种出个地球（3）

植物之歌♥
第三集 挑战者
[本系列完]
我一生大部时间
I've spent most of my life
都用于探究塑造地球的力量
trying to understand the forces that shaped our planet,
身为地质学家
and as a geologist, it always seemed to me
伊安·斯图瓦特 教授
按说研究岩石才是我的本份
that rocks were right at the heart of things.
但此刻我意识到
But now, I'm discovering
并非只有火山或板块撞击
it's not only volcanoes and colliding continents
才造就了沧海桑田
that have driven the Earth's greatest changes,
因为在地球史的重要时刻
because at crucial moments in its history,
还有另一种力量孕育出我们的家园
another force has helped create the planet we live on...
这便是植物
...plants.
看看这粒种子
Just look at this seed.
身躯渺小 色泽黯淡 轻若无物
It's small, it's brown, it weighs hardly anything.
看似平庸
Looks pretty ordinary.
却绝非如此简单
But, actually, nothing could be further from the truth,
因为 它将长成参天大树
because what it will become is truly extraordinary.
这些是美洲巨杉
These are giant sequoias.
有些树龄已逾3000年
Some are over 3,000 years old.
巨杉是地球孕育出的最大单体生命
And sequoias are the largest single life form on Earth.
就来自这一粒渺小的种子
All from a tiny seed.
但较之于地球发展史中
Yet, even that pales into insignificance
植物王国的辉煌贡献
when compared to what the whole of the plant kingdom's done
这不过是沧海一粟
throughout the history of our planet.
植物掀开了地球史上一页崭新篇章
It's a whole new story about our Earth...
我将用这些前所未有的
...told through remarkable images,
一幕幕精彩画面及最新的科学发现
captured for the very first time,
来讲述植物的故事
and the latest scientific discoveries.
我喜欢植物 它们如此神奇
I love this. This is just fantastic.
本期节目只为大家呈现一类植物
This programme is about just one type of plant,
它们貌不惊人 却可担万物之重
the most underrated but perhaps the most important of all.
经过物竞天择的历练
One that, by taking on and
它们终于一统植物王国的剩余疆土
conquering the rest of the plant kingdom,
塑造出地球的容貌
shaped the face of the planet
进而推动了人类文明的出现
and went on to help create human civilisation.
这是一部受压♥迫♥植物的奋斗史
This is the story of the rise of that underdog.
曾经有几亿年时间
For hundreds of millions of years,
贯穿了整个恐龙时代
throughout the time of the dinosaurs,
森林一直统治着陆地
forests ruled the land.
当时气候非常温暖 树木遍及地球各处
It was so warm, trees extended over most of the Earth.
遥想当初 南北两极
Imagine the Arctic and antarctic
尚未被冰层覆盖 森林密布
without ice, carpeted with forests.
欢迎来到这个树木星球
Welcome to the planet of the trees.
如今 当初林木扩张的遗迹依旧可见
Today, isolated remnants of those expansive forests still exist
东非这里就是令人赞叹的遗迹之一
and here in East Africa is one of the most impressive.
卡塔古雾林 生长于干燥的肯尼亚平原
The Katago Cloud Forest rises out of the dry plains of Kenya.
这里湿度很大 与远古时期相近无几
Cloaked in moisture, it's much the same as it was then.
终于到了
Ah! Oh, at last!
看那边
Look at that.
然而 几百万年前
But millions of years ago,
树木这一古老统治者遭遇挑战
a challenger to the old dominant trees came onto the scene.
找到这个挑战者的最好办法就是
And the best way to find it is to climb right down
绳降至下面的密林深处
into the depths of the forest.
我这样子够傻的吧
It's never really elegant, this.
肾上腺素引发的紧张刺♥激♥即将袭来
This is when the adrenaline thrill starts to come in.
说实话 我还在犹豫是不是要跟你们去...
To be honest, I'm not quite sure after you get to...
只有个小沿 就像垂直的悬崖
There's a little lip, just seems to go straight down.
下面是非洲最古老的森林
This is the oldest forest in Africa up here.
是森林统治地球那个时代的遗迹
A relic, really, of the time when trees dominated the planet.
所以还真有种感觉
So, this really has a...
像是踏入一个远古的桃花源
a feeling of descending into that ancient lost world.
那时是树的王国
Back then, trees ruled
因为树干能尽情向上伸展
because wood gave them the strength to grow ever taller
可以尽情享用植物赖以生存的阳光
and to gorge on the sunlight all plants need.
随着不断下降
As you descend,
你可以真切感受到
you get a real sense of how
树木如何恃强凌弱 雄霸一方
trees bully and overshadow everything below.
现在进入树冠层已有大约十米
We've come about ten metres just into the canopy.
利用摄影用测光表
And I've nicked the cameraman's light metre,
我想看看这里的光照水平
just to see what the light levels are doing.
光照量下降了差不多三分之一
And already, they've dropped by about a third.
总算到了
Oh, God, finally.
现在再看看光照是什么水平
Now, let's see... see how that light's doing.
光照量下降了一半
That's gone down by a half.
这些参天古木遮蔽掉了一半的阳光
These huge trees here have stolen half the light.
下面的树木阴森诡异
Down here, the trees are intimidating.
不过也不是一片漆黑
But it's not complete gloom.
斑驳的阳光还是可以穿过重林
Patches of sunlight do break through to the forest floor.
这一束束珍贵的日光
And those shafts of precious light offer the chance
为一种新植物带来了契机
for a new type of plant,
它即将接替树木成为新的霸主
one that would come to take on the trees.
那科学家又是如何发现这个挑战者的呢
So, how did scientists discover the identity of the challenger?
一切都归功于这项饶有趣味的研究
It's all thanks to a rather enchanting piece of research
秘密就在这个小盒子里
involving what's inside this little box.
你永远猜不出里面是什么
You'll never guess what it is.
这是恐龙便便的化石
This is a piece of fossilised dinosaur poo.
臭臭的
It stinks.
它来自蜥脚巨龙
It's from a titanosaur sauropod,
类似于雷龙
which is kind of like a brontosaurus,
我儿时最喜欢的恐龙
my favourite dinosaur as a kid.
蜥脚巨龙体重约有100吨♥
It weighed about 100 tonnes,
不禁令我猜想
which makes me think that this
这不过是便便化石的一小部分
is just a fragment of something the size of...
具体大小不知道 但肯定很大
I don't know, really. Something big, anyway.
科学家喜欢便便化石 我们称之为"粪石"
Scientists love fossil poo. Coprolites, we call it.
粪石可以告诉我们动物的饮食结构
They tell us about the diet of animals, and particularly,
特别是恐龙时代那些常见的植物
about the plants that were around when dinosaurs were here.
几年前 科学家在研究这块化石时
And when scientists analysed this one a few years ago,
发现其中含有非常奇妙的成份
they found it contained something really strange.
显微镜下 科学家看到了某种植物的片段
Under the microscope, the scientists saw a fragment of a plant.
其结构非常独特 这种"8"字形结节
It had a distinctive pattern, these figure-of-eight nodules.
这是某类植物的一种典型特征
They turned out to be the defining feature
科学家对这一发现深感震惊
of a family of plants they were astonished to see.
草本植物
The grasses.
这是6600万年之前出现的
It was from 66 million years ago,
[译注: 疑为Manglietis
木莲属的一种]
首批草本植物的唯一证据 称作Matleitis
evidence for the earliest grass ever found, called Matleitis.
草本植物悄然地诞生
From its humble birth, grass would eventually
最终却进化为统治这颗星球的物种之一
become one of the most dominant forces on our planet.
其崛起过程堪称一曲蚍蜉撼大树的战歌♥
But its rise would be a David-and-Goliath battle with the trees.
如今仍可以见到那些早期挑战者的后裔
You can still find descendants of those early challengers today.
就是这种植物
Plants like this.
我们认为它们
And we think these are similar
与草本植物始祖的外观基本近似
to what the first grasses must have looked like.
让我们展开想象 小草在大树王国奋起抗争
You can just imagine 'em struggling away on the forest floor,
其给养仅仅是
just feeding off little
密林中透下的些许小小光斑
scraps of light making it through the canopy.
更令人赞叹的是
It's wonderful to think that dinosaurs
身形硕大的恐龙还在林中肆意践踏
the size of houses were trampling through forests like this,
啃食着为数不多的几块小草皮
just grazing on little patches of grass.
然而 恐龙的食草大餐即将被终结
But the dinosaurs' days of grazing were about to end abruptly.
6500万年前
65 million years ago,
一颗直径十公里的小行星将其彻底灭绝
an asteroid ten kilometres across killed them off.
草本植物存活了下来
The grasses survived.
但福祸相依 它们也遇到了自身的危机关头
But in turn, they would face their own crisis.
这场浩劫并非来自
What was coming had nothing to do
地球上的动物或植物
with the plants and animals that lived on Earth.
一切都归咎于大气
It was all to do with the atmosphere,
由于种种不可思议的原因 大气发生了变化
and that was changing for the most surprising of reasons.
大气中含有的二氧化碳
Our air contains carbon dioxide.