Part One Palaeozoic
Cold Blood and Scales
第一篇 古生代
冷血與鱗片的時代
第1章 The Chengjiang Biota: Dawn of the Vertebrates
澄江生物群：脊椎動物的齣現
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.
生物競爭和捕食的力量、自然環境的改變，以及單純的機遇在早期動物的生命中進行篩選，剔除瞭某些動物，也因此為其他動物的繁盛提供瞭生態空間。
[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.
化石記錄以及現生盲鰻、七鰓鰻和鯊魚的解剖結構明確地告訴我們，脊椎的演化顯然不是一個突然的過程。
第2章 The Xiaoxiang Fauna: Fishing for Answers
瀟湘動物群：“釣齣”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.
我們人類其實就是一種“超級改進版“的肉鰭魚，我們用“腹鰭”四處行走，並用“胸鰭”翻動書的書頁，就像你現在正在做的這樣。
[Key Transition 2: To Jaw-Jaw is Always Better] 大事件2 ：有頜的感覺真好
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.
不同的脊椎動物用不同的方式使用它們的頜，有些用來咬破獵物的喉嚨，有些切碎研磨植物，又或者從海水中過濾藻類。
第3章 The Zhongning Fauna: A New Breed of Vertebrate
中寜動物群：脊椎動物的新類型
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.
就在這些凶猛的捕食者和重裝甲的獵物的殘骸之間，一段不起眼的頜骨化石隱匿其中。
[Key Transition 3: Fish Nearly Out of Water] 大事件3：即將離開水的魚
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，最早的四足動物的四肢很可能更多地用於遊泳而不是行走。
第4章 The Dashankou Fauna: Beasts and Belebey
大山口動物群：獸與蜥的世界
A particularly interesting beast from the Dashankou Fauna is the carnivore Raranimus dashankouensis, whose name means literally the “rare spirit from Dashankou”.
大山口動物群有一種有趣的動物叫大山口珍稀獸，直譯就是“珍稀的大山口精靈”。
[Key Transition 4: The Egg, not the Chicken] 大事件4：先有雞還是先有蛋
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?
下一次你在超市購買羊膜動物的卵時，在它們變成你的盤中餐前，何不花一點時間欣賞一下這一充滿進化意義的，復雜而精巧的生物學結構呢？
Part Two Mesozoic
The Empire of Dinosaurs
第二篇 中生代
恐龍的帝國
第5章 The Guanling Biota: Life Among the Dangling Crinoids
關嶺生物群：與搖曳的海百閤伴生的生命
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.
完整的海百閤化石絕對屬於現有無脊椎動物化石中最壯觀的一景，它們看起來就好像由海底巨人精心照料的花園中的花朵一般。
[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.
魚龍甚至長齣瞭背鰭和尾鰭，這種為瞭適應海洋生活所做的身體改變，可能比除瞭鯨類以外的任何羊膜動物都走得更遠。
第6章 The Lufeng Fauna: China’s Oldest Dinosaurs
祿豐動物群：中國最古老的恐龍
A single partial lower jaw represents perhaps the greatest mystery of the Lufeng Fauna.
祿豐動物群最大的謎團可能來自一件下頜骨化石。
[Key Transition 6: The Stealthy Rise of Mammals] 大事件6:：哺乳動物的悄然興起
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.
在最初一億年的演化曆史中，哺乳動物毫不起眼，主要是食蟲性的，身體長度不超過一米，而且在多數時間中其體長遠遠小於這個長度。
第7章 The Dashanpu Dinosaur Fauna: Giants on the Earth
沙溪廟動物群：地球上的巨龍
By Shaximiao times the dinosaurs had assumed pride of place in the march of vertebrate life, towering over other terrestrial carnivores and herbivores.
在沙溪廟動物群的時代，恐龍已經在脊椎動物的“大遊行”中占據瞭首要的地位，遠超過其他陸生的肉食和素食動物。
第8章 The Daohugou Biota: Preserved in their Finery
道虎溝生物群：地層中的華麗霓裳
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.
幾十年前，古生物學者們還在堅信幾乎所有中生代的哺乳形動物都是小型、陸生、食蟲的動物，但道虎溝的物種有助於調和這一雖然大體正確，但適用度被誇大瞭的歸納性結論。
[Key Transition 7: Into the Skies] 大事件7：飛上藍天
By the time pterosaurs went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous, birds had already joined them as denizens of the Mesozoic skies.
當翼龍在白堊紀末滅絕時，鳥類已經成為中生代天空中的姣客。
第9章 The Jehol Biota: Feathered Dinosaurs!
熱河生物群：帶羽毛的恐龍!
The feathers are long enough to suggest that Yutyrannus would have been rather shaggy, a murderous fuzzball stalking the forests of the Early Cretaceous.
羽王龍很像一個外錶蓬鬆的凶殘殺手，鬼鬼祟祟地遊蕩在白堊紀早期的森林裏。
[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.
從演化的角度觀察，“羽毛的具體産生時間”是個很難迴答的問題。
第10章 The Wangshi Fauna: A Vast Dinosaurian Necropolis
王氏動物群：巨大的恐龍墓場
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.
由此可見，這裏作為中生代恐龍帝國餘輝篇章的化石産地，的確十分閤適。
Part Three Cenozoic
The Triumph of Mammals
第三篇 新生代
哺乳動物的大捷
第11章 The Qianshan Fauna: Life After the Apocalypse
潛山動物群：劫難後的新生
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.
如果把生態係統中的生態位比做經濟領域中的職場職位，那麼生物大滅絕所創造的空位會自然而然地被那些最早適應的“求職者”所填補。
第12章 The Shara Murun Fauna: Hooves, Horns and Rams
沙拉木倫動物群：各種各樣的蹄子和角
What Granger thought of lending his name to a large, and quite possibly aggressive and ill-tempered, Eocene herbivore is uncertain.
至於格蘭傑博士對把他的姓氏授予這種巨型、好鬥、脾氣暴躁的始新世食草動物是什麼心情，我們就不得而知瞭。
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.
現今統治地球的大多數脊椎動物的主要類群，在中新世時已經十分繁盛，而雷獸和其他諸多新生代早期的居民們則早已滅絕。
第14章 The Hezheng Biota: Horses, Hogs and Hyenas
和政生物群：馬、豬和鬣狗們
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.
馬類演化的故事是典型的巴洛剋風格——的確非常復雜：從隻會慢跑的始新世馬類到健步如飛的真馬類，演化過程中的各個階段都伴隨著顯著的多樣性分異。
第15章 The Zhoukoudian Fauna: The First Beijingers
周口店古人類遺址：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.
鬣狗會很容易殺死偶遇的北京人，或把因其他原因死去的北京人屍體帶迴裂隙，大快朵頤，然後留下滿地的碎骨。
[Key Transition 9: Ecce Homo] 大事件9：人類的黎明
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.
最近幾十年越來越多的證據，特彆是遺傳學證據清晰地顯示，人類與非洲的現生猿類——黑猩猩的親緣關係特彆近。
Concluding Thoughts: the March Continues, Under Fire
結語：演化在“槍林彈雨中”繼續
A strong case can be made that a sixth mass extinction is unfolding in our modern world, as a result of human activity.
可以很有理由地說，由於人類的活動，我們現在的地球正在經曆第六次大滅絕。
Afterword 後記
Further reading 延展閱讀
Appendix 1: Locations of Major Vertebrate Fossil Sites in China
附錄1：中國主要的脊椎動物（含人類）化石産地
Appendix 2: Chinese Museums that display fossils to the public
附錄2：中國含古生物展陳的博物館名錄
Index of Genus Names Used in the Book
本書中使用的生物屬名的索引
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