动物的末日（2009）

身体必须不断向两边摆动
where were the body has to swing from side to side, a great deal.
这会限制肺活量以及呼吸的能力
That actually limits the capacity of the lungs and the capacity to breathe.
不久之前这些巨兽可以随意漫游几百公里
Just a generation ago, these massive beasts could roam for hundreds of miles,
就像今天的非洲象不断游走找吃的一样
endlessly grazing like African elephants do today.
而现在它们每走一步都很辛苦
But now every step is laborious,
成群的有角鳄就开始在比较小的地方范围内活动
herds of Desmatosuchus begin to localize in smaller areas.
低氧环境也开始严重影响它们的繁殖率
The low oxygen is also wreaking havoc on their reproduction rate.
这样的生存环境让正在发育的胚胎陷入两难的困境
Conditions throughout the developing embryos into a lethal catch-22.
如果我们回到三叠纪
Now if we go back to the Triassic,
地面的氧气浓度跟海拔高度约4267米的地方一样的话
and oxygen levels are equivalent to being at 14,000 feet,
你的生殖系统一定会受到重大打击
your reproductive system is going to be vastly challenged.
一个蛋必须要有足够的氧气进入胚胎才能发育
An egg has to have oxygen coming in through it, it enough so that the embryo can develop.
可是蛋又要同时保留水分
At the same time an egg also has to hold water in,
所以这两者之间正好是互相矛盾的
and so this is really opposite aspects.
卵壳上必须要有很多孔洞让氧气透进去
You have to have a lot of holes in your egg to let the oxygen come in,
大气里的氧气浓度越低 孔洞就要越多
and the lower the atmospheric oxygen the more holes you need.
但是另一方面 孔洞越多就会出现水分大量流失的情况
But on the other turn the more holes you have the more water can evaporate out,
这也会造成胚胎的死亡
causing death as well.
孵化出来的幼年有角鳄的数量一年比一年少
As well with each passing year viewer Desmatosuchus are hatching,
即使幼崽被成功地孵化出来 其体型也长得没有比上一代大
and those that do are not growing as large as previous generations.
在接下来的几年中 它们的数量会开始慢慢减少
Their population will slowly ever way in the coming years.
有角鳄变得越来越虚弱 南十字龙便开始快速地取代它们
Staurikosaurus is quick to take advantage of the weakened as Desmatosuchus.
因为南十字龙可以直立行走
For Staurikosaurus walking upright,
因此它们没有有角鳄所困扰的开立氏约束问题
eliminates the problem of Carriers Constraint, that plague Desmatosuchus.
当四肢直接连接在身体上时
Once the limbs go straight onto the body,
这样就不会干扰到身体里的内脏
they're not interfering with the internal organs in the torso.
才能让肺部更加伸缩自如 大大提高了肺功能
And that allows the the lungs to expand more to operate at a higher level.
科学家们认为它们可能有额外的气囊
Scientists theorize that they may have had extra air sacs,
不断让氧气在它们的呼吸系统中循环
that continuously circulated oxygen through their respiratory system.
就是这个特征
Today this is the same feature that
让如今的鸟类可以长时间在高空中飞行
allows birds to fly at very high altitudes for extended periods of time.
恐龙的肺和一只鸟的肺差不多
The dinosaur lung is the same as a bird lung,
一只鸟匍匐着趴在我旁边 呼吸着和我周围一样的空气
a bird sitting here right next to me, breathing the same air I am,
它会比我多吸入三分之一的氧气
just going to extract about one-third more oxygen than I do.
因此你可能会说 天哪这是个巧合而已
So you might say that gee, this is a coincidence,
空气中氧气浓度下降到了5亿年以来的最低点
oxygen dropped to its lowest point in 500 million years,
世界上呼吸效率最高的肺出现了
the most efficient lung the world has ever seen appears.
但进化并不会随着这种巧合而停止
But evolution doesn't usually run for drive from such coincidences,
但这 确实造成了影响
this really seems to be causing effect.
一只成年的有角鳄由于体型过于庞大
A full-grown Desmatosuchus was once too large,
只有成群的南十字龙才可以把它打败
with Staurikosaurus to take down.
到了现在这些早期恐龙就主要以挣扎中的食草巨兽为食
But now this early dinosaur feasts on the struggling herbivores.
这真的很不公平
It would have been really unfair really,
你发现周围有许多掠食者将你团团包围
you've got this creature which can run rings around you,
你很想快点逃走 但是呼吸会让你喘不过气来 只能沦为它们的美餐
whereas if you're the prey, you're trying to run away from this thing and you hear gasping for breath.
几百年过去了
Centuries pass,
在地壳首先开始破裂的北美洲
in North America where the rifting first starting,
看起来每天都会出现新的裂缝
it seems that new fissures are erupting every day.
超级大♥陆♥的地面就像热蜡一样熔化
The face of the supercontinent is melting like hot wax.
火山危机越来越严重 看不到结束的那一天
The volcanic stranglehold tightens with no end in sight.
地球正在慢慢蜕变成新的世界
The Earth is morphing into a new world.
不过这个世界是会变得生机勃勃 还是一片死寂呢？
But will it be a world filled with life? Or death...
"听到天上的喊叫声不绝 而且降下了可怕的雨水"
"Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and rained a ghastly do."
英国诗人丁尼生于1842年这么说
Alfred Lord Tennyson 1842.
距离可怕灾难发生已经过去5万年了
50,000 years into a terrible mass extinction,
我们的地球变成了一个陌生的世界
our planet is transforming into an alien world.
地面变得一片荒凉 二氧化碳浓度极高
Barren landscapes, skyrocketing carbon dioxide levels,
空气越来越稀薄
thinning air.
大白天的时候天空被染成了红色
The daytime sky is tinted red.
这种景象应该出现在火星 而不是我们的地球
It's a scene expected on Mars, not on planet Earth.
全球变暖使得原本茂密的丛林变得干燥起来
Global warming has turned lush jungles into tinder-dry forests,
野火开始变得很常见
wildfires are commonplace.
由于三叠纪时期没有什么消防部门
Since there's no fire department in the Triassic world,
因此这些火将持续烧到没有什么东西可烧为止
these fires will burn until there's nothing left to destroy.
从太空上看 这简直无比壮观
From space, it would have been fantastic.
你会看到一些巨大的黑色♥区♥域
You would have seen this enormous black area,
这些森林大火很有可能会蔓延倾泻出来
and perhaps even the forest fires possesses of pours out.
由于三叠纪时期的热带植物非常易燃
That tropical vegetation of the Triassic is gnna be catch fire,
因此它就像个恶性肿瘤一样在地球表面迅速地扩散
and so it's like a huge spreading cancer in the surface of the Earth.
大火加剧了空气污染 让灾难变得更加可怕
The fires add more pollutants to the air, only intensifying the disaster.
翻滚的灰烬烟云覆盖了整个大地
Rolling clouds of ash cover the landscape,
吞噬着成千上万不幸的受害者
burying thousands of hapless victims.
任何动物都不能幸免
No one is spared.
狂齿鳄想找个地方躲避这场风暴
Rutiodon seek shelter from the storm,
但是它们的家也无法保护它们
but their homes offer no protection.
泛大♥陆♥上的湖泊和溪流的水
The water in Pangaea's lakes and streams
都变成了像水泥一样的泥浆
turns to a cement like paste.
这种变化对狂齿鳄来说很致命
For the Rutiodons, the results are dreadful.
灰烬烟雾与大气中的水蒸汽结合
The ash mixes with water vapor in the atmosphere,
形成了酸雨
resulting in acid rain.
酸雨不断侵蚀大地 仅存的植物也被摧毁了
It's corrode the landscape, laying waste to whatever plant life remains.
我们可以从现代酸雨的例子中得知
We know from modern examples of acid rain,
这很快就会杀死树木 还有其它比较大的植物
that this quickly kills trees and other larger plants.
如果酸雨下的不是很多 它们就会恢复过来
And if it stops then they will recover,
但如果酸雨一直下个不停
but if this acid rain continues,
三叠纪末期就可能发生了这样的事
and this may have been the case at the end of the Triassic.
植物的根部就会枯萎 土壤会变得松散
Their root systems wither away and the soil is released.
当然还有滂沱大雨 这也会造成灾难性的侵蚀作用
And then of course a shower of rain will have a devastating erosional effect.
这种无止境的死亡之雨冲走了地面上所有的土壤
This unending torrent of death strips the soil from the land.
大♥陆♥上有严重的土壤流失和被侵蚀等问题
We're having lots of runoff and erosion on the continent,
海洋也受到矿物质
this would tend to also pollute the oceans,
和一些溶解矿物质的污染
with a lot of minerals, dissolved minerals,
还有有机物质 也被冲刷到海洋里
and organic material being deposited in the ocean,
海水变得富营养化 就像一碗浓汤一样
making a fairly, thick and soupy.
现在灾难蔓延到海洋里了
Now the disaster reaches into the oceans.
大气中的二氧化碳有很多被海水吸收和溶解了
All that carbon dioxide, a lot of it gets pulled into the ocean of dissolved,
二氧化碳被溶解之后 海洋的酸度就越来越高
but as it does so causes the oceans get more and more acidic.
微小的浮游生物是海洋食物链的基础
Microscopic plankton, the base of the marine food chain,
它们在酸性的高温海水里死亡
dies in the heart acidic waters.
它们的消失导致全世界的鱼类数量急剧下降
As a result, fish populations around the world are decimated.
鱼类消失之后 靠吃鱼为生的其它动物也会跟着一起消失
And as go the fish, so go all the creatures that rely on them for sustenance.
世界各地的真双齿翼龙
All over the world, flocks of Eudimorphodon
努力寻找着几近消失的鱼类
searched in vain for fish that have simply disappeared.
泛大♥陆♥上那些曾经充满生机的原始河流和湖泊
Pangaea's teeming rivers and pristine lakes
现在变得死气沉沉
are now stagnant.
遍布在大地上的尸体
The dead bodies that littered the ground
现在成了这些会飞爬行类动物紧急的食物来源
now provide an emergency food source for these flying reptiles.
通常情况下真双齿翼龙从来不吃腐肉
Under normal circumstances, Eudimorphodon would never scavenge a carcass.
但是饥饿破坏了一切法则
But hunger trumps all rules.
腐肉还可以让它们再撑一段时间
It will hold them over for now,
但是并不能避免它们被灭绝的命运
but it is not enough to stave off extinction.
距离大灾难发生已经过去了7万年
Seventy thousand years after the disaster began,
对于所有动物们来说 饥饿成了家常便饭
starvation is now the norm for the animal kingdom.
这个世界已经变得面目全非
The world is barely recognizable,
日复一日 破坏的过程十分缓慢
taken day by day, the strangulation was slow.
这样长♥期♥下来 影响深远
But the long-term effects are overwhelming.
我们可以看到很多生物灭绝
We're starting to see now noxious organisms dying out from disappearing,
新的物种就开始渐渐取代它们
but new types of organisms replacing them,
然而取代它们的并不是动物
and in this particular case, it's not animals,
而是细菌
is bacteria.
这种细菌把如水晶般清澈的海洋
This bacteria turns are once crystal blue oceans
变成了肮脏的暗紫色污水池
into dingy purple cesspools.
整个天空透着病恹恹的黄色
The sky grows jaundice,
空气中弥漫着一股臭鸡蛋的味道
the whole world smells of rotten eggs.
在如今的南非地区
In what is now South Africa,
有一种动物苦苦地挣扎求生
one creature clings to life amid the suffering.
那就是我们的祖先 大带齿兽
Our ancestor, Megazostrodon.
大带齿兽的本能让它受益匪浅
Megazostrodon instincts have served her well,
它所居住的洞穴再一次保护了它 免受一团团有毒气体侵害
once again her burrow protects her from the clouds of putrid gas.
跟最早期的恐龙一样
Like the early dinosaurs,