Paul Sereno: What can fossils teach us?

翻译人员: Jitong Chen 校对人员: Zhu Jie

Sixty-five million years ago, a very important

6500万年前，一场非常重要的

and catastrophic event

大灾难

changed the course of life on land.

改变了陆地生命的进化历程。

And although we know that the land animals I'm going to talk about

下面我要讲到的陆地动物

are just the scum of the Earth on the land --

虽然只是在漫长的进化历程中昙花一现，

the little bits of land floating around -- but they are important to us

对我们来说，却有着深远的意义。

because they're sort of in our scale of experience from millimeters to meters.

因为它们是我们经验逐步累积中的一部分。

And these animals disappeared,

然而这些动物突然都消失了，

and a separate life, mammals,

另一种新的生命形式，哺乳动物

radiated out to take their place. And so, we know this

逐渐繁荣起来，并取代了它们。我们对这一点

in extraordinary detail. And so this is a core

非常了解。因此，这是揭开谜团的重要线索。

from near Bermuda. We know that the tsunamis, the earthquakes,

我们知道像海啸、地震

and the things that we've experienced

和我们整个人类历史上

in the entire record of humankind history

所经历的其他一切灾难

can't really quite get around the kind of disaster

在我们居住的地球上

that this represented for the Earth.

都是不可避免的。

So even before that impact was known,

所以，在提出慧地大碰撞理论之前，

even before scientists in general came to an agreement

甚至在大多数科学家承认

over the theory of evolution,

进化论之前，

scientists and natural historians of all kinds of stripes

不同领域的科学家和自然学家们

actually had divided Earth's life's history

事实上早就把地球的历史

into these two episodes:

划分为以下两个阶段：

Mesozoic, the middle life, and the Cenozoic, the recent life.

中生代和新生代。

And as it turns out, it actually corresponds really nicely

而事实则很好的证明了这样的划分

with geologic history.

和我们的地质历史相当吻合。

So we have a Mesozoic period,

中生代是各大地质板块

an age of fragmentation,

分裂的时期，

and a Cenozoic period, an age of reconnection --

而新生代则是各板块合并的时期--

South America to North America, India to Asia.

像南美和北美，印度和亚洲的合并。

And so my work, really, is trying to understand

所以我的工作是试着找出

the character of that Mesozoic radiation

中生代和新生代时期

compared to the Cenozoic radiation

各生活着什么样的生物，

to see what mysteries we can understand from dinosaurs and from other animals

然后看看是否能从恐龙和其它动物上

about what life on drifting continents

找到关于大陆漂移过程中

really can tell us about evolution.

生物进化的奥秘。

The work immediately begs the question,

但问题很快就来了，

"Why didn't they go into the waters?"

“为什么恐龙们不生活在水里呢？”

I mean, certainly mammals did. This is one example.

举个例子，哺乳动物过去是生活在水中的。

You can go outside -- see many other examples.

你可以到外面看看，有很多这样的例子。

Within five, 10 million years of the bolide impact

被火流星攻击了500到1000万年，

we had a whole variety of animals going into the water. Why didn't they do that?

我们有大量的动物改为去水中生活了。而恐龙为什么不这样做呢？

Why didn't they hang around in trees at good size,

为什么恐龙都没有生活在树上呢？

and why didn't they burrow?

为什么它们不去挖洞？

Why didn't they do all these things, and if they didn't do all these things,

为什么它们都不做我提到的这些事呢？如果它们不生活在这些地方，

what kinds of animals were in those spaces?

有哪些动物会生活在那里呢？

And if there were no animals in those spaces, what does that tell us

如果没有动物生活在除了水之外的其它地方，这能告诉我们

about, you know, how evolution works on land?

关于生物进化的什么秘密呢？

Really interesting questions. I think a lot of it has to do with body size.

这是非常有趣的问题。我认为这许多跟体型有关。

In fact, I think that most of it has to do with body size --

事实上，大多数都跟体型有一定的关系--

the size you are when you inherit

无论何种自然灾害之后，

a vacant ecospace

那空荡的自然环境

from whatever natural disaster.

决定了它们的体型。

Looking at dinosaur evolution

深入研究恐龙进化史

and studying it, digging it up for many years,

并亲自参与现场挖掘很多年之后，

I end up looking at the mammal radiation,

我转向了对哺乳动物种类的研究，

and it seems as though everything is quick time, just like technology,

结果似乎是所有的事物都转瞬即逝，

advancing by an order of magnitude.

就像技术要朝着更先进的方向发展一样。

Dinosaur evolution proceeded at a stately pace,

但恐龙却迈着庄严谨慎的进化脚步前进，

an order of magnitude slower on any way you want to measure it.

这样的进化方式比我们想象得要慢很多。

You want to measure it by diversity?

你要以生物多样性来测量吗？

You want to measure it by

或者你要以

the time it took to reach maximum body size?

它们进化到最大体型所需的时间来衡量？

Yes, they do have larger body size,

是的，它们有过比较大的体型，

but many of them are smaller,

但绝大多数体型是比较小的，

but we're interested in the time it took them to achieve that.

然而我们感兴趣的是这些恐龙用了多长时间才变得这么大的。

Fifty million years to achieve this maximum body size.

5000万年。

And that is 10 times longer than it took the mammals

而哺乳动物只花了500万年就

to achieve maximum body size

进化到了最大的体型

and invade all those habitats.

并且在恐龙原栖息上繁衍生息。

So there's lessons to learn,

所以我们要吸取很多教训，

and there's lessons to learn from the exception,

而这些教训都来自于一个特例。

the exception that we know very well today from the discoveries we've made,

这个特例我们今天很熟悉，是因为世界各地的学者和我们

and many other scholars have made around the world.

到目前为止所做的各种发现。

This slide was shown before. This is the famous Jurassic bird Archaeopteryx.

这张幻灯片以前也展示过，是著名的侏罗纪始祖鸟。

We now know this transition is the one time

我们现在知道这个转变

that dinosaurs actually went below

是在恐龙逐渐变小的过程中

that body size --

开始的。

we're going to see where they began in a minute --

接下去我们要讨论它们是从哪里开始的。

and it is the one time that they rapidly

正是那个时期，它们迅速地

invaded all the habitats

繁衍生息。

I just told you that dinosaurs weren't in.

我刚才说过恐龙们是不去水中生活的。

They became marine. We now know them today

这些鸟转移到了海洋里。我们今天是从

from the ice caps.

冰盖研究中得知的。

There's burrowing birds.

这些是穴居鸟。

They inhabit the trees at all body sizes,

不管何种体型，它们都可以呆在树上，

and, of course, they inhabit the land.

当然，也生活在陆地上。

So we were the first to actually name a bird from the famous series

事实上，后来在《科学》和《自然》杂志上

that later exploded onto the pages of Science and Nature.

频繁刊登的这种鸟是我们命名的。

We called this bird Sinornis. It's a little bit more advanced than Archaeopteryx,

我们叫它中国鸟。它比始祖鸟要更高等一些。

and if you go to different layers, you find things

如果你分析不同的地层，就会发现

that are less advanced than Archaeopteryx, and every grade in between,

每往下一层，生物就更低等。

so that if you find something today, we're usually splitting hairs --

所以今天如果你发现了新的化石，我们通常是去分析它的毛发，

or, more appropriately, feathers -- as to decide whether it's actually

或更恰当地说是羽毛

a non-avian or an avian.

来决定它是否属于鸟类。

It is the greatest transition that we have, actually,

这事实上是陆地上从一个栖息地到另一个上的

on land from one habitat to another,

最重要的转变，

bar none,

无一例外，

to understand how a bony,

这也为有骨架的，

fairly heavy, kilogram or a couple-of-kilogram animal

有厚重羽毛的，几公斤重的动物是怎样进化的

could make such a transition.

提供了一定的线索。

It is really our greatest -- one of our greatest -- evolutionary sequences.

这是我们进化历程上最重要的事件之一。

Now, my work began at the beginning.

现在，我的工作是从头开始。

I thought if I'm going to understand dinosaur evolution,

我想如果我要去了解恐龙是怎样进化的，

I'd have to go back to those beds

我不得不回到那些远古地层，

where they had picked up fragments, go back to a time and a place

因为古生物学家在那里发现了恐龙的碎片，那是恐龙

where the earliest dinosaurs existed.

曾经生活过的时代和地方。

I'd like to call for this little video clip

我想在这里给大家放一小段录像，

to give you some idea of, sort of, what we face. Normally, we get asked a lot of questions:

让大家对我们所面对的东西有一点了解。通常，大家会问很多问题，

"Well, how do you find fossils in areas that look like this?"

例如，“你们是怎样在这片地区找到化石的？”

If we could roll that first video clip.

我们回放一下第一段录像。

This is sort of a nice helicopter ride

这架看起来不错的直升机

through those early beds,

自由穿行在那些古老的峡谷中，

and they're located in Northeastern Argentina.

这个地方是阿根廷的东北地区。

And we're coming over a cliff, and at the top of that cliff,

我们正经过峡谷的上方，这些峡谷的顶端

dinosaurs had basically taken over.

是恐龙曾经生活过的地方。

At the bottom of the cliff, we find that they're rare as hens' teeth.

在峡谷的底部，我们几乎发现不了恐龙化石。

That's where dinosaur origins is to be found: at the bottom of the cliff.

而在那里我们发现了最原始的恐龙化石。

You go into an area like this, you get a geologic map,

在这样的地区你需要一张地质图，

you get a topographic map,

或者说一张地形图，

and the best, most-inspired team you can bring to the area.

最重要的是有一支最棒的队伍跟着你。

And the rest is up to you. You've got to find fossils.

最后就靠我们自己了。我们得找到恐龙化石。

You've got to dig a hole that's usually quite a bit bigger than that

你得挖一个比这稍大一点的洞

to get it out; you've got to climb those cliffs

才能把它挖出来；你还得爬上这些峡谷

and find, really, everything that existed --

挖出任何一样有研究价值的东西，

not just the dinosaurs, but the entire story. If you're lucky,

不仅仅是恐龙化石，而是整个史前故事。如果你够幸运，

and you dig a place like that,

并且找到了这样的一个地方，

you actually find the ash bed to dig it, and we did.

你就去挖吧，事实上，我们就是这么做的。

228 million years old, we found

我们发现了一具有2亿2800万年的

what really is the most primitive dinosaur:

最原始的恐龙骨架：

that's the Ur-dinosaur.

这就是尔恐龙.

A three-and-a-half foot thing,

3英尺半高（1米左右），

beautiful skull, predator,

有着一个迷人头骨的掠食者，

meat-eater, a two-legged animal.

也就是食肉恐龙，两足行走。

So, all the other dinosaurs that you know,

然而，你或你的孩子记忆当中的其它恐龙

or your kids know, at least, on four legs.

至少是有四条腿的。

This is sort of a look at the skull,

来看一下这个头骨，

and it's an absolutely fantastic thing about five or six inches long.

5到6英寸长，非常漂亮。

It looks rather bird-like because it is.

它看起来像鸟的头骨，事实上的确这样。

It's bird-like and hollow.

它有着像鸟一样的头骨，并且是空心的。

A predator. Maybe 25 pounds,

它是掠食者，大概有25磅，

or 10 kilograms.

也就是10公斤。

That's where dinosaurs began. That's where the radiation began.

这就是恐龙的起源，然后逐渐地分散到各个地方去。

That is 10 times larger

这比哺乳动物，也就是四足动物

than the mammal radiation, which was a four-legged radiation.

要大10倍。

We are extremely dinosaur-like,

我们和恐龙是非常相像的，

and unusual in our two-legged approach to life.

只不过我们是两足动物。

Now, if you want to understand what happened

如果你想知道远古大陆分裂后

then when the continents broke apart,

发生了什么，

and dinosaurs found -- landlubbers, as they are --

为什么恐龙被发现时是

found themselves adrift. There's some missing puzzle pieces.

四分五裂的，我们还需要其他一些关键证据。

Most of those missing puzzle pieces are southern continents,

而大都数这些证据在南半球的大陆上，

because it was those continents that are least explored.

那里人类的足迹几乎没有。

If you want to add to this picture and try and sketch it globally,

如果你想为这个画增添些什么，为了使它更完美一点，

you really have to force yourself to go down

你就必须走遍

to the four corners of the Earth --

地球的各个角落--

Africa, India, Antarctica, Australia --

非洲、印度、南极洲、澳大利亚--

and start putting together some of these pieces.

并且试着开始找出最终答案。

I've been to some of those continents, but Africa was,

我曾经到过其中的一些大陆，只是非洲在

in the words of Steven Pinker, was a blank slate, largely.

史蒂芬·品克的描述中，很大程度上是一块白板，

But one with an immense chalkboard in the middle,

但中间是一大块黑板，

with lots of little areas of dinosaur rock

那里有很多埋藏恐龙化石的一片片地区，

if you could survive an expedition.

条件是你能在探险后幸存下来。

There's no roads into the Sahara. It's an enormous place.

没有路通往沙哈拉沙漠，那是个无边无际的地方。

To be able to excavate

如果要把

the 80 tons of dinosaurs that we have in the Sahara

80吨重的沙哈拉沙漠恐龙化石

and take them out, you really have to put together

搬出去，你就必须有一支能

an expedition team that can handle the conditions.

克服任何困难的探险队伍。

Some of them are political. Many of them are physical.

这些困难当中，其中一些是政治原因，很多是身体上的，

Some of them -- the most important -- are mental.

再有一些，也是最重要的，是精神上的。

And you really have to be able to withstand conditions --

你要能承受各种各样的恶劣条件--

you have to drive into the desert,

你不得不驱车进入沙漠腹地，

you will see landscapes in many cases --

那里你可以看到形态各异的沙漠景观--

you can see from what we've discovered --

你可以见到我们所发现的各种化石--

that nobody else has ever seen.

而其他人却不能。

And the kinds of teams they bring in?

有人会问你们的队伍是由哪些人组成的？

Well, they're

他们是有

composed of

一群

people who understand science as adventure with a purpose.

懂得科学精神的人组成，而这个精神就是有目的性的探险。

They're usually students who've never seen a desert.

队伍成员通常是一群没有去过沙漠的学生。

Some of them are more experienced.

其中一些学生则相对经验丰富些。

Your job as a leader -- this is definitely a team sport --

作为领队--这可以说是一个团队运动--

your job as a leader is to try to inspire them

你必须试图激励他们

to do more work than they've ever done in their life

在这样的严酷条件下

under conditions that they can't imagine.

做比生活中所能承受的更多的事。

So, 125 degrees is normal.

所以，125华氏度（52摄氏度）很正常。

The ground surface at 150 -- typical.

而地表通常可以达到66摄氏度。

So, you can't leave your normal metal tools out

因此，你最好不要把金属工具放在太阳底下，

because you'll get a first-degree burn if you grab them sometimes.

否则如果不小心碰到它们，就会被烫得很严重。

So, you are finding yourself also in an amazing cultural milieu.

你也会发现自己正沉浸在某一文化环境之中，

You're really rubbing shoulders

和世界上仅存的

with the world's last great nomadic people.

伟大游牧民族打交道。

These are the Tuareg nomads, and they're living their lives

他们是图阿雷格游牧民族，在撒哈拉地区

much as they have for centuries.

生活了几百年。

Your job is to excavate things like this in the foreground,

你的工作就是把这些挖掘出来，

and make them enter the pages of history.

然后把它记录在册。

To do that, you've got to actually transport them

要做到这一点，你需要把这些从沙漠运到

thousands of miles out of the desert.

几千英里之外的另一个地方。

We're talking about Ethiopia, but let's talk about Niger --

我们现在说的是埃塞俄比亚，但接下来要谈的是--

or Niger, in our English language -- north of Nigeria --

尼日尔--尼日尔北部地区--

that's where this photograph was taken.

在那里我们拍到了这张照片。

Basically you're talking about a country that,

当我们开始工作时，

when we started working there, did not have container traffic.

尼日尔基本上没有集装箱运输车。

You transported the bones out yourself

你得自己把这些化石运到

to the coast of Africa,

非洲海岸，

onto a boat, if you wanted to get them out of the middle of the Sahara.

然后再搬上船，才能把它们运出沙哈拉中部地区。

That's a 2,000 mile journey.

这有2000英里的路程。

So enormous excavations and a lot of work,

在大量的挖掘工作之后，

and out of essentially a partial herd of dinosaurs

我们利用埋藏在那里的

that you saw buried there -- 20 tons of material --

一部分重要恐龙骨架--大约有20吨--

we erect Jobaria,

安装了约巴龙，

a sauropod dinosaur like we haven't seen on some other continents.

这是一种我们在其他大陆上没有见到过的蜥脚类龙，

It really is a little bit out of place temporally.

看起来暂时跟周围环境有点不搭。

It looks nothing like what we would find

它和我们如今在北美岩层中

if we dug in contemporary beds in North America.

所找到的化石一点也不同。

Here's the animal that was causing it trouble.

这是一头给食草恐龙带来惊慌的恐龙。

And, you know, on and on --

你知道，逐渐地我们就有了这么一个

a whole menagerie. When you pick up something like this --

庞大的动物园。当你捡起这样的东西时--

and some of you have had the chance to touch it --

一些人曾经可能接触过类似的东西--

this is a piece of history. You're touching something that's 110 million years old.

这就是一段历史，距今已有1亿1000万年了。

This is a thumb claw. There it was, moments after it was discovered.

这是拇指爪，在这个恐龙化石发现后不久就发现了它。

It is an incredible view of life,

多么不可思议的生命，

and it really began when we began to understand

当我们开始思考时间深度时

the depth of time.

它就开始了。

It's only been with us for less than a century,

它的历史不超过百年，

and in that time, that fourth dimension,

在那时，

when radioactive dating came about, less than a century ago,

不到一个世纪之前，放射性测年技术的发明

and we could actually tell how old some of these things were,

使我们能测得这些化石的年龄，

is probably the most profound transformation,

这是一项深远的变革，

because it changes the way we look at ourselves

它改变了我们看待自己和世界的

and the world dramatically.

方式方法。

When you pick up a piece of history like that,

当你了解这些化石的背后故事后，

I think it can transform

我想这些历史能转变

kids that are possibly interested in science.

对科学有可能产生兴趣学生的态度。

That's the animal that thumb claw came from: Suchomimus.

这是似鳄龙的拇指爪。

Here's some others.

这还有其它一些。

This is something we found in Morocco, an immense animal.

这是我们在摩洛哥发现的庞然大物。

We prototyped by CAT-scanning the brain out of this animal.

我们用CAT扫描了它的头骨，并制作了头骨原型。

It turns out to have a forebrain

它的前脑容量

one-fifteenth the size of a human.

只有人类的十五分之一。

This was the cover of Science, because they thought

这是《科学》杂志的封面，有人认为

that humans were more intelligent than these animals,

人类比这些动物更有智慧，

but we can see by some in our administration

但我们从行政机构的一些例子中可以看出

that despite

尽管

the enormous advantage in brain volume

人类在脑容量上占上风，

some of the attitudes remain the same. Anyway,

但是我们和它们的一些态度相似。总之，

smaller raptors.

我们人类是小型掠食者。

All the stuff from Jurassic Park that you know of --

《侏罗纪公园》这部电影中你所知道的一切--

all those small animals --

所有的那些小型动物--

they all come from northern continents.

它们都生活在各个大陆的北部地区。

This is the first skeleton from a southern continent,

这是第一具来自某个大陆南方的骨架，

and guess what? You start preparing it.

猜怎么着？

It has no big claw on its hind foot. It doesn't look like a Velociraptor.

它的后脚没有大型爪子，看起来不像迅猛龙。

It's really a wholly separate radiation.

很明显，它是一个新的种类。

So what we're trying to piece together here is a story.

所以我们正在尽力还原当初的情况，

It involves flying reptiles like this Pterosaur

包括会飞的爬行动物，

that we reconstructed from Africa.

像这只我们在非洲重新复原的翼龙。

Crocodiles, of course,

当然还有鳄鱼。

and that's a nasty one we haven't named yet.

我们还没有给这条可怕的鳄鱼取个名字，

And huge things -- I mean, this is a

然人惊叹的是

lower jaw just laying there in the desert

这条巨鳄的下颌骨

of this enormous crocodile.

正躺在沙漠之中。

The crocodile is technically called Sarcosuchus.

学术上我们称它为帝王鳄。

That's an adult Orinoco crocodile in its jaws.

从颌骨来看，这是一条成年奥里诺科鳄鱼。

We had to try and reconstruct this.

我们竭尽全力想把它复原，

We had to actually look at recent crocodiles

所以只有和现在的鳄鱼作比较之后，

to understand how crocodiles scale.

才能知道鳄鱼身体的比例是怎样的。

Could I have the second little video clip?

马上来放一下第二个短片。

Now, this field is just -- and, of course, science in general -- is just -- adventure.

一般来说，这是一种科学，但更确切地说是探险。

We had to find and measure

我们得找出当今体型最大的鳄鱼，

the largest crocodiles living today.

并测量它的一些数据。

Narrator: ... as long as their boat.

旁白：只要他们的船......

Man: Look at that set of choppers! Yeah, he's a big one.

第一个人：快看那排牙齿！它可真大。

Narrator: If they can just land it,

旁白：如果他们能把它拖上岸，

this croc will provide useful data,

这条鳄鱼就能提供一些有用的数据

helping Paul in his quest to understand Sarcosuchus.

来帮助保罗能更好地复原帝王鳄。

Man: OK, hand me some more here. Man 2: OK.

第一个人：我需要更多的人手。第二个人：我来了。

Narrator: It falls to Paul to cover its eyes.

旁白：由保罗来盖住它的眼睛。

Man: Watch out! Watch out! No, no, no, no. You're going to have to get on the back legs.

第一个人：小心！小心！不，不，不，你去把它的后腿按住。

Man: I got the back legs.

第一个人：我按住了。

Man 2: You have the back legs? No, you have the front legs, my friend.

第二个人：你真的按住了吗？不，你压的是前腿，我的老兄。

I've got it. I've got the back legs.

现在好了，肯定没错。

Somebody get the front legs.

快来人把前腿按住。

Paul Sereno: Let's get this tape measure on him. Put it right there.

保罗·塞雷诺：我们来量一下它。放在那里。

Wow.

哇塞。

Sixty-five. Wow.

65英寸（1.6米），不可思议！

That's a big skull.

它头可真大。

Narrator: Big, but less than half the size

旁白：大吗？大也不会超过

of supercroc's skull.

帝王鳄头骨的一半。

Man: Enormous. PS: You've got a ... 14-foot croc.

第一个人：真大。保罗·塞雷诺：有14英尺长（4.3米）。

Man: I knew it was big.

第一个人：我就知道它很大。

PS: Don't get off. You don't get off, but don't worry about me.

保罗·塞雷诺：按住！千万要按住它！不用为我担心。

Narrator: Paul has his data, so they decide

旁白：保罗得到了他要的数据，所以他们决定

to release the animal back into the river.

重新把它放回到河里。

PS: Don't get off! Don't get off! Don't get off!

保罗：使劲！使劲按住！呆在上面别动！

Narrator: Paul has never seen a fossil do that.

旁白：保罗从来没有见过一具“化石”会这样做。

PS: Okay, when I say three, we move.

保罗：我数到三，咱们一起放开。

One, two, three!

一，二，三！

Whoa!

哇！

So -- there were --

所以......

(Applause)

（掌声）

Well, you know, the -- the fossil record is truly amazing

你知道，化石记录非常地有意义，

because it really forces you to look at living animals in a new way.

因为它逼迫你用新的方式去了解现在的动物。

We proved with those measurements

我们用那些数据已经证明了

that crocodiles scaled isometrically.

所有的鳄鱼身体比例都是一样的。

It depended on the shape of their skull, though,

然而，身体的比例是由头骨决定的，

so we had to actually get those measurements

所以我们要用那些数据来

to be sure that we had reconstructed and could prove to the scientific world

衡量我们重新复原的骨架，然后才向科学界公布

that supercroc in fact is a 40-foot crocodile, probably a male.

这条巨型鳄鱼具体情况，长40英尺（12米），很可能是条公鳄。

Anyway, you find other things, too.

无论如何，你还会找到其它的东西。

I'm going to lead an expedition to the Sahara

我将要带领一队伍去沙哈拉沙漠

to dig up Africa's largest neolithic site.

挖掘非洲最大的新石器遗址。

We found this last year.

去年我们发现了这个，

Two hundred skeletons, tools, jewelry.

骨架，工具，珠宝，共有200件。

This is a ceremonial disk.

这是一个仪式盘，

An amazing record of the colonization of the Sahara

是沙哈拉部落化的重要证明。

5,000 years ago is been sitting out there

它在那里呆了5000年，

waiting for us to go back. So, really exciting.

一直等着我们回去。所以，我们非常兴奋。

And then work later is going to take us to Tibet.

接下来由于工作原因，我们去了西藏。

Now, we normally think of Tibet as a highland.

现在，我们通常认为西藏是一片高地。

It's really an island continent.

然而它是一块岛内大陆。

It was a precursor to India,

它是印度的先导，

a messenger from Gondwana --

是来自冈瓦纳--

a lost paradise of dinosaurs

--恐龙失乐园--的信使，

isolated for millions of years.

与世隔绝了几百万年。

No one's found them. We know where they are,

过去一直没有人知道它们的下落。现在我们知道在哪里，

and we're going to go and get them next year.

并且计划明年去那儿。

They're only between 13 and 14,000 feet,

那里海拔有1万3千到1万4千英尺（3962~4267米），

but if you go in the warm part of the year, it's O.K.

但是如果春秋季节去那里，没什么大问题。

Now, I tried to suture together a dinosaur evolutionary history

现在，我要把这些片段连接成一段恐龙的进化史。

so that we can try to understand

以此来更好地了解恐龙的

some basic patterns of evolution.

一些基本进化模式。

I've talked about a few of them. We really need to take that further.

我已经谈到了一些，但我们要做更深入的探讨。

We need to delve into this mass of anatomy

我们需要研究这些

that we've been compiling

我们一直在复原的解剖结构

to understand where the changes are occurring and what this means.

来理解什么时候发生了变化，这些变化又意味着什么。

We can't predict, necessarily, what will happen in evolution,

我们不一定能预测进化的走向，

but we can learn some of the rules of the game,

但是我们能了解一些进化的规则，

and that's really what we're trying to do.

这就是我们正在努力做得的事。

With regard to the biogeographic question,

关于生物地理学这个问题，

the Earth is dividing.

地球正在分裂。

These are all landlubbing animals. There's a couple of choices.

这些都是在陆地上生活的动物。这里存在很多选择。

You get divided, and a continent's division

陆生动物被分开，每一个分开后的大陆板块

corresponds to a fork in the evolutionary tree,

对应着进化树的一个分叉，

or you're crafty, and you manage to escape

如果你够厉害，成功地

from one to the other and erase that division,

从一个板块跳到另一个板块，也就是说你消除了这种隔离，

or you're living peacefully on each side,

要么你在两边都生活很好，

and on one side you just go extinct,

要么你在一个板块上灭绝了，

and you survive on the other side and create a difference.

要么你在另外的板块活下来，并且发生了一些变化。

And the fourth thing is that you actually did one or the other

第四种可能是，你的情况属于

of those three things, but the paleontologist never found you.

这三者之一，但是古生物学家还没发现你。

And you take those four instances

考虑了这四种可能，

and you realize you have a complex problem.

你发现这是一个复杂的问题。

And so, in addition to digging, I think we have some answers

因此，除了挖掘之外，我认为我们能从

from the dinosaur record. I think these dinosaurs migrated --

恐龙的记录上得到一些答案。我觉得恐龙曾经有过迁移--

we call it dispersal -- around the globe, with the slightest land bridge.

我们称之为分散--在全球范围内，通过最狭窄的大陆连接地带。

They did it within two or three degrees of the pole,

它们通过两个或三个连接

to maintain similarity between continents.

来保持不同大陆之间物种的相似性。

But when they were divided, indeed they were divided,

但是有时候它们真正地被隔离了，

and we do see the continents

我们也确实看到不同的大陆

carving differences among dinosaurs.

在恐龙身上留下了不同的痕迹。

But there's one thing that's even more important, and I think that's extinction.

但是我觉得有一件事更加重要，那就是灭绝。

We have downgraded this factor.

我们忽略了这件事。

It carves up the history of life,

灭绝这个因素在生命历史留下深刻的印记，

and gives us the differences that we see

而且造成了我们所看到的在

in the dinosaur world towards the end,

恐龙世界的差异性，一直持续到恐龙的消失，

right before the bolide impact.

持续到彗星撞击地球之前。

The best way to test this is to actually create a model.

验证这个理论的最好方法是建立模型。

So if we move back, this is a two-dimensional typical tree of life.

如果我们往回看，这是一个二维的生命树。

I want to give you three dimensions.

我要向你们展示三维的生命树。

So you see the tree of life,

这是一棵生命树，

but now I've added the dimension of area.

现在我区域作为一个维度加上去。

So the tree of life is normally divergence over time.

生命树随着时间的流逝形成分叉。

Now we have divergence over time, but we've created the third dimension of area.

在看到时间产生的分叉之后，我们又添加了第三个维度--区域。

This is a computer program

这是一个计算机程序，

which has three knobs.

它由三部分组成。

We can control those things that we're worried about:

我们控制我们关心的参数：

extinction, sampling, dispersal --

灭绝，抽样，分散--

going from one area to another.

从一个区域移动到另一个区域。

And ultimately we can control the branching

最终我们可以通过控制这些分支

to mimic what we think the continents were like,

来模拟曾经这些大陆的样子，

and run it a thousand times, so we can estimate the parameters,

通过一千次的运行，我们可以估计这些参数，

to answer the question whether we are on the mark or not,

这样我们就能知道我们的工作是否在正确的方向上进行，

at least to know the barriers of the problems. So that's a little bit about the science.

至少能知道问题的难点。这是关于科学的一点东西。

Today I'm going to spend the rest of my few minutes up here

今天我要利用剩下的时间

talking about the other stuff that I do in Chicago,

谈谈我在芝加哥做的事，

which is related to the fact that I never --

这关系到一个事实--

and actually, in talking to a lot of TEDsters,

其实我在之前的TED演讲中谈到过，

there's a number of you out there -- I don't know that I'd get an answer

你们中的很多人当时在哪儿--我不知道我会得到一个答案

honestly, if I asked you to raise your hand,

老实说，如果我让你们举手，

but there are a number of you out there that started your

会发现你们中很多人在

scientific, technical, entertainment career

科学、技术和娱乐等领域的最初尝试

as failures, by society's standards, as failures by schools.

是一个失败，不管从社会的标准，还是从学校的标准来说。

I was one of those. I was failed by my school -- my school failed me.

我就是一个失败的例子。我在学校学习差劲--学校对我没了信心。

Who's pointing fingers?

谁在指我？

Several teachers nearly killed me.

一些老师几乎要把我杀了。

I found myself in art.

我发现我喜欢艺术。

I was a total failure in school, not really headed to graduate high school.

在学校，我是一个彻底的失败者，高中都没毕业。

And I went on -- that's my first painting on canvas.

我继续朝我的方向走--那是我的第一幅画。

I read a dictionary. I got into college.

我读了一本字典。我进了学院。

I became an artist. O.K., and started drawing.

我成为了画家，开始画画。

It became abstract.

我变得抽象。

I worked up a portfolio, and I was headed to New York.

我做了一个文件夹，去了纽约。

Sometimes I would see bones when there was a body there.

有时候看见一具身体，我就会研究它的骨骼。

Something was going on in the background. I headed to New York to a studio.

一些事发生后，我去了纽约的一个工作室。

I took a side trip to the American Museum, and I never recovered.

我顺便去了美国博物馆，从来没有回过神来。

But really it's the same discipline -- they're kindred disciplines.

但这真的是同样的学科--它们是同源学科。

I mean, is there anything

我的意思是，所有的东西

that is not visualizing what can't be seen,

都能在某种程度上把我们肉眼看不见的东西展示出来，

in terms of discovering this dinosaur bone from a small piece of it

就恐龙挖掘而言，通过恐龙的一小部分的骨骼可以发现恐龙

that's out there, or seeing the distortion

观察那些

that we try to see

我们希望看到的扭曲，

as evolutionary distortion in one animal to another?

这些是进化的扭曲，从一种动物到另一种动物。

This is a very extraordinarily visual.

这是非常奇特的视觉。

I give you a human face because you're experts at that.

我先给你们看人脸，因为人脸是最熟悉不过了。

It takes us years to understand how to do that with dinosaurs.

经过很好几年的研究，我们知道了如何把这运用到恐龙身上。

They're really kindred disciplines.

这其实是很相似的学科。

But what we're trying to create in Chicago

但我在芝加哥所做的

is a way to get,

是把

collect together, those students

这些学生聚集在一起，这些学生

who are least represented in our science and technology spheres.

从科学技术方面是失败者。

We all know, and there's been several allusions to it,

我们都知道这些失败意味着

that we are failing in our ability to produce

我们的社会不能产生

enough scientists, engineers and technicians.

足够的科学家，工程师和技术人员的的能力。

We've known that for a long time. We've gone through the Sputnik phase,

我们对此认同已就。我们经过了初期探索阶段，

and now, as you see the increase

现在你可以看到

in the pace of what we're doing,

社会的发展越来越快。

it becomes even more prominent. Where are all these people going to come from?

这个问题变得更加显著。我们社会需要的人才将从哪里来？

And a more general question for our society is,

一个更加普遍的问题是,

what's going to happen to all the rest that are left behind?

对于那些落后的孩子，

What about all the kids like me that were in school --

那学孩子就像曾经在学校读书的我--

kids like some of you out there --

像你们中的一些孩子--

that were in school and didn't get a chance and will never get a chance

在学校从来没有机会

to participate in science and technology?

参加科学技术活动，他们该怎么办？

Those are the questions I ask. And we talk about Ethiopia, and it's very important.

这是我要问的问题。我要谈谈埃塞俄比亚，这非常重要。

Niger is equally important, and I'm trying desperately

尼日尔也同样重要，我非常想

to do something in Niger.

在那里做一些事。

They have an AIDS problem. I asked --

他们有很严重的艾滋病问题。

the U.S. State Department asked the government recently,

最近美国国务院对当地政府提出一个问题，

What do you want to do? And they gave them two problems.

你们将怎么做？他们给出了两个问题。

Dinosaurs was one of them.

其中一个问题和恐龙有关。

Give us a museum of dinosaurs,

给我们一个恐龙博物馆，

and we will attract tourists, which is our number two industry.

这样我们就可以吸引更多游客，旅游是我们的第二大支柱产业。

And I hope to God the United States government, me, or TED,

我希望美国政府，我，抑或是TED

or somebody helps us do that, because that would be an incredible thing for their country.

或者其他人能办到这一点，因为这对他们的国家是在太重要了。

But when we look back at our own country, we're looking back at our cities,

但是当我们把视线移回到我们的国家，我们审视我们城市，

the cities where most of you come from -- certainly the city I come from --

这些养育我们的城市--当然也养育了我--

there's legions of kids out there

有大批的孩子在哪儿

like these.

诸如此类的孩子。

And the question is -- and we started to address this question for centuries --

问题是--我们从几个世纪前就开始着手解决这个问题--

as to how we get these kids involved in science.

如何让这些孩子参入到科学中去。

We've started in Chicago

我们从芝加哥开始

an organization -- a non-profit organization --

创办了一个非营利性组织--

called Project Exploration.

叫做“探索工程”。

These are two kids from Project Exploration.

这是两个来自“探索工程”的孩子。

We met them in their early stages in high school. They were --

我们在他们刚上高中时认识他们。他们

failing to poor students,

是差等生，

and they are now -- one at the University of Chicago, another in Illinois.

现在他们一个在芝加哥大学，另一个在伊利诺伊。

We've got students at Harvard. We're six years old.

我们有去哈佛的学生。我们的机构已经有6年的历史。

And we created a track record.

我们创造了成绩记录。

Because when you go out there as a scholar, and you try to find out longitudinal studies,

因为一旦你成为一个学者，你会试图去进行纵向研究，

track records like that, there essentially are very few, if none.

比如成绩记录之类的，这些记录本身很少。

So, we've created an incredible track record of 100 percent graduation,

我们创造了惊人的成绩记录，百分之百的毕业率。

90 percent going to college, many first-generation,

百分之九十进了大学，很多是应届，

90 percent of those choosing science as a career.

百分之九十选择了科学研究作为职业。

It's an impressive track record, and so we look back and we say,

这是令人影响深刻的成绩记录，所以回过来看我们说，

well, we didn't really exactly work this out theoretically from the start,

我们不是从理论开始的，

but when we look back, there are theoretical movements in science education.

但我们回头看，发现有理论支持我们的科学教育。

It's gone through science as an inquiry,

探索中贯穿着科学，

which was a big advance,

这是很大的进步，

and Dewey back at Chicago --

在芝加哥杜威说--

you learn by doing.

你通过实践学习。

To -- you learn by envisioning yourself

你通过想象你

as a scientist,

成为科学家的样子来学习，

and then you learn to envision yourself as a scientist.

然后你学会如何把自己想象成一位科学家。

The next step is to learn the capability

下一步是学习

to make yourself a scientist.

成为科学家的必备本领。

You have to have those steps. If you have --

你学要有这些步骤。如果你有--

It's easy to get kids interested in science.

就能很容易地让孩子们对科学产生兴趣。

It's hard to get them to envision themselves as a scientist,

让他们把自己想象成科学家这一点很难，

which involves standing up in front of people like we're doing here at this symposium

这涉及到站在大家面前，就像我现在做的一样，

and presenting something as a knowledgeable person,

以有学之士的身份去展示一些东西，

and then seeing yourself in the role as a scientist

然后就能看到你自己是作为一位科学家出现的

and giving yourself the tools to pursue that.

同时给你自己追求科学家这个梦想的能力。

And so, that's what we're going to do. We're planning a permanent home in Chicago.

那就是我们要做的事。我们计划在芝加哥建立一个永久的家。

We have lots of ideas, but I guarantee you this one thing --

我们有很多想法，但我向你们保证一件事--

and I've talked to some people here at TED --

这点我也在TED跟一些人谈到过--

it's not going to look like anything you've seen before.

我要说的是你们从来没有见过的。

It's going to be part-school, part-museum hall,

我们要建立的是一个既像学校，又像博物馆的场所，

part-conservatory, part-zoo,

它还像温室和动物园，

and part of an answer to the problem

它将部分上解决

of how you interest kids in science.

如何让孩子们对科学产生兴趣的问题。

Thank you very much.

谢谢大家。