Hunting for dinosaurs showed me our place in the universe | Kenneth Lacovara

Prevodilac: Milenka Okuka Lektor: Mile Živković

How do you find a dinosaur?

Kako da pronađete dinosaurusa?

Sounds impossible, doesn't it?

Zvuči nemoguće, zar ne?

It's not.

Nije.

And the answer relies on a formula that all paleontologists use.

A odgovor leži u formuli koju svi paleontolozi koriste.

And I'm going to tell you the secret.

I ja ću da vam otkrijem tajnu.

First, find rocks of the right age.

Prvo: pronađite stene odgovarajuće starosti.

Second, those rocks must be sedimentary rocks.

Drugo: te stene moraju da budu sedimentne.

And third, layers of those rocks must be naturally exposed.

I treće: slojevi tih stena moraju da budu prirodno izloženi.

That's it.

To je to.

Find those three things and get yourself on the ground,

Pronađite te tri stvari i bacite se na tlo,

chances are good that you will find fossils.

imaćete dobre šanse da pronađete fosile.

Now let me break down this formula.

Dozvolite mi sad da razložim ovu formulu.

Organisms exist only during certain geological intervals.

Organizmi postoje samo tokom određenih geoloških razdoblja.

So you have to find rocks of the right age,

Pa, morate da nađete stene odgovarajuće starosti,

depending on what your interests are.

u zavisnosti od toga šta vas interesuje.

If you want to find trilobites,

Ako želite da nađete trilobite,

you have to find the really, really old rocks of the Paleozoic --

morate da nađete zaista, zaista stare stene iz paleozoika -

rocks between a half a billion and a quarter-billion years old.

stene koje su stare između pola milijarde i četvrtine milijarde godina.

Now, if you want to find dinosaurs,

Sad, ako želite da nađete dinosauruse,

don't look in the Paleozoic, you won't find them.

ne tražite u paleozoiku, nećete ih tamo naći.

They hadn't evolved yet.

Nisu još evoluirali.

You have to find the younger rocks of the Mesozoic,

Morate da nađete mlađe stene iz mezozoika,

and in the case of dinosaurs,

a u slučaju dinosaurusa,

between 235 and 66 million years ago.

moraju da budu stare između 235 i 66 miliona godina.

Now, it's fairly easy to find rocks of the right age at this point,

Sad, trenutno je prilično lako pronaći stene odgovarajuće starosti

because the Earth is, to a coarse degree,

jer je Zemlja, do određenog nivoa,

geologically mapped.

geološki mapirana.

This is hard-won information.

To je mukotrpno zarađena informacija.

The annals of Earth history are written in rocks,

Anali Zemljine istorije su ispisani u stenama,

one chapter upon the next,

poglavlje po poglavlje,

such that the oldest pages are on bottom

tako da su najstarije stranice na dnu,

and the youngest on top.

a najnovije na vrhu.

Now, were it quite that easy, geologists would rejoice.

E sad, da je sve tako lako, geolozi bi bili srećni.

It's not.

Nije.

The library of Earth is an old one.

Zemljina biblioteka je stara.

It has no librarian to impose order.

Ne postoji bibliotekar da zavede red.

Operating over vast swaths of time,

Odvijajući se ogromnim naslagama vremena,

myriad geological processes offer every possible insult

gomile geoloških procesa na sve načine povređuju

to the rocks of ages.

drevne stene.

Most pages are destroyed soon after being written.

Mnoge stranice su uništene neposredno nakon stvaranja.

Some pages are overwritten,

Preko nekih je ponovo pisano,

creating difficult-to-decipher palimpsests of long-gone landscapes.

čime je otežano dešifrovanje palimpsesta o pejzažima koji su odavno nestali.

Pages that do find sanctuary under the advancing sands of time

Stranice koje pronalaze utočište ispod trajnog protoka vremena

are never truly safe.

nikad nisu uistinu bezbedne.

Unlike the Moon -- our dead, rocky companion --

Za razliku od Meseca, našeg mrtvog, stenovitog pratioca -

the Earth is alive, pulsing with creative and destructive forces

Zemlja je živa, pulsira od stvaralačkih i destruktivnih sila

that power its geological metabolism.

koje opskrbljavaju njen geološki metabolizam.

Lunar rocks brought back by the Apollo astronauts

Lunarno kamenje koje su doneli astronauti sa Apola

all date back to about the age of the Solar System.

sve je otprilike staro kao i Sunčev sistem.

Moon rocks are forever.

Mesečeve stene su večne.

Earth rocks, on the other hand, face the perils of a living lithosphere.

Zemljine stene, s druge strane, suočene su sa opasnostima žive litosfere.

All will suffer ruination,

Sve će da pretrpi propadanje,

through some combination of mutilation, compression,

kroz neku kombinaciju unakazivanja, sabijanja,

folding, tearing, scorching and baking.

presavijanja, pucanja, sparušavanja i pečenja.

Thus, the volumes of Earth history are incomplete and disheveled.

Stoga su tomovi Zemljine istorije nepotpuni i neuredni.

The library is vast and magnificent --

Biblioteka je ogromna i veličanstvena -

but decrepit.

ali oronula.

And it was this tattered complexity in the rock record

A ova iskrzana složenost u zapisima u stenama

that obscured its meaning until relatively recently.

je prikrivala svoje značenje sve do relativno nedavno.

Priroda nije obezbedila indeksni katalog za geologe -

Nature provided no card catalog for geologists --

this would have to be invented.

to smo morali da izumimo.

Five thousand years after the Sumerians learned to record their thoughts

Pet hiljada godina nakon što su Sumeri naučili kako da beleže svoje misli

on clay tablets,

na pločama od gline,

the Earth's volumes remained inscrutable to humans.

Zemljini tomovi su ostali nedokučivi za ljude.

We were geologically illiterate,

Bili smo geološki nepismeni,

unaware of the antiquity of our own planet

nesvesni starosti naše planete

and ignorant of our connection

i neupućeni u naše veze

to deep time.

s drevnim vremenima.

It wasn't until the turn of the 19th century

Sve do početka XIX veka

that our blinders were removed,

kada nam je veo s očiju skinut,

first, with the publication of James Hutton's "Theory of the Earth,"

prvo objavljivanjem "Teorije o Zemlji" Džejmsa Hatona,

in which he told us that the Earth reveals no vestige of a beginning

u kojoj nam je saopštio da Zemlja ne otkriva trag svog početka

and no prospect of an end;

i nikakav nagoveštaj kraja;

and then, with the printing of William Smith's map of Britain,

a potom, štampanjem mape Britanije Vilijama Smita,

the first country-scale geological map,

prve geološke mape na nivou države,

giving us for the first time

pruživši nam prvi put

predictive insight into where certain types of rocks might occur.

predvidljiv uvid u to gde se određeni tipovi stena mogu naći.

After that, you could say things like,

Nakon toga ste mogli da govorite ovako:

"If we go over there, we should be in the Jurassic,"

"Ako pođemo ovamo, trebalo bi da smo u dobu jure",

or, "If we go up over that hill, we should find the Cretaceous."

ili, "ako se popenjemo na to brdo trebalo bi da nađemo doba krede."

So now, if you want to find trilobites,

Pa sad, ako želite da nađete trilobite,

get yourself a good geological map

nabavite dobru geološku mapu

and go to the rocks of the Paleozoic.

i pođite do stena iz paleozoika.

If you want to find dinosaurs like I do,

Ako želite, poput mene, da nađete dinosauruse

find the rocks of Mesozoic and go there.

pronađite stene mezozoika i krenite tamo.

Now of course, you can only make a fossil in a sedimentary rock,

Sad, naravno, fosil jedino može da nastane u sedimentnim stenama,

a rock made by sand and mud.

napravljenim od peska i blata.

You can't have a fossil

Fosila nema

in an igneous rock formed by magma, like a granite,

u vulkanskim stenama, poput granita, nastalim od magme

or in a metamorphic rock that's been heated and squeezed.

ili u metamorfoznim stenama koje su zagrejavane i sabijane.

And you have to get yourself in a desert.

I morate da odete u pustinju.

It's not that dinosaurs particularly lived in deserts;

Ne radi se o tome da su dinosaurusi živeli u pustinjama;

they lived on every land mass

živeli su na svim delovima kopna

and in every imaginable environment.

i u svim mogućim okruženjima.

It's that you need to go to a place that's a desert today,

Radi se o tome da morate poći do mesta koje je danas pustinja,

a place that doesn't have too many plants covering up the rocks,

mesta na kome nema mnogo biljaka koje prekrivaju stene

and a place where erosion is always exposing new bones at the surface.

i mesta gde erozije uvek otkrivaju nove kosti na površini.

So find those three things:

Dakle, nađite te tri stvari:

rocks of the right age,

stene odgovarajuće starosti,

that are sedimentary rocks, in a desert,

koje su sedimentne stene u pustinji

and get yourself on the ground,

i spustite se na zemlju

and you literally walk

i bukvalno ćete da hodate

until you see a bone sticking out of the rock.

sve dok vidite kost kako štrči iz stene.

Here's a picture that I took in Southern Patagonia.

Ovo je slika koju sam napravio u Južnoj Patagoniji.

Every pebble that you see on the ground there

Svaki oblutak koji vidite tu na tlu

is a piece of dinosaur bone.

je delić kosti dinosaurusa.

So when you're in that right situation,

Pa kad ste u odgovarajućoj situaciji,

it's not a question of whether you'll find fossils or not;

nije u pitanju to da li ćete da pronađete fosile ili ne;

you're going to find fossils.

pronaći ćete fosile.

The question is: Will you find something that is scientifically significant?

Pitanje je: Da li ćete pronaći nešto što je od značaja za nauku?

And to help with that, I'm going to add a fourth part to our formula,

A kako bih vam pomogao u tome, dodaću četvrti deo našoj formuli,

which is this:

a to je sledeće:

get as far away from other paleontologists as possible.

udaljite se što više od drugih paleontologa.

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

It's not that I don't like other paleontologists.

Nije da mi se ne sviđaju drugi paleontolozi.

When you go to a place that's relatively unexplored,

Kada odete na mesto koje je relativno neistraženo,

you have a much better chance of not only finding fossils

imate mnogo bolje šanse ne samo da nađete fosile,

but of finding something that's new to science.

već i da nađete nešto što je nepoznato u nauci.

So that's my formula for finding dinosaurs,

Ovo je moja formula za nalaženje dinosaurusa

and I've applied it all around the world.

i primenjivao sam je širom sveta.

In the austral summer of 2004,

Tokom južnog leta 2004,

I went to the bottom of South America,

otišao sam do dna Južne Amerike,

to the bottom of Patagonia, Argentina,

do podnožja Patagonije u Argentini

to prospect for dinosaurs:

kako bih tragao za dinosaurusima:

a place that had terrestrial sedimentary rocks of the right age,

na mestu koje je imalo zemljane sedimentne stene odgovarajuće starosti,

in a desert,

bilo je u pustinji,

a place that had been barely visited by paleontologists.

mesto koje skoro uopšte nisu posećivali paleontolozi.

And we found this.

I pronašli smo ovo.

This is a femur, a thigh bone,

Ovo je femur, butna kost,

of a giant, plant-eating dinosaur.

džinovskog dinosaurusa biljojeda.

That bone is 2.2 meters across.

Ta kost je duga 2,2 metra.

That's over seven feet long.

To je preko sedam stopa.

Now, unfortunately, that bone was isolated.

Sad, nažalost ta kost je bila izolovana.

We dug and dug and dug, and there wasn't another bone around.

Kopali smo i kopali i kopali, nije bilo drugih kostiju u blizini.

But it made us hungry to go back the next year for more.

Ali smo žudeli da se vratimo sledeće godine po još.

And on the first day of that next field season,

I prvog dana naredne sezone,

I found this: another two-meter femur,

našao sam ovo: još jedan femur od dva metra,

only this time not isolated,

ovaj put, pak, nije bio izolovan,

this time associated with 145 other bones

ovaj put je bio povezan sa 145 drugih kostiju

of a giant plant eater.

džinovskog biljojeda.

And after three more hard, really brutal field seasons,

I nakon još tri teške, zaista brutalne sezone na terenu,

the quarry came to look like this.

plen je dobijao ovaj izgled.

And there you see the tail of that great beast wrapping around me.

I ovde vidite rep te velike zveri kako se obmotava oko mene.

The giant that lay in this grave, the new species of dinosaur,

Džina koji je počivao u ovom grobu, novu vrstu dinosaurusa,

we would eventually call "Dreadnoughtus schrani."

na kraju ćemo da nazovemo: "Dreadnoughtus schrani".

Dreadnoughtus was 85 feet from snout to tail.

Drednotus je bi dug 25,9 metara od njuške do repa.

It stood two-and-a-half stories at the shoulder,

Ramena su mu dosezala do dva i po sprata

and all fleshed out in life, it weighed 65 tons.

i živ, sa svim mesom, bio je težak 65 tona.

People ask me sometimes, "Was Dreadnoughtus bigger than a T. rex?"

Ljudi me ponekad pitaju: "Da li je drednotus bio veći od ti reksa?"

That's the mass of eight or nine T. rex.

To je masa osam ili devet ti reksova.

Now, one of the really cool things about being a paleontologist

Sad, jedna od zaista sjajnih stvari kad ste paleontolog

is when you find a new species, you get to name it.

je kad otkrijete novu vrstu, na vama je da je imenujete.

And I've always thought it a shame that these giant, plant-eating dinosaurs

I oduvek sam smatrao da je bruka da su ovi džinovi, dinosaurusi biljojedi,

are too often portrayed as passive, lumbering platters of meat

prečesto prikazani kao pasivni, nezgrapni pladanji mesa

on the landscape.

na pejzažu.

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

They're not.

Nisu.

Big herbivores can be surly, and they can be territorial --

Veliki biljojedi mogu da budu otresiti, mogu biti teritorijalni -

you do not want to mess with a hippo or a rhino or a water buffalo.

ne želite da se kačite sa nilskim konjem ili nosorogom ili vodenim bizonom.

The bison in Yellowstone injure far more people than do the grizzly bears.

Bizoni iz parka Jelostoun povređuju daleko više ljudi nego medvedi grizli.

So can you imagine a big bull, 65-ton Dreadnoughtus

Pa, zamislite samo velikog bika, drednotusa od 65 tona

in the breeding season,

u toku sezone parenja

defending a territory?

dok brani teritoriju?

That animal would have been incredibly dangerous,

Ta životinja je bila neverovatno opasna,

a menace to all around, and itself would have had nothing to fear.

pretnja za čitavu okolinu, a ona sama ne bi imala čega da se plaši.

And thus the name, "Dreadnoughtus,"

I otuda i njegovo ime "drednotus",

or, "fears nothing."

iliti "neustrašivi".

Now, to grow so large,

Da bi toliko porasla,

an animal like Dreadnoughtus would've had to have been

životinja pout drednotusa bi morala da bude

a model of efficiency.

uzor za efikasnost.

That long neck and long tail help it radiate heat into the environment,

Dug vrat i dug rep su mu pomagali da otpušta toplotu u okruženje,

passively controlling its temperature.

pasivno kontrolišući svoju temperaturu.

And that long neck also serves as a super-efficient feeding mechanism.

A taj dugi vrat je takođe služio kao superefikasan mehanizam hranjenja.

Dreadnoughtus could stand in one place and with that neck

Drednotusi su mogli da stoje na jednom mestu i tim vratom

clear out a huge envelope of vegetation,

da počiste ogromne slojeve vegetacije,

taking in tens of thousands of calories while expending very few.

unoseći na desetine hiljada kalorija, a gubeći svega nekoliko.

And these animals evolved a bulldog-like wide-gait stance,

A ovim životinjama je evoluirao širok stav hoda, nalik onom kod buldoga,

giving them immense stability,

obezbeđujući im beskrajnu stabilnost

because when you're 65 tons, when you're literally as big as a house,

jer kad imate 65 tona, kad ste bukvalno veliki kao kuća,

the penalty for falling over

kazna za saplitanje

is death.

je smrt.

Yeah, these animals are big and tough,

Da, ove životinje su velike i jake,

but they won't take a blow like that.

ali neće rizikovati takav udar.

Dreadnoughtus falls over, ribs break and pierce lungs.

Kad se drednotus saplete, pucaju rebra i cepaju pluća.

Organs burst.

Organi pucaju.

If you're a big 65-ton Dreadnoughtus,

Kad ste veliki drednotus od 65 tona,

you don't get to fall down in life -- even once.

u životu ne padanete ni jednom.

Now, after this particular Dreadnoughtus carcass was buried

Sad, kad je ovaj drednotusov leš zakopan

and de-fleshed by a multitude of bacteria, worms and insects,

i kad su ga ogolile mnoge bakterije, crvi i insekti,

its bones underwent a brief metamorphosis,

njegove kosti su pretpele kratak preobražaj,

exchanging molecules with the groundwater

razmenjujući molekule sa vlagom iz tla

and becoming more and more like the entombing rock.

i postajući sve više i više poput grobne stene.

As layer upon layer of sediment accumulated,

Kako se sloj po sloj sedimenata gomilao,

pressure from all sides weighed in like a stony glove

pritisak sa svih strana se obrušio poput kamene rukavice

whose firm and enduring grip held each bone in a stabilizing embrace.

čiji je snažan i trajan stisak držao svaku kost u stabilnom zagrljaju.

And then came the long ...

A onda je došlo dugo...

nothing.

ništavilo.

Epoch after epoch of sameness,

Epoha za epohom jednolikosti,

nonevents without number.

beskrajne ispraznosti.

All the while, the skeleton lay everlasting and unchanging

Sve vreme, kostur je ležao trajan i nepromenljiv

in perfect equilibrium

u savršenoj ravnoteži

within its rocky grave.

unutar svog kamenog groba.

Meanwhile, Earth history unfolded above.

Istorija Zemlje se odvijala nad njim.

The dinosaurs would reign for another 12 million years

Dinosaurusi će da vladaju narednih 12 miliona godina

before their hegemony was snuffed out in a fiery apocalypse.

pre nego što će ognjena apokalipsa da zbriše njihovu hegemoniju.

The continents drifted. The mammals rose.

Kontinenti su se udaljili. Pojavili su se sisari.

The Ice Age came.

Došlo je ledeno doba.

And then, in East Africa,

A onda je u Istočnoj Africi,

an unpromising species of ape evolved the odd trick of sentient thought.

neizgledna vrsta majmuna razvila neobičan trik svesnog razmišljanja.

These brainy primates were not particularly fast or strong.

Ovi primati pametnjakovići nisu bili naročito brzi ili jaki.

But they excelled at covering ground,

Ali su bili nenadmašni u pokrivanju zemlje

and in a remarkable diaspora

i u izvanrednoj dijaspori

surpassing even the dinosaurs' record of territorial conquest,

su čak nadmašili rekord dinosaurusa u teritorijalnom osvajanju;

they dispersed across the planet,

rasprostranili su se širom planete,

ravishing every ecosystem they encountered,

zauzimajući svaki ekosistem na koji su naišli,

along the way, inventing culture and metalworking and painting

izmišljajući usput kulturu i metalostrugarstvo i slikanje

and dance and music

i ples i muziku

and science

i nauku

and rocket ships that would eventually take 12 particularly excellent apes

i rakete koje će jednog dana da odvedu 12 naročito izvrsnih majmuna

to the surface of the Moon.

na površinu Meseca.

With seven billion peripatetic Homo sapiens on the planet,

Uz sedam milijardi peripatetičkih Homo sapiensa na planeti,

it was perhaps inevitable

možda je bilo neizbežno

that one of them would eventually trod on the grave of the magnificent titan

da jedan od njih kad-tad nagazi na grob veličanstvenog titana,

buried beneath the badlands of Southern Patagonia.

zakopanog pod pustošima Južne Patagonije.

I was that ape.

Taj majmun sam bio ja.

And standing there, alone in the desert,

I stojeći tamo, sam u pustinji,

it was not lost on me

nisam gubio iz vida

that the chance of any one individual entering the fossil record

to da je šansa da se pojedinac upiše u fosilni arhiv

is vanishingly small.

beskrajno mala.

But the Earth is very, very old.

Ali Zemlja je veoma, veoma stara.

And over vast tracts of time, the improbable becomes the probable.

A tokom ogromnih protoka vremena, neverovatno postaje verovatno.

That's the magic of the geological record.

To je čarolija geoloških arhiva.

Thus, multitudinous creatures living and dying on an old planet

Stoga, bezbroj bića koja žive i umiru na staroj planeti

leave behind immense numbers of fossils,

ostavljaju za sobom nebrojeno mnogo fosila,

each one a small miracle,

a svaki je maleno čudo,

but collectively, inevitable.

ali sveukupno, neizbežni su.

Sixty-six million years ago, an asteroid hits the Earth

Pre 66 miliona godina, asteroid pogađa Zemlju

and wipes out the dinosaurs.

i uništava dinosauruse.

This easily might not have been.

Lako je moglo proći bez ovoga.

But we only get one history, and it's the one that we have.

Ali sleduje nam samo jedna istorija, a to je ova koju imamo.

But this particular reality was not inevitable.

Ali baš ova realnost nije bila neizbežna.

The tiniest perturbation of that asteroid far from Earth

Najmanja prepreka tom asteroidu udaljenom od Zemlje

would have caused it to miss our planet by a wide margin.

mogla je da uzrokuje da on uveliko promaši našu planetu.

The pivotal, calamitous day during which the dinosaurs were wiped out,

Ključni, kobni dan tokom kog su dinosaurusi zbrisani,

setting the stage for the modern world as we know it

koji je podesio kulise savremenog sveta kakvog znamo,

didn't have to be.

nije morao da se desi.

It could've just been another day --

Mogao je da bude običan dan -

a Thursday, perhaps --

možda četvrtak -

among the 63 billion days already enjoyed by the dinosaurs.

od 63 milijarde dana u kojim su već uživali dinosaurusi.

But over geological time,

No tokom geološkog vremena,

improbable, nearly impossible events

neverovatni, skoro nemogući događaji

do occur.

se događaju.

Along the path from our wormy, Cambrian ancestors

Stazom našeg crvolikog pretka iz krede

to primates dressed in suits,

sve do primata u odelima,

innumerable forks in the road led us to this very particular reality.

bezbroj račvanja puteva nas je dovelo baš do ove stvarnosti.

The bones of Dreadnoughtus lay underground for 77 million years.

Kosti drednotusa leže pod zemljom već 77 miliona godina.

Who could have imagined

Ko je mogao da zamisli

that a single species of shrew-like mammal

da će jedna vrsta rovčicolikog sisara,

living in the cracks of the dinosaur world

koja je živela u pukotinama sveta dinosaurusa

would evolve into sentient beings

da evoluira u svesno biće,

capable of characterizing and understanding

sposobno da opiše i razume

the very dinosaurs they must have dreaded?

baš dinosauruse kojih mora da se plašilo?

I once stood at the head of the Missouri River

Jednom sam stajao na izvoru reke Misuri

and bestraddled it.

i opkoračio sam ga.

There, it's nothing more than a gurgle of water

To je samo žuborenje vode,

that issues forth from beneath a rock in a boulder in a pasture,

koje ističe ispod stene na šljunku na pašnjaku,

high in the Bitterroot Mountains.

visoko u Biterut planinama.

The stream next to it runs a few hundred yards

Potok do nje, teče nekoliko stotina metara

and ends in a small pond.

i završava se malim jezerom.

Those two streams -- they look identical.

Ta dva potoka izgledaju identično.

But one is an anonymous trickle of water,

Ali jedan je nepoznato curenje vode,

and the other is the Missouri River.

a drugi je reka Misuri.

Now go down to the mouth of the Missouri, near St. Louis,

Sad pođite do ušća Misurija, u blizini Sent Luisa

and it's pretty obvious that that river is a big deal.

i prilično je očigledno da je ta reka velika stvar.

But go up into the Bitterroots and look at the Missouri,

Ali popenjite se na Biteruts i pogledajte u Misuri

and human prospection does not allow us to see it as anything special.

i ljudska perspektiva nam ne omogućuje da vidimo bilo šta naročito.

Now go back to the Cretaceous Period

Sad se vratite u doba krede

and look at our tiny, fuzzball ancestors.

i pogledajte naše sićušne, čupave pretke.

You would never guess

Nikada ne biste pretpostavili

that they would amount to anything special,

da će od njih ispasti nešto naročito,

and they probably wouldn't have,

i verovatno i ne bi,

were it not for that pesky asteroid.

da nije bilo tog nesnosnog asteroida.

Now, make a thousand more worlds and a thousand more solar systems

Sad, napravite još na hiljade svetova i još hiljade solarnih sistema

and let them run.

i pustite ih da budu.

You will never get the same result.

Nikada nećete dobiti isti rezultat.

No doubt, those worlds would be both amazing and amazingly improbable,

Bez sumnje, ti svetovi bi bili i zadivljujući i zadivljujuće neverovatni,

but they would not be our world and they would not have our history.

ali ne bi bili naš svet i ne bi imali našu istoriju.

There are an infinite number of histories that we could've had.

Postoji beskonačno mnogo istorija koje smo mogli da imamo.

We only get one, and wow, did we ever get a good one.

Dobili smo samo jednu, i, ala, kako dobra beše.

Dinosaurs like Dreadnoughtus were real.

Dinosaurusi poput drednotusa su bili stvarni.

Sea monsters like the mosasaur were real.

Morske nemani poput mozasaura su bile stvarne.

Dragonflies with the wingspan of an eagle and pill bugs the length of a car

Vilini konjici s rasponom krila poput orla i drvne vaši veličine automobila

really existed.

su zaista postojali.

Why study the ancient past?

Zašto izučavati drevnu prošlost?

Because it gives us perspective

Jer nam daje perspektivu

and humility.

i smernost.

The dinosaurs died in the world's fifth mass extinction,

Dinosaurusi su izumrli tokom petog masovnog izumiranja na svetu,

snuffed out in a cosmic accident through no fault of their own.

izbrisani su u kosmičkoj nesreći bez sopstvene krivice.

They didn't see it coming, and they didn't have a choice.

Nisu to predvideli i nisu imali izbor.

We, on the other hand, do have a choice.

Mi, s druge strane, imamo izbor.

And the nature of the fossil record tells us that our place on this planet

A priroda arhive fosila nam govori da naše mesto na ovoj planeti

is both precarious and potentially fleeting.

je i nesigurno i potencijalno prolazno.

Right now, our species is propagating an environmental disaster

U ovom trenutku, naša vrsta širi ekološku katastrofu

of geological proportions that is so broad and so severe,

geoloških razmera koja je toliko zamašna i ozbiljna

it can rightly be called the sixth extinction.

da se s pravom može nazvati šestim izumiranjem.

Only unlike the dinosaurs,

Samo za razliku od dinosaurusa,

we can see it coming.

možemo to da predvidimo.

And unlike the dinosaurs,

I za razliku od dinosaurusa,

we can do something about it.

možemo nešto da uradimo.

That choice is ours.

Taj izbor je na nama.

Thank you.

Hvala vam.

(Applause)

(Aplauz)