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

譯者: Howard Chuang 審譯者: Helen Chang

How do you find a dinosaur?

究竟怎樣去尋找恐龍呢？

Sounds impossible, doesn't it?

聽起來不太可能，對吧？

It's not.

其實不然。

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

答案依憑一個所有古生物學家 都知道的公式。

And I'm going to tell you the secret.

而且我將告訴你這個秘密。

First, find rocks of the right age.

首先，尋找相應年代的岩石。

Second, those rocks must be sedimentary rocks.

然後，這些岩石必須是沉積岩。

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

再者，岩石的積層必須是自然暴露的。

That's it.

這樣就足夠了。

Find those three things and get yourself on the ground,

滿足這三件條件後你就可以動手了，

chances are good that you will find fossils.

你找到化石的機會很大。

Now let me break down this formula.

現在我來解析這個公式。

Organisms exist only during certain geological intervals.

生物只存在於某個特定的地質斷層。

So you have to find rocks of the right age,

所以你必須尋找相應年代的岩石，

depending on what your interests are.

依照你的興趣。

If you want to find trilobites,

如果你想找三葉蟲，

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

那你必須找那些相當古老的 古生代岩石──

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

年齡在 5 億和 2.5 億之間的岩石。

Now, if you want to find dinosaurs,

如果你想要尋找恐龍，

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

就不要在古生代岩石裡找， 你不會找到的。

They hadn't evolved yet.

牠們還未演化。

You have to find the younger rocks of the Mesozoic,

你要找相對年輕的中生代岩石，

and in the case of dinosaurs,

並且是恐龍存活的年代，

between 235 and 66 million years ago.

大概是 2.35 億至 6600 萬年前。

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

目前，要尋找適當年代的 岩石還算容易，

because the Earth is, to a coarse degree,

大致來說，地球是

geologically mapped.

根據地質來繪制的。

This is hard-won information.

這是一個得來不易的資訊。

The annals of Earth history are written in rocks,

地球的編年史刻寫在岩石裡，

one chapter upon the next,

一章接著一章，

such that the oldest pages are on bottom

所以最古老的一頁在底層，

and the youngest on top.

而最新的在上面。

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

好了，如果真那麽容易， 地質學家會欣喜若狂。

It's not.

可惜不是。

The library of Earth is an old one.

地球圖書館很老舊。

It has no librarian to impose order.

裡面並沒有管理員維持秩序。

Operating over vast swaths of time,

經歷長期運作，

myriad geological processes offer every possible insult

任何地質變動過程對於 各時代的地層

to the rocks of ages.

造成各種可能的影響。

Most pages are destroyed soon after being written.

大部分內容剛寫完後就被破壞了。

Some pages are overwritten,

有一些被新的覆蓋，

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

使它難以還原消失已久的地質原貌。

Pages that do find sanctuary under the advancing sands of time

在如流沙飛逝的時間中倖免的部分，

are never truly safe.

也絕非真正安全。

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

不像月球──我們死寂的衛星──

the Earth is alive, pulsing with creative and destructive forces

地球是活的，充滿著生命力和破壞力，

that power its geological metabolism.

為地質的新陳代謝提供動力。

Lunar rocks brought back by the Apollo astronauts

阿波羅太空人帶回來的月球岩石，

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

所有數據顯示其有太陽系的年齡。

Moon rocks are forever.

月球岩石是永久的。

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

另一方面，地球岩石 面臨著活著的岩石圈的危機。

All will suffer ruination,

它們都會遭受毀滅，

through some combination of mutilation, compression,

通過一些合併、毀傷、壓縮、

folding, tearing, scorching and baking.

折疊、撕裂、燒灼和烘烤。

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

所以，地球的史書 是不完整的和散亂的。

The library is vast and magnificent --

這個圖書館是廣闊而壯麗的──

but decrepit.

卻也是衰老的。

And it was this tattered complexity in the rock record

同時岩石擁有它破碎的複雜的記錄，

that obscured its meaning until relatively recently.

隱藏了它的涵義直到近代。

Nature provided no card catalog for geologists --

大自然沒有提供卡片式目錄 給地質學家──

this would have to be invented.

這需要我們去編寫。

Five thousand years after the Sumerians learned to record their thoughts

在蘇美爾人學會將他們的想法 記錄在泥板上的五千年後，

on clay tablets,

the Earth's volumes remained inscrutable to humans.

地球這本冊子對人類來說 仍然是高深莫測的。

We were geologically illiterate,

我們對地質學知之甚少，

unaware of the antiquity of our own planet

對我們星球的歷史也了解不多，

and ignorant of our connection

並忽略了我們與

to deep time.

古老時期的聯繫。

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

直到 19 世紀之後，

that our blinders were removed,

我們眼罩的才被拿掉，

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

首先，詹姆斯·赫頓的 《地球學說》問世，

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

書中提到地球的起源無跡可尋，

and no prospect of an end;

終結也無法預測，

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

而後，威廉·史密斯編繪出英國地圖，

the first country-scale geological map,

這首張國家疆域的地質圖，

giving us for the first time

讓我們第一次

predictive insight into where certain types of rocks might occur.

對特定年代岩石的分佈進行預測。

After that, you could say things like,

因此，你可以說：

「如果去那裡，我們會進入侏羅紀。」

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

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

「翻過這座山丘， 我們應該會找到白堊紀。」

So now, if you want to find trilobites,

那如果你想尋找三葉蟲，

get yourself a good geological map

那就準備一張好的地質地圖

and go to the rocks of the Paleozoic.

然後找尋古生代的岩石。

If you want to find dinosaurs like I do,

如果你想像我一樣去想找尋恐龍，

find the rocks of Mesozoic and go there.

那就要找到中生代的岩石。

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

當然，化石只會出現在沉積岩中，

a rock made by sand and mud.

這種岩石由沙和泥土組成。

You can't have a fossil

化石不會出現在

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

像花崗岩這類 由岩漿組成的火成岩中，

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

或是經高溫擠壓而形成的變質岩中。

And you have to get yourself in a desert.

而且你要去沙漠。

It's not that dinosaurs particularly lived in deserts;

並不是恐龍只生活在沙漠裡；

they lived on every land mass

牠們可生活在任何陸地上

and in every imaginable environment.

和任何可想像到的環境中。

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

你需要去沙漠，

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

這樣岩石就不會被植被覆蓋，

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

而且在那裡，侵蝕會讓新的岩層暴露。

So find those three things:

所以，具備這三個條件：

rocks of the right age,

特定年代的岩石，

that are sedimentary rocks, in a desert,

沙漠裡的沉積岩，

and get yourself on the ground,

然後你站在沙漠上，

and you literally walk

一直走，

until you see a bone sticking out of the rock.

直到看見有骨骼化石突出岩層。

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

這是張南巴塔哥尼亞的照片。

Every pebble that you see on the ground there

地上的每個石子

is a piece of dinosaur bone.

都是一塊恐龍骨骼化石。

So when you're in that right situation,

所以在那個情況下，

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

問題不是能否找到化石，

you're going to find fossils.

你一定會找到的。

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

問題是，找到的 是否對科學研究有意義？

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

所以，為了解決此問題， 我會在方法中增加第四步，

which is this:

那就是：

get as far away from other paleontologists as possible.

離其他的古生物學家越遠越好。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

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

並不是我不喜歡他們。

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

而是當你去到一個 相對未探索的地方時，

you have a much better chance of not only finding fossils

不僅有更大機會找到化石，

but of finding something that's new to science.

而且還可能在科學上有所新發現。

So that's my formula for finding dinosaurs,

這就是我尋找恐龍的秘方，

and I've applied it all around the world.

而且我曾在世界各地用過。

In the austral summer of 2004,

在 2004 年南半球的夏季，

I went to the bottom of South America,

我前往南美洲的最南端，

to the bottom of Patagonia, Argentina,

阿根廷的巴塔哥尼亞的南部，

to prospect for dinosaurs:

去尋找恐龍：

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

那個有特定年代的陸生沉積岩的地方，

in a desert,

位於沙漠中，

a place that had been barely visited by paleontologists.

而且是古生物學家甚少探訪之地。

And we found this.

我們找到這個。

This is a femur, a thigh bone,

一條股骨，一條大腿骨，

of a giant, plant-eating dinosaur.

是屬於一隻巨型草食恐龍。

That bone is 2.2 meters across.

那骨頭有 2.2 米長。

That's over seven feet long.

差不多超過 7 英尺。

Now, unfortunately, that bone was isolated.

但不幸的是，那條股骨是孤立的。

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

我們不斷的挖，可都沒有其他發現。

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

但它卻吸引著我們 次年返回繼續探尋。

And on the first day of that next field season,

而在新探索開展的當天，

I found this: another two-meter femur,

我找到這個：另一條兩米長的股骨，

only this time not isolated,

這次它並不是獨立的，

this time associated with 145 other bones

它與其他 145 塊巨型草食恐龍骨頭

of a giant plant eater.

連在一起。

And after three more hard, really brutal field seasons,

而在三段艱難的挖掘季之後，

the quarry came to look like this.

現場變成這樣。

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

你可以看見那隻巨獸的尾巴 卷曲著在我身邊。

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

躺在這裡的巨獸是恐龍新品種，

we would eventually call "Dreadnoughtus schrani."

最後牠被命名為「許蘭氏無畏龍」。

Dreadnoughtus was 85 feet from snout to tail.

無畏龍從鼻到尾長 85 呎。

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

牠站立時肩部達兩層半樓高，

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

活著時體重有 65 噸。

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

人們有時會問： 「無畏龍是否比暴龍大？」

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

事實它有八到九個暴龍那麼大。

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

有一個作為古生物學家很酷的事是

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

你可以命名你發現的新品種。

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

而我一直很介意大型草食恐龍

are too often portrayed as passive, lumbering platters of meat

常被描述成大是自然景觀中

被動、笨重的盤中肉。

on the landscape.

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

They're not.

牠們絕非那樣。

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

大型草食動物也可能脾氣暴躁， 也可以稱霸一方──

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

你不會想與河馬、犀牛或水牛亂來。

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

黃石國家公園裡的野牛 遠比灰熊傷了更多人。

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

所以你可以想像一隻重 65 噸 如大公牛般的無畏龍

in the breeding season,

在繁殖季節

defending a territory?

堅守領地的情景嗎？

That animal would have been incredibly dangerous,

牠會變得極度危險，

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

牠毫無畏懼並對周圍造成威脅。

And thus the name, "Dreadnoughtus,"

所以獲名「無畏龍」，

or, "fears nothing."

「無所畏懼」。

Now, to grow so large,

然而，要擁有如此大的體形，

an animal like Dreadnoughtus would've had to have been

像無畏龍這樣的動物

a model of efficiency.

必須很高效。

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

牠長長的脖子和尾巴可幫助散熱，

passively controlling its temperature.

起到控溫作用。

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

而其長脖也是個高效的進食機制。

Dreadnoughtus could stand in one place and with that neck

無畏龍站在原地，

clear out a huge envelope of vegetation,

移動脖子就能清乾淨大片的植被，

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

攝取大量的熱量，同時卻消耗無幾。

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

這些動物演化成 鬥牛犬般的寬步姿態，

giving them immense stability,

讓牠們穩定性更好，

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

因為當你有 65 噸重， 如房子一樣大時，

the penalty for falling over

跌倒的懲罰

is death.

是死亡。

Yeah, these animals are big and tough,

是的，這些動物又大又堅硬，

but they won't take a blow like that.

但牠們受不了那樣的一擊。

Dreadnoughtus falls over, ribs break and pierce lungs.

無畏龍倒下後，肋骨破裂， 同時刺穿肺部，

Organs burst.

內臟爆裂。

If you're a big 65-ton Dreadnoughtus,

如果你是一隻 65 噸重的無畏龍，

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

你不會想跌倒── 一次也不想。

Now, after this particular Dreadnoughtus carcass was buried

好了，在這隻無畏龍的軀體被掩埋，

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

肉被細菌、蠕蟲和昆蟲饞食分解後，

its bones underwent a brief metamorphosis,

骨頭轉變型態，

exchanging molecules with the groundwater

與地下水進行分子交換，

and becoming more and more like the entombing rock.

變得越來越像周圍的岩石。

As layer upon layer of sediment accumulated,

當一層層的泥沙累積起來，

pressure from all sides weighed in like a stony glove

四周的壓力就像石手套向中心施壓，

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

牢固持久的握住每一塊骨頭， 緊緊的包裹住。

And then came the long ...

然後就是漫長的......

nothing.

什麼都沒發生。

Epoch after epoch of sameness,

一代又一代，一直一樣，

nonevents without number.

數不清的沒事發生。

All the while, the skeleton lay everlasting and unchanging

同時， 骸骨保持永恆不變，

in perfect equilibrium

完美的平衡狀態，

within its rocky grave.

在它的石棺中。

Meanwhile, Earth history unfolded above.

同時，地球的歷史展開了。

The dinosaurs would reign for another 12 million years

恐龍又統治 1200 萬年，

before their hegemony was snuffed out in a fiery apocalypse.

牠們的霸權才在一場 曠世浩劫中終結。

The continents drifted. The mammals rose.

而後大陸漂移。哺乳類動物崛起。

The Ice Age came.

冰河時期到來。

And then, in East Africa,

然後，在東非，

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

一種看來沒出息的猿類 出奇地在有情思維中進化出來。

These brainy primates were not particularly fast or strong.

這些聰明的靈長類 並非特別快速或強壯。

But they excelled at covering ground,

但牠們擅長佔領土地，

and in a remarkable diaspora

並利用出色的散居的方式，

surpassing even the dinosaurs' record of territorial conquest,

超越恐龍征服領土的紀錄，

they dispersed across the planet,

牠們分佈在地球每一處，

ravishing every ecosystem they encountered,

強佔了每一個遇到的生態系統，

along the way, inventing culture and metalworking and painting

在過程中，牠們創造出 文化、金工、繪畫、

and dance and music

舞蹈、音樂、

and science

還有科學，

and rocket ships that would eventually take 12 particularly excellent apes

並用火箭載著 12 位特別傑出的猿人，

to the surface of the Moon.

飛到月球表面。

With seven billion peripatetic Homo sapiens on the planet,

有七十億人類在地球上來回走動，

it was perhaps inevitable

最終難免

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

會有人踏上這巨獸的墳墓，

buried beneath the badlands of Southern Patagonia.

在南巴塔哥尼亞貧瘠的地表下。

I was that ape.

我就是那個猿人。

And standing there, alone in the desert,

獨自站在那片沙漠上，

it was not lost on me

我沒有忘記，

that the chance of any one individual entering the fossil record

每個人遇到化石的機會，

is vanishingly small.

是十分渺小的。

But the Earth is very, very old.

但地球非常的古老。

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

而經過漫長的時間隧道， 不可能成為可能。

That's the magic of the geological record.

這就是地理的魔力。

Thus, multitudinous creatures living and dying on an old planet

然而，大量的生物 在這顆古老的星球上生存死亡

leave behind immense numbers of fossils,

留下了大量的化石，

each one a small miracle,

每一個體都是小小的奇蹟，

but collectively, inevitable.

但集體而言，則是必然的。

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

六千六百萬年前， 一顆小行星撞擊地球

and wipes out the dinosaurs.

導致恐龍滅絕。

This easily might not have been.

再來一次，這很可能不會發生。

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

我們只有一個歷史， 就是現在我們所有的。

But this particular reality was not inevitable.

但是這個特定的現實 不是必然會發生的。

The tiniest perturbation of that asteroid far from Earth

任何對那顆遙遠小隕石 施加的微小擾動

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

也能使它遠遠的錯過地球。

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

關鍵、災難、滅絕恐龍的那一天，

setting the stage for the modern world as we know it

打造了我們熟知的現代世界，

didn't have to be.

並不必然發生。

It could've just been another day --

它也可以是另外一天──

a Thursday, perhaps --

也許是星期四──

among the 63 billion days already enjoyed by the dinosaurs.

在恐龍已經享有的 六百三十億個日子中的一天。

But over geological time,

但是在地理時間中，

improbable, nearly impossible events

這不可能的，幾乎是不可能的事情

do occur.

確實發生了。

Along the path from our wormy, Cambrian ancestors

從我們低賤的寒武紀祖先，

to primates dressed in suits,

到西裝革履的人類，

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

無數條分岔路 引領我們到這個特定的現實。

The bones of Dreadnoughtus lay underground for 77 million years.

無畏龍的骨骸躺在地下 已七千七百萬年。

Who could have imagined

誰又能想像到

that a single species of shrew-like mammal

那如同潑婦一般的哺乳動物

living in the cracks of the dinosaur world

在恐龍時期只能在夾縫中求生存

would evolve into sentient beings

如今已進化成有智慧的生物，

capable of characterizing and understanding

能分析和理解

the very dinosaurs they must have dreaded?

當初會讓他們懼怕的恐龍。

I once stood at the head of the Missouri River

我曾站在密蘇里河的源頭

and bestraddled it.

然後跨過它。

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

在那裡，它只不過是涓涓細流，

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

從比特魯特山脈高處 一處牧場裡的一塊岩石下

high in the Bitterroot Mountains.

所流出的一股水流。

The stream next to it runs a few hundred yards

它旁邊的小水流僅奔流了幾百碼

and ends in a small pond.

就注入在一個小池子裡。

Those two streams -- they look identical.

這兩條看似相似的水流，

But one is an anonymous trickle of water,

卻一條默默無聞，

and the other is the Missouri River.

另一條則是密蘇里河。

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

順流而下來到密蘇里河 靠近聖路易斯的河口，

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

顯然這是條大河。

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

但回到比特魯特山脈來看它，

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

以人類的眼界 並不能察覺到它的特殊性。

Now go back to the Cretaceous Period

再講回白堊紀

and look at our tiny, fuzzball ancestors.

看看我們渺小、毛球般的祖先。

You would never guess

你絕不能猜到

that they would amount to anything special,

牠們將會特別有出息；

and they probably wouldn't have,

若非那塊討厭的隕石，

were it not for that pesky asteroid.

牠們應該不會有。

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

現在，就算另造一千個世界， 和另外一千個太陽系，

and let them run.

讓它們發展，

You will never get the same result.

你永遠不會得到一樣的結果。

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

無庸置疑，這些世界會同樣精彩，

令人難以置信，

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

但是它們不可能有與我們相同的歷史。

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

這裡有無窮我們可能經歷的歷史，

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

而我們只能有一個，哇， 我們所得到的真好。

Dinosaurs like Dreadnoughtus were real.

恐龍，像無畏龍是真實存在過的。

Sea monsters like the mosasaur were real.

海怪，像滄龍也是真實存在過的。

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

有著老鷹般翅膀的蜻蜓， 和如同汽車般大的蟲子

really existed.

也存在過。

Why study the ancient past?

為什麼要研究古老的過去？

Because it gives us perspective

因為它讓我們展望未來

and humility.

並學會謙遜。

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

恐龍在世界第五次大滅絕中滅亡，

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

牠們死於天災而並非自己的過錯。

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

牠們無法預見災難的發生，

也沒得選。

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

另一方面，我們是可以選擇的。

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

化石揭露了人類在地球的處境

is both precarious and potentially fleeting.

危機重重，同時可能轉瞬即逝。

Right now, our species is propagating an environmental disaster

目前，人類正大規模傳佈生態災難，

of geological proportions that is so broad and so severe,

這是場廣泛和嚴重的全球性災難，

it can rightly be called the sixth extinction.

絕對可以稱作第六次大滅絕。

Only unlike the dinosaurs,

但唯一不同於恐龍的是，

we can see it coming.

我們能看到它即將來臨。

And unlike the dinosaurs,

並且，不像恐龍，

we can do something about it.

我們可以做些什麼。

That choice is ours.

如何選擇在於我們。

Thank you.

謝謝。

(Applause)

（掌聲）