Footprints of the First Fish to Walk on Land 史上最早爬上陆地鱼类脚印化石曝光
语音:英式发音 适合跟读
语速:150词/分钟
关键词:fish, footprints, evolutionary history
Four hundred million years ago fish took their first 1)tentative steps onto dry land. It marked a turning point in the evolution of life on Earth, and here’s the proof. These are footprints of the first fish to have grown feet and walked on land. Look closely and you can see that these are not fins, they’re toes, and the creature didn’t 2)slither or drag itself on its stomach, it walked 3)on all fours. The discovery was made here by scientists sifting through rocks in the 4)Holy Cross Mountains of southeastern Poland. And this is what the creature might have looked like; the ancestor of all large land animals, including us.
The emergence of fish from the sea was one of the key moments that transformed the evolution of life on Earth. Today’s discovery suggests that that might have happened nearly 20 million years earlier than previously thought. So the scientific textbooks will now have to be rewritten.
Scientist: There’s a whole enormous gap of evolutionary history that’s opened up beneath our feet. No one knew it was there. No one suspected it was there. There’s an awful lot out there left to discover about the early history of life on land.
Once the first fish made their way onto the shore, it kick-started a process that scientists believe led to the 5)multitude of species that now 6)populate the earth today.
四亿年以前,鱼类迈出了爬上陆地的试探性第一步。这是地球生物进化史的转折点,眼前所看到的就是明证。这些脚印是属于那些最早长出脚并在陆地上行走的鱼类的。仔细看你就会发现这些不是鱼鳍,而是脚趾。这些动物并不是拖拽着身体或肚皮贴在陆地上爬行,它们是靠四足行走。科学家们在对波兰东南部圣十字山脉的岩石进行了筛选研究后得出了以上发现。当时的生物有可能是这个样子的;这就是所有大型陆地动物——包括我们人类——的祖先。
海洋鱼类在陆上出现是地球生物进化史上的重要时刻之一。今天的发现显示,鱼类的出现也许比我们之前知道的要早将近两千万年。因此科普教材现在要重写了。
科学家:如今我们面前出现了进化史中的一个巨大缺口。之前没有人知道有这么一个缺口,也没有人想过它有可能存在。陆地生命发展史的初始阶段,有待我们去解开的谜还有许多许多。
科学家相信,鱼类第一次上岸的时候,生命形态就开始向如今地球上的各种生命物种进化了。