beasts and Belebey

大山口动物群：兽与蜥的世界

A particularly interesting beast from the Dashankou Fauna is the carnivore Raranimus dashankouensis, whose name means literally the “rare spirit from Dashankou”.

大山口动物群有一种有趣的动物叫大山口珍稀兽，直译就是“珍稀的大山口精灵”。

[Key Transition 4: The Egg, not the Chicken] 大事件4：先有鸡还是先有蛋

Next time you buy amniotic eggs in a supermarket, why not take a moment to appreciate the sophistication and adaptive value of the intricate biological structures that will soon be appearing on your dinner table?

下一次你在超市购买羊膜动物的卵时，在它们变成你的盘中餐前，何不花一点时间欣赏一下这一充满进化意义的，复杂而精巧的生物学结构呢？

Part Two Mesozoic

The Empire of Dinosaurs

第二篇 中生代

恐龙的帝国

第5章 The Guanling Biota: Life Among the Dangling Crinoids

关岭生物群：与摇曳的海百合伴生的生命

Complete crinoids are among the most spectacular of all invertebrate fossils, looking for all the world like flowers in some garden tended by undersea giants.

完整的海百合化石绝对属于现有无脊椎动物化石中最壮观的一景，它们看起来就好像由海底巨人精心照料的花园中的花朵一般。

[Key Transition 5: Back to the Sea] 大事件5：重返海洋

Ichthyosaurs, with their dorsal and caudal fins, went further in resculpting their bodies to suit the demands of the sea than perhaps any other amniotes except cetaceans.

鱼龙甚至长出了背鳍和尾鳍，这种为了适应海洋生活所做的身体改变，可能比除了鲸类以外的任何羊膜动物都走得更远。

第6章 The Lufeng Fauna: China’s Oldest Dinosaurs

禄丰动物群：中国最古老的恐龙

A single partial lower jaw represents perhaps the greatest mystery of the Lufeng Fauna.

禄丰动物群最大的谜团可能来自一件下颌骨化石。

[Key Transition 6: The Stealthy Rise of Mammals] 大事件6:：哺乳动物的悄然兴起

For nearly the first hundred million years of their history, mammals were inconspicuous, mainly insectivorous animals no larger than about one metre in body length, and for the most part much smaller.

在最初一亿年的演化历史中，哺乳动物毫不起眼，主要是食虫性的，身体长度不超过一米，而且在多数时间中其体长远远小于这个长度。

第7章 The Dashanpu Dinosaur Fauna: Giants on the Earth

沙溪庙动物群：地球上的巨龙

By Shaximiao times the dinosaurs had assumed pride of place in the march of vertebrate life, towering over other terrestrial carnivores and herbivores.

在沙溪庙动物群的时代，恐龙已经在脊椎动物的“大游行”中占据了首要的地位，远超过其他陆生的肉食和素食动物。

第8章 The Daohugou Biota: Preserved in their Finery

道虎沟生物群：地层中的华丽霓裳

A few decades ago, palaeontologists believed that almost all Mesozoic mammaliaforms were small, land-dwelling insectivores, and species from the Daohugou Biota have helped to temper that substantially correct but excessively broad generalisation.

几十年前，古生物学者们还在坚信几乎所有中生代的哺乳形动物都是小型、陆生、食虫的动物，但道虎沟的物种有助于调和这一虽然大体正确，但适用度被夸大了的归纳性结论。

[Key Transition 7: Into the Skies] 大事件7：飞上蓝天

By the time pterosaurs went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous, birds had already joined them as denizens of the Mesozoic skies.

当翼龙在白垩纪末灭绝时，鸟类已经成为中生代天空中的姣客。

第9章 The Jehol Biota: Feathered Dinosaurs!

热河生物群：带羽毛的恐龙!

The feathers are long enough to suggest that Yutyrannus would have been rather shaggy, a murderous fuzzball stalking the forests of the Early Cretaceous.

羽王龙很像一个外表蓬松的凶残杀手，鬼鬼祟祟地游荡在白垩纪早期的森林里。

[Key Transition 8: A Profusion of Urvögel] 大事件8：美羽不怕多

Exactly how old feathers are, in evolutionary terms, is a matter of profound uncertainty.

从演化的角度观察，“羽毛的具体产生时间”是个很难回答的问题。

第10章 The Wangshi Fauna: A Vast Dinosaurian Necropolis

王氏动物群：巨大的恐龙墓场

Shandong is an appropriate setting for a rich trove of bones from a late chapter in the history of one of the greatest dynasties of all, that of the Mesozoic dinosaurs.

由此可见，这里作为中生代恐龙帝国余辉篇章的化石产地，的确十分合适。

Part Three Cenozoic

The Triumph of Mammals

第三篇 新生代

哺乳动物的大捷

第11章 The Qianshan Fauna: Life After the Apocalypse

潜山动物群：劫难后的新生

If niches in an ecosystem are like jobs in an economy, then mass extinctions create vacancies that are automatically filled by the first suitable candidates to step forward.

如果把生态系统中的生态位比做经济领域中的职场职位，那么生物大灭绝所创造的空位会自然而然地被那些最早适应的“求职者”所填补。

第12章 The Shara Murun Fauna: Hooves, Horns and Rams

沙拉木伦动物群：各种各样的蹄子和角

What Granger thought of lending his name to a large, and quite possibly aggressive and ill-tempered, Eocene herbivore is uncertain.

至于格兰杰博士对把他的姓氏授予这种巨型、好斗、脾气暴躁的始新世食草动物是什么心情，我们就不得而知了。

第13章 The Shanwang Biota: Almost Like Today

山旺生物群：往昔如今

Most of the major groups of vertebrates that dominate our modern world were already thriving in the Miocene, whereas the brontotheres and many other characteristic denizens of earlier Cenozoic epochs had long since succumbed to extinction.

现今统治地球的大多数脊椎动物的主要类群，在中新世时已经十分繁盛，而雷兽和其他诸多新生代早期的居民们则早已灭绝。

第14章 The Hezheng Biota: Horses, Hogs and Hyenas

和政生物群：马、猪和鬣狗们

However, the story of horses also exemplifies the baroque complexity of evolution, in that considerable diversification took place at every stage of the slow canter from Eocene horses to Equus.

马类演化的故事是典型的巴洛克风格——的确非常复杂：从只会慢跑的始新世马类到健步如飞的真马类，演化过程中的各个阶段都伴随着显著的多样性分异。

第15章 The Zhoukoudian Fauna: The First Beijingers

周口店古人类遗址：最早的“北京人”

The hyenas could easily have killed occasional Peking Folk or seized the bodies of individuals who had died of other causes, devouring them in the fissure and leaving only fragments of shattered bone.

鬣狗会很容易杀死偶遇的北京人，或把因其他原因死去的北京人尸体带回裂隙，大快朵颐，然后留下满地的碎骨。

[Key Transition 9: Ecce Homo] 大事件9：人类的黎明

In recent decades it has become clear from a variety of evidence, but above all from genetics, that humans are especially closely related to the African apes known as chimpanzees.

最近几十年越来越多的证据，特别是遗传学证据清晰地显示，人类与非洲的现生猿类——黑猩猩的亲缘关系特别近。

Concluding Thoughts: the March Continues, Under Fire

结语：演化在“枪林弹雨中”继续

A strong case can be made that a sixth mass extinction is unfolding in our modern world, as a result of human activity.

可以很有理由地说，由于人类的活动，我们现在的地球正在经历第六次大灭绝。

Afterword 后记

Further reading 延展阅读

Appendix 1: Locations of Major Vertebrate Fossil Sites in China

附录1：中国主要的脊椎动物（含人类）化石产地

Appendix 2: Chinese Museums that display fossils to the public

附录2：中国含古生物展陈的博物馆名录

Index of Genus Names Used in the Book

本书中使用的生物属名的索引