重磅推荐
【编辑推荐】

本书由来自科研一线的加拿大、中国和澳大利亚学者共同创作完成,主要讲述了中国脊椎动物的进化历程,全书分为古生代、中生代和新生代三大章,挑取有代表性的动物群介绍脊椎动物进化历程中的重大转变,辅以丰富高清的化石图片和生态复原图,可以给予读者身临其境之感。为古动物爱好者和研究者的基础入门之书,中英文双语对照,书中珍贵的古生物化石和生态复原图均出自专业摄影师和研究者之手,科学而美观,

(中英对照版)获得:荣获第十一届文津图书奖,英国自然杂志倾力推荐图书,带你探索中国的“侏罗纪公园”!当选新京报“2015年度*美的书”

(中文典藏版)获得第二届大鹏自然好书奖

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《有趣的科学》(平装全9册,DK*经典*热销的少儿科普丛书,荣获中国童书金奖,新闻出版总署向青少年推荐的百种优秀图书)

《DK科普典藏·礼品套装》(星空 海洋 人体 恐龙全4册)

《有趣的透视立体书 机械篇(全8册)》直观的机械透视感,通透的整体构造展现,每个分页即剖析一个独立的部件,更添加AR互动技术,手机平板等安卓系统就能展现3D立体的虚拟现实效果

《中国古老文化寻踪(全七册)》 用影像探寻文化形态,以文字揭示内在价值,抢救中国传统文化的“活的基因”
《檀岛花事:夏威夷植物日记》(签名本)(全三册)(附精美书签 植物旅行示意图)一套属于你的**。
《征程 从鱼到人的生命之旅》(中英对照)英国自然杂志倾力推荐图书,带你探索中国的“侏罗纪公园”!
《硅谷启示录》惊世狂潮 怦然心动(全2册)
《爆笑科学漫画》物理探秘 化学妙想 环保超人(中英文双语版)(著名漫画家——缪印堂,诺贝尔物理学奖得主——阿诺 彭齐亚斯,鼎力推介)
《轻松自降三高》(套装共3册)全图解、超简单、特实用——让高血压、高血糖、高胆固醇刷刷刷地降下来!
《生态文明决策者丛书--生态农场纪实》
《创新的启示——关于百年科技创新的若干思考》(荣膺第九届文津图书奖)
《3D打印 打印未来》


【内容简介】
《征程:从鱼到人的生命之旅》
这是一部由三位来自不同国度的古生物学家还原与重建的中国古脊椎动物演化的历史,不仅回答了“我们从哪里来”,还让我们看到生命演化历程中充满的惊奇、偶然与不可思议。作者把这纵横5亿年的历史讲得生动有趣,恢弘而不失其细节,充满了形象的比喻和深刻的思考。本书特别聚焦了“从鱼到人”演化中的九个精彩转折,也值得读者悉心地品味。
这段史诗般的历程藉由15个有代表性的中国古生物群以及数万块珍贵的化石为凭证。一些我国特有的绽放着几亿年生命之美的高清晰化石图片和结构复原图系首次精心呈现,引领化石爱好者踏上远古生命的探秘之旅。同时,认知生命演化历程中的这些记录,正是古生物学的魅力所在。

Recommendation Abstract of
From Fish to Human—the March of Vertebrate Life in China

This is a history of vertebrate life in China reconstructed by three palaeontologists from three different countries, which not only answers the classic philosophic question: “where did we come from”, but also opens a window to the amazed, incidental and unimaginable world of the evolution of life. The authors narrate the 500 million year history in such a vivid and interesting way, spectacular but no loss of detail, while abounded with elaborate metaphors and deep reflections. The special focus of the book, the “Nine Key Transitions” in the evolution from fish to human, also deserves the readers’ scrutinization.

In this book, the historical march of vertebrate life in China is exampled by fifteen representative faunas which were based upon several hundred thousand fossil specimens as solid evidence. Some high resolution photos and structural reconstructions of fossils are presented for the first time, showing the typical Chinese beauty of life in the past hundred million years, and leading the fossil lovers into the exploration of prehistoric life. In the meanwhile, these evolutionary records of the march of life are also part of the charm of palaeontology.
【作者简介】
舒柯文
加拿大维多利亚大学本科毕业,多伦多大学获得硕士,美国哈佛大学的博士毕业生。现为中国科学院古脊椎动物与古人类研究所副研究员,兼任学术刊物《古脊椎动物学报》的英文编辑。经常在中国和他的故乡加拿大进行野外古生物考察。不忙野外的时候会在研究所做恐龙和其他中生代脊椎动物的研究,或者努力学习汉语。这本书是他对古生物科普的首次主要尝试。
Corwin Sullivan is an associate research professor of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He completed his undergraduate education at the University of Victoria, Canada before going on to earn an MSc degree at the University of Toronto at Mississauga and a PhD at Harvard University. He is the English editor of Vertebrata PalAsiatica, the Institute’s peer-reviewed scientific journal. When not busy with fieldwork in China or his native Canada, he pursues research focussing on dinosaurs and other Mesozoic vertebrates at the Institute, and studing Chinese hard in leisure time. From Fish to Human: the March of Vertebrate Life in China is his first major science outreach effort.

王原
本科毕业于北京大学地质系古生物及地层专业,曾赴美留学获文学硕士,在中国科学院获得博士学位。现为中国科学院古脊椎动物与古人类研究所研究员,曾获中国国家自然科学奖和中国科学院杰出科技成就奖。发现和采集了很多重要的脊椎动物化石,喜欢研究化石青蛙和化石蝾螈。他倾尽心力担任的中国古动物馆馆长一职,决定了他还是讲述中国恐龙故事的高手。
Wang Yuan graduated from the Geology Department of Peking University and received his second MS degree in the US and his PhD from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is now a research professor of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, CAS, and serves as director of the Paleozoological Museum of China. He has been awarded China’s National Prize for Natural Sciences and the Outstanding Science and Technology Achievement Prize of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He has discovered and collected many important vertebrate fossils, and loves to study fossil frogs and salamanders. As the diligent director of a palaeontological museum in China, he also excels at telling the stories of Chinese dinosaurs.

Brian Choo
生于新加坡,少年移居澳大利亚,本科毕业于默多克大学,在澳大利亚国立大学获得博士学位,后在中国科学院古脊椎动物与古人类研究所做博士后研究(2009-2013),现就职于澳大利亚弗林德斯大学。他的主要研究方向是志留纪和泥盆纪的化石鱼类,偶尔也发表一些中生代海洋爬行动物的论文。他还是位自学成才的画家,曾为学术论文、科普文章、博物馆展览、图书、电视纪录片等绘制古代生命的科学复原图。
Brian Choo, currently at Flinders University, was born in Singapore but moved to Australia at a young age. He graduated from Murdoch University and received his PhD at the Australian National University before going on to work as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, from 2009 to 2013. His research has focused primarily on fossil fishes from the Silurian and Devonian Periods, but he has also published occasional papers on Mesozoic marine reptiles. As a self-taught illustrator, he has provided scientifically rigorous life-reconstructions of fossil animals for academic papers, popular articles, museum exhibits, books and television documentaries.
【媒体评论】
这是迄今为止我所知道的,基于中国的精美化石宝库描绘“从鱼到人”的故事中,内容*为丰富、*权威性、并且*有趣味的一本书。我有理由相信,这本书将成为经典,并为世界各国的读者所喜爱。
This is by far, in my opinion, the most content-rich, authoritative, and interesting book which describes the journey “from fish to human” based on Chinese Lagerst?tten. I believe this book will become a classic, loved by readers from all over the world.
周忠和(中国科学院院士、国际古生物协会主席)
Zhou Zhonghe (Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, President of the International Palaeontological Association)

这是一部优秀的古生物科普读物。立意新颖,创作精心。15个具有代表性的中国古生物群各具特色,脊椎动物九大演化事件的介绍形象生动。不仅从科学知识方面扩展了读者视野,也处处浸透着文学与艺术的风采。
This is an excellent science outreach book in the field of palaeontology, unique in content and written in a sophisticated manner. The distinctive characteristics of 15 representative fossil faunas from China are described, and nine key transitions in vertebrate evolution are vividly outlined. This book not only will broaden the horizons of its readers, but also is imbued with literary and artistic grace.
孙革(中国古生物学会副理事长、沈阳师范大学古生物学院院长)
Sun Ge (Vice President of the Palaeontological Society of China, Director of the Palaeontology College of Shenyang Normal University)

人类对自然历史的探索永无止境,化石是研究自然历史的重要钥匙之一。这是一本关于化石的书,但作者的情怀已经超出了化石。这样的好书现在太少了。
Human beings have a boundless desire to explore natural history, and fossils are among the important keys that can unlock this impulse. This is a book about fossils, but also beyond fossils. Too few good books of this kind are published.
孟庆金(中国自然科学博物馆协会副理事长、北京自然博物馆馆长)
Meng Qingjin (Vice President of the Chinese Association of Natural Science Museums, Director of the Beijing Museum of Natural History)

中国是现今世界古生物发现领域*迷人的地方。从揭示*早脊椎动物动物起源的化石,到见证我们自己所属人种早期演化的产地,其间又穿越了白垩纪令人震惊的恐龙和翼龙时代——所有这些你都可以在这本书中见到!不用多说,这就是古生物爱好者的书!
China is the most fascinating source of paleontological discoveries in the world right now. From fossils shedding light on the origin of vertebrates to fantastic sites that bear witness to some of the early stages in the evolution of our own species, passing through astonishing dinosaurs and pterosaurs from Cretaceous strata – it's all here in this marvelous book! A must for any paleo-enthusiast!
Alexander Kellner(巴西科学院院士、巴西国家博物馆、里约联邦大学教授)
Alexander Kellner (Academician of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, Professor at the National Museum of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

这是对中国丰富的脊椎动物化石产地一次精彩的、*的介绍。不仅所记述的化石发现非常之新,而且这一国际作者团队以其独特的视角深入阐述了这些发现的重要意义。文字优美且插图精致。
A wonderful, up-to-date account of the rich fossil vertebrate sites of China. The discoveries are very new, and the authors are an international team that can give unique insights into the discoveries and their meaning. A beautifully written and illustrated book.
Michael Benton(国际古生物协会前任主席、英国布里斯托大学教授)
Michael Benton (Former President of the International Palaeontological Association, Professor at the University of Bristol, England)

中国有天赐的、精彩的化石记录,从带羽毛的恐龙、寒武纪生命大爆发的遗迹,到巨型海百合间游动的海怪。但语言的障碍让西方读者无法一窥究竟。这本书的作者将这些化石发现连同中国古生物学的研究一并呈现于此,其中也包括做出这些重要发现的中外学者的图像档案。
China is blessed with a spectacular fossil record populated with feathered dinosaurs, fallout from the Cambrian explosion, and sea serpents swimming among giant crinoids, but the language barrier has hindered them from becoming familiar to Western readers. Here the authors present these discoveries alongside the long and fascinating history of paleontological research in China, with archival images of the foreign adventurers and homegrown scientists who made the discoveries.
James M. Clark(美国乔治华盛顿大学教授,世界知名恐龙学者)
James M. Clark (Professor at George Washington University, United States of America, and renowned dinosaur expert)



在过去的几十年间,中国发现了许多珍贵的脊椎动物化石,贯穿脊椎动物五亿年的演化历史。这本书对上述重要发现以及发现的过程进行了一册在手式的、图文并茂的介绍。
In recent decades, China has yielded a wealth of spectacular fossils that span a period of some 500 million years and have already rewritten many chapters of the history of back-boned animals. This book presents an easily accessible, richly illustrated survey of the key discoveries and the history of their exploration.
Hans-Dieter Sues(美国史密斯研究院国家自然历史博物馆高级馆员,加拿大皇家学会会员,美国科学促进会会员)
Hans-Dieter Sues (Senior Scientist and Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution, United States of America, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the American Association for the Advancement of Science)


这是一本时髦而大胆的著作,里面有惊人的图片和丰富的文字信息,通过来自中国的众多壮观的化石发现,讲述了我们人类自己进化的恢弘故事。中国的古生物学填补了生命进化过程中的一系列重要空白,而这本书正是对他们*的化石发现的*好的视觉庆祝。
A sassy, bold book with stunning images and enjoyable, informative text telling the grand narrative of our own evolution through China’s many spectacular fossil discoveries. Chinese palaeontology has filled some of the biggest gaps in the evolution of life, and this book is a visual celebration of their world class fossil finds.
John Long(古脊椎动物学会主席、澳大利亚弗林德斯大学教授)
John Long (President of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Professor at Flinders University, Australia)

这是由三位*科学家所讲述的关于中国化石的故事。它是视觉信息和高质量文字的完美结合,包含了精美而信息丰富的照片、绘图和其他形式的插图,超过了*苛刻的读者关于卓越的标准。
This book on the fossils of China is a perfect blend of visual information and high quality, detailed story telling by three leading scientists. This book contains beautiful and informative photos, drawings, and other forms of illustration, exceeding the standards of excellence of the most demanding readers.
Robert Reisz(加拿大多伦多大学教授,美国科学促进会会员)
Robert Reisz (Professor at University of Toronto, Canada and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science)


2 8 8 | N AT U R E | VO L 5 2 1 | 2 1 M AY 2 0 1 5
Tracing the backbone in China’s rocks

Xu Xing relishes a bilingual book on the evolution of vertebrate life in his fabulously fossil-rich country.

China’s rich fossil resources have supplied many firsts — discoveries that have rewritten and helped to construct evolutionary history. The bilingual (English and Chinese) From Fish to Human summarizes and highlights the spectacular Chinese vertebrate fossil record and its place in the broader span of vertebrate life.

This volume, rich with illustrations, was produced by an international team of vertebrate palaeontologists. Corwin Sullivan wrote the English text with input from the other authors, Wang Yuan did the Chinese translation and Brian Choo pro?duced the illustrations. (I work alongside all three, but was not involved with this book.) Their effort has produced an excel?lent resource.

From Fish to Human describes 15 Chinese faunas — collections of fossils of a similar age from the same general area — that highlight every major geological time period from the early Cambrian to the late Pleistocene epoch. The Cambrian Chengjiang Biota, for example, dating to around 525 million years ago, contains the oldest known diverse multicellular animals, including the earliest vertebrates, such as the primitive, fishlike Haikouichthys. It is shedding light on the rapid diversification of life known as the Cambrian explosion.

Flamboyant feathered dinosaurs from the roughly 125-million-year-old Jehol Biota, such as the four-winged Microraptor and the gigantic tyrannosaur Yutyrannus, have garnered much public attention; less known are the earlier Silurian Xiaoxiang and Devonian Zhongning faunas. The authors explain how discoveries from these have helped to establish the evolution of important structures such as jaws and limbs. Entelognathus from Xiaoxiang, for example, is a placoderm, or armoured fish, with the jawed face of an osteichthyan, or bony fish — a finding that blurs the bound-ary between major vertebrate groups.

Each fauna or group of faunas is followed by a concise review of a related evolutionary transition. So the dis?cussion of how feath?ers evolved into their modern form fol-lows a de*ion of the Jehol Biota, which yielded much of the fossil evidence for it.

The balance between specific discoveries and general evolutionary history allows a clear and current understanding of verte?brate evolution, and showcases the beauty of the extinct animals. Thus stunning pho?tographs, for example of the exquisitely preserved fossils from the Chengjiang Biota, sit alongside remarkable reconstruc-tions of creatures and habitats. Informative drawings show the family trees of major vertebrate groups and biological structures such as tetrapod limbs.
【目录】
Table of Contents
目录

Introduction
前言
Just as archaeologists can piece together much of the history of the Shang from the material evidence of oracle bones and bronze cauldrons, palaeontologists can use fossils to reconstruct the far longer and more outlandish history of life on Earth.
正如考古学家能够从发掘出的甲骨和青铜器中拼凑出商代的历史概貌,古生物学家也能够用化石信息重建更加遥远和奇异的地球生命史。

Before we Begin: Vertebrates, Deep Time and Fossils
从这里开始:脊椎动物、地史时期和化石
Skeletons that remain largely intact are rare and precious gifts from deep time to humanity.
那些基本完整无损的骨骼十分稀少,它们也是大自然的“深时”送给人类的珍贵礼物。

Part One Palaeozoic
Cold Blood and Scales
*篇 古生代
冷血与鳞片的时代

第1章 The Chengjiang Biota: Dawn of the Vertebrates
澄江生物群:脊椎动物的出现
The forces of biological competition and predation, environmental change, and simple chance winnowed the field of early animal life, eliminating some creatures and thereby creating ecological space in which others could flourish.
生物竞争和捕食的力量、自然环境的改变,以及单纯的机遇在早期动物的生命中进行筛选,剔除了某些动物,也因此为其他动物的繁盛提供了生态空间。

[Key Transition 1: The Beginnings of the Backbone] 大事件1:脊梁骨的起源
What emerges clearly from the fossil record and the anatomy of modern hagfish, lampreys and sharks is that the evolution of vertebrae was not a sudden event.
化石记录以及现生盲鳗、七鳃鳗和鲨鱼的解剖结构明确地告诉我们,脊椎的演化显然不是一个突然的过程。

第2章 The Xiaoxiang Fauna: Fishing for Answers
潇湘动物群:“钓出”真正的答案
As greatly modified lobe-finned fish, we humans stroll about on our pelvic fins and use our pectoral fins to turn the pages of books like the one you are reading now.
我们人类其实就是一种“超级改进版“的肉鳍鱼,我们用“腹鳍”四处行走,并用“胸鳍”翻动书的书页,就像你现在正在做的这样。

[Key Transition 2: To Jaw-Jaw is Always Better] 大事件2 :有颌的感觉真好
Vertebrates of different types use their jaws to crush the throats of prey animals, slice and grind their way through tough vegetation, and filter plankton out of seawater.
不同的脊椎动物用不同的方式使用它们的颌,有些用来咬破猎物的喉咙,有些切碎研磨植物,又或者从海水中过滤藻类。

第3章 The Zhongning Fauna: A New Breed of Vertebrate
中宁动物群:脊椎动物的新类型
Amid these remains of fierce predators and heavily armoured prey, a single jaw fragment measuring less than 10 cm in length and retaining only small denticles rather than true teeth might seem unremarkable.
就在这些凶猛的捕食者和重装甲的猎物的残骸之间,一段不起眼的颌骨化石隐匿其中。

[Key Transition 3: Fish Nearly Out of Water] 大事件3:即将离开水的鱼
The somewhat ironic upshot is that the first tetrapod limbs were probably used more for swimming than for walking.
值得玩味的是,*早的四足动物的四肢很可能更多地用于游泳而不是行走。

第4章 The Dashankou Fauna: Beasts and Belebey
大山口动物群:兽与蜥的世界
A particularly interesting beast from the Dashankou Fauna is the carnivore Raranimus dashankouensis, whose name means literally the “rare spirit from Dashankou”.
大山口动物群有一种有趣的动物叫大山口珍稀兽,直译就是“珍稀的大山口精灵”。

[Key Transition 4: The Egg, not the Chicken] 大事件4:先有鸡还是先有蛋
Next time you buy amniotic eggs in a supermarket, why not take a moment to appreciate the sophistication and adaptive value of the intricate biological structures that will soon be appearing on your dinner table?
下一次你在超市购买羊膜动物的卵时,在它们变成你的盘中餐前,何不花一点时间欣赏一下这一充满进化意义的,复杂而精巧的生物学结构呢?

Part Two Mesozoic
The Empire of Dinosaurs
第二篇 中生代
恐龙的帝国

第5章 The Guanling Biota: Life Among the Dangling Crinoids
关岭生物群:与摇曳的海百合伴生的生命
Complete crinoids are among the most spectacular of all invertebrate fossils, looking for all the world like flowers in some garden tended by undersea giants.
完整的海百合化石*属于现有无脊椎动物化石中*壮观的一景,它们看起来就好像由海底巨人精心照料的花园中的花朵一般。

[Key Transition 5: Back to the Sea] 大事件5:重返海洋
Ichthyosaurs, with their dorsal and caudal fins, went further in resculpting their bodies to suit the demands of the sea than perhaps any other amniotes except cetaceans.
鱼龙甚至长出了背鳍和尾鳍,这种为了适应海洋生活所做的身体改变,可能比除了鲸类以外的任何羊膜动物都走得更远。

第6章 The Lufeng Fauna: China’s Oldest Dinosaurs
禄丰动物群:中国*古老的恐龙
A single partial lower jaw represents perhaps the greatest mystery of the Lufeng Fauna.
禄丰动物群*的谜团可能来自一件下颌骨化石。

[Key Transition 6: The Stealthy Rise of Mammals] 大事件6::哺乳动物的悄然兴起
For nearly the first hundred million years of their history, mammals were inconspicuous, mainly insectivorous animals no larger than about one metre in body length, and for the most part much smaller.

在*初一亿年的演化历史中,哺乳动物毫不起眼,主要是食虫性的,身体长度不超过一米,而且在多数时间中其体长远远小于这个长度。

第7章 The Dashanpu Dinosaur Fauna: Giants on the Earth
沙溪庙动物群:地球上的巨龙
By Shaximiao times the dinosaurs had assumed pride of place in the march of vertebrate life, towering over other terrestrial carnivores and herbivores.
在沙溪庙动物群的时代,恐龙已经在脊椎动物的“大游行”中占据了首要的地位,远超过其他陆生的肉食和素食动物。

第8章 The Daohugou Biota: Preserved in their Finery
道虎沟生物群:地层中的华丽霓裳
A few decades ago, palaeontologists believed that almost all Mesozoic mammaliaforms were small, land-dwelling insectivores, and species from the Daohugou Biota have helped to temper that substantially correct but excessively broad generalisation.
几十年前,古生物学者们还在坚信几乎所有中生代的哺乳形动物都是小型、陆生、食虫的动物,但道虎沟的物种有助于调和这一虽然大体正确,但适用度被夸大了的归纳性结论。

[Key Transition 7: Into the Skies] 大事件7:飞上蓝天
By the time pterosaurs went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous, birds had already joined them as denizens of the Mesozoic skies.
当翼龙在白垩纪末灭绝时,鸟类已经成为中生代天空中的姣客。

第9章 The Jehol Biota: Feathered Dinosaurs!
热河生物群:带羽毛的恐龙!
The feathers are long enough to suggest that Yutyrannus would have been rather shaggy, a murderous fuzzball stalking the forests of the Early Cretaceous.
羽王龙很像一个外表蓬松的凶残杀手,鬼鬼祟祟地游荡在白垩纪早期的森林里。

[Key Transition 8: A Profusion of Urv?gel] 大事件8:美羽不怕多
Exactly how old feathers are, in evolutionary terms, is a matter of profound uncertainty.
从演化的角度观察,“羽毛的具体产生时间”是个很难回答的问题。

第10章 The Wangshi Fauna: A Vast Dinosaurian Necropolis
王氏动物群:巨大的恐龙墓场
Shandong is an appropriate setting for a rich trove of bones from a late chapter in the history of one of the greatest dynasties of all, that of the Mesozoic dinosaurs.
由此可见,这里作为中生代恐龙帝国余辉篇章的化石产地,的确十分合适。

Part Three Cenozoic
The Triumph of Mammals
第三篇 新生代
哺乳动物的大捷

第11章 The Qianshan Fauna: Life After the Apocalypse
潜山动物群:劫难后的新生
If niches in an ecosystem are like jobs in an economy, then mass extinctions create vacancies that are automatically filled by the first suitable candidates to step forward.
如果把生态系统中的生态位比做经济领域中的职场职位,那么生物大灭绝所创造的空位会自然而然地被那些*早适应的“求职者”所填补。

第12章 The Shara Murun Fauna: Hooves, Horns and Rams
沙拉木伦动物群:各种各样的蹄子和角
What Granger thought of lending his name to a large, and quite possibly aggressive and ill-tempered, Eocene herbivore is uncertain.
至于格兰杰博士对把他的姓氏授予这种巨型、好斗、脾气暴躁的始新世食草动物是什么心情,我们就不得而知了。

第13章 The Shanwang Biota: Almost Like Today
山旺生物群:往昔如今
Most of the major groups of vertebrates that dominate our modern world were already thriving in the Miocene, whereas the brontotheres and many other characteristic denizens of earlier Cenozoic epochs had long since succumbed to extinction.
现今统治地球的大多数脊椎动物的主要类群,在中新世时已经十分繁盛,而雷兽和其他诸多新生代早期的居民们则早已灭绝。

第14章 The Hezheng Biota: Horses, Hogs and Hyenas
和政生物群:马、猪和鬣狗们
However, the story of horses also exemplifies the baroque complexity of evolution, in that considerable diversification took place at every stage of the slow canter from Eocene horses to Equus.
马类演化的故事是典型的巴洛克风格——的确非常复杂:从只会慢跑的始新世马类到健步如飞的真马类,演化过程中的各个阶段都伴随着显著的多样性分异。

第15章 The Zhoukoudian Fauna: The First Beijingers
周口店古人类遗址:*早的“北京人”
The hyenas could easily have killed occasional Peking Folk or seized the bodies of individuals who had died of other causes, devouring them in the fissure and leaving only fragments of shattered bone.
鬣狗会很容易杀死偶遇的北京人,或把因其他原因死去的北京人尸体带回裂隙,大快朵颐,然后留下满地的碎骨。

[Key Transition 9: Ecce Homo] 大事件9:人类的黎明
In recent decades it has become clear from a variety of evidence, but above all from genetics, that humans are especially closely related to the African apes known as chimpanzees.
*近几十年越来越多的证据,特别是遗传学证据清晰地显示,人类与非洲的现生猿类——黑猩猩的亲缘关系特别近。

Concluding Thoughts: the March Continues, Under Fire
结语:演化在“枪林弹雨中”继续
A strong case can be made that a sixth mass extinction is unfolding in our modern world, as a result of human activity.
可以很有理由地说,由于人类的活动,我们现在的地球正在经历第六次大灭绝。

Afterword 后记

Further reading 延展阅读

Appendix 1: Locations of Major Vertebrate Fossil Sites in China
附录1:中国主要的脊椎动物(含人类)化石产地

Appendix 2: Chinese Museums that display fossils to the public
附录2:中国含古生物展陈的博物馆名录

Index of Genus Names Used in the Book
本书中使用的生物属名的索引
【前言】
Introduction
前言

The soil of China conceals many buried treasures, from mundane but valuable coal and iron ore to the relics of ancient dynasties. Near the city of Xi’an in what is now Shaanxi Province, a whole army of terra cotta warriors stands guard over the tomb of the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, who united China more than two thousand years ago through diplomacy and war. Far to the south, archaeological sites in eastern Yunnan Province have offered up artefacts from the long-extinct kingdom of Dian, the most striking of which are bronze vessels whose lids are decorated with elaborate carved figurines arranged in scenes of hunting, combat and even human sacrifice. Excavations have recovered animal bones that were used to pose questions to spirits and ancestors by the rulers of the Shang Dynasty, the earliest Chinese dynasty whose existence is documented by firm historical and archaeological evidence. The questions were written on the “oracle bones” in symbols that are clearly precursors of the modern Chinese characters that people use every day to read newspapers, write text messages and surf the internet.
中国的大地蕴藏着无数宝藏,从常见但富含价值的煤矿和铁矿,到历代王朝传承下来的非凡遗迹,可谓应有尽有。在如今陕西省西安市附近,著名的陶土做成的兵马俑军队守卫着秦朝*个帝王秦始皇的陵墓。这位帝王在两千多年前通过外交和战争统一了中国。而远在中国南部,云南省东部的考古遗址出土了早已消亡的古滇国文物,其中*令人震撼的是一尊青铜器,器皿的盖子上雕刻着精美的狩猎、战争甚至人牲的场面。商朝是中国*早的有可靠历史学和考古学证据的朝代。人们发掘出了商朝统治者用来向神灵和祖先问卜的动物骨骼——“甲骨”,上面书写的符号即“甲骨文”,正是中国人如今每天阅读报纸、书写文章和浏览网页时所使用的汉字的前身。

Fig1. A palaeontologist’s tent, pitched among Jurassic rock outcrops in the Xinjiang region of northwest China that yield spectacular fossils of dinosaurs and other vertebrates..
新疆侏罗纪恐龙化石点的科考队员帐篷

[Fig2. Terra cotta warriors standing eternal guard over their emperor.
守护皇陵的兵马俑

[Fig3. An inscribed bone fragment used in divination.
刻有甲骨文的甲骨
The beginning of the Shang Dynasty, representing the dawn of the part of Chinese history that can clearly be distinguished from legend, is separated from the present by more than three thousand years. That span of time is awe-inspiring, when seriously contemplated, but still an eyeblink compared to the duration of a far longer story that has also left its traces buried beneath the soil. In many parts of China are exposed rock strata that contain fossils millions or even hundreds of millions of years old, the petrified remains of dynasties of plants and animals that flourished long before the Shang and the Qin. Just as archaeologists can piece together much of the history of the Shang from the material evidence of oracle bones and bronze cauldrons, palaeontologists can use fossils to reconstruct the far longer and more outlandish history of life on Earth.
三千多年前建立的商朝是中国历史中现实与神话的分界线。当我们认真审视这段历史,会发现虽然其时间跨度漫长,但是相对于同样留下痕迹却深埋在土壤之下的另一个历史悠长的故事来讲,不过是一眨眼的功夫罢了。放眼中国各地,都有承载着距今百万甚至上亿年之久的化石的岩层,这些化石所记录的动植物王朝,远在商、秦之前就已经繁荣昌盛了。正如考古学家能够从发掘出的甲骨和青铜器中拼凑出商代的历史概貌,古生物学家也能够用化石信息重建更加遥远和奇异的地球生命史。

[Fig4. Exquisitely ornamented bronze ware from the Shang Dynasty, which ruled from about 1600 to 1046 BC.
商代(公元前1600-1046年)的精美青铜器

The subject of this book is one particular strand in the history of life, namely the story of our own group – the vertebrates – as documented in the Chinese fossil record. Through approximately the past half-billion years of geological time, an ever-changing menagerie of these backboned animals has inhabited the part of the Earth’s surface that is now China, leaving fossil remains at every turn. The tiny bodies of early jawless fishes emerge from hillsides in eastern Yunnan, geographically close to the bronze relics of the kingdom of Dian but separated from them by an immense gulf of time. In Liaoning Province, in the northeast, early birds and small predatory dinosaurs can be found within rock layers laid down in Cretaceous lakes, many still lying in mantles of preserved feathers. Caves and fissures near Beijing contain the bones and tools of ancient humans, alongside the remains of other animals. Each of these occurrences is like a glimpse into a different slice of the remote past, a different lost world entombed in stone.
本书的主题是关于地球生命史中特定的一段,即我们人类自己所属的类群——脊椎动物——在中国的化石所揭示的历史。在过去的大约五亿年间,各种各样的拥有脊椎骨的动物们栖息在中国的这片土地上,并在每个角落都留下了化石遗迹。人们在云南东部的山丘上发现了早期无颌鱼类细小的身体,虽然在地理位置上与古滇国青铜器的发掘点临近,但是两者却被时间的鸿沟赫然分开。在东北的辽宁省,远古的鸟类和小型肉食恐龙沉睡在白垩纪湖泊的岩层中,许多身上依然覆盖着羽毛。北京郊区的山洞和岩缝中则保存着原始人的骨骼和他们使用过的工具,以及其他动物的遗骸。这些发现好似打开了一扇扇窥视远古历史的天窗,让人们得以了解那些深埋在岩石中的“迷失的世界”。

Fig5. A fossil of the small dinosaur Microraptor gui from the Early Cretaceous of Liaoning, showing preserved feathers.
辽宁发现的白垩纪早期的恐龙——顾氏小盗龙,羽毛也被保存下来。

The glimpses provided by the fossil record are few and far between, and distinctly haphazard. Attempting to make sense of them is like trying to reconstruct an elaborate military parade from a collection of snapshots taken by an excitable chimpanzee that swivels its camera at random among the vehicles, marching soldiers and spectators, sometimes taking a dozen pictures in rapid succession and sometimes leaving the button untouched for ten or twenty minutes as troops and tanks sweep by unrecorded. Nevertheless, the efforts of many palaeontologists applied to the raw material of the Chinese fossil record have pieced together the general outlines of a parade in which the marchers are not military troops but rather dinosaurs, woolly mammoths, low-browed men and women with stone axes, and other representatives of vertebrate life through the long millennia of China’s geological past.
然而这些化石提供的记录稀少而分散,其发现也确属偶然。想要在其中找出意义,就好像试图通过一只拿着相机的黑猩猩所拍摄的照片来重构一场盛大的军事游行的全貌一样困难重重,因为这只激动的家伙会挥舞着相机对着周围的车辆、军人和观众时不时胡乱地连拍,而当坦克和军队列队驶过时却又十几分钟都不碰一下相机!然而众多古生物学家通过对中国化石材料地努力研究,成功拼接出了这场游行的大致轮廓:它的参与者不是军人,而是恐龙、猛犸象、挥舞着石斧的低额头的男女原始人,以及其他在漫长中国地质历史中的脊椎动物的代表。

Fig6. An enthusiastic but unreliable photographer.
热情但不靠谱的黑猩猩摄影师

Some of the marchers naturally slither, and others swim or fly. At first the only marchers are a few jawless fishes, which are soon crowded out almost entirely as fishes of other kinds and eventually land vertebrates take their places. Species are periodically lost to extinction as the march continues, but are replaced by others that are newly evolved or newly introduced to China from other regions. Now and then an episode of mass extinction thins the ranks dramatically, but in general new marchers are added at such a rate that the total number gradually swells. By the time the march of vertebrate life in China reaches the present, it contains a remarkable and motley collection of creatures – all of the vertebrates that inhabit China today, from fish in Bohai Bay to yaks in the Himalayas and Chinese people from every walk of life.
这些“游行者”有的爬行,有的游泳,还有的飞行。*早参与的游行者仅仅是几种无颌鱼类,不久之后就几乎被其他鱼类挤出了视野,*后陆生脊椎动物也加入进来抢占阵地。随着游行队伍的前进,生物物种在周期性地灭绝,但很快又被新演化出的物种和来自中国之外的外来物种所替代。时不时发生的大规模灭绝事件戏剧性地缩减了游行的队伍,但是总体来讲总会有新的游行者以某种频率加入进来,使队伍的规模始终在缓慢地增大。当脊椎动物的征途进行到了今天,在中国大地上已形成了形形色色的众多物种——现今栖息在中国的所有脊椎动物,从渤海湾的鱼类到喜马拉雅山上的牦牛,以及遍布中国大地的每一个中国人,都是其中的一员。

Fig7. The “Yellow River Elephant” (Stegodon) from the Pleistocene of Gansu Province.
甘肃发现的更新世的黄河象骨架(中国古动物馆)

The march of vertebrate life in China has not taken place in isolation, and in fact is an integral part of a larger march encompassing the planet as a whole. Throughout Earth’s history, groups that have evolved and begun to flourish in one area have often spread far and wide, becoming more numerous and varied in the process. At any given time in the geological past, the vertebrate fauna inhabiting what is now China would have been similar in many ways to its counterparts elsewhere, although with myriad differences of detail and some larger discrepancies. The distribution of vertebrates in our modern world exemplifies this balance between uniformity and heterogeneity. China resembles many other countries in having native bears and deer, herons and magpies, pit vipers and agamid lizards, and so on. But Canadian deer, for example, are different from Chinese deer, and there are significant groups of modern vertebrates – such as kangaroos, rhinoceroses and hummingbirds – that are not found in China at all. The march of vertebrate life is a global phenomenon, but one with important local variations.
中国脊椎动物的演化并不是独立发生的,它们其实是这个星球上更大规模的动物演化的一个缩影。纵观地球历史,一个生物类群进化并逐渐繁盛后,经常会从起源地向其他地区扩散,达到种类和数量的极致。回眸任何一个地质历史时期,生活在现今中国的脊椎动物群与同时期的其他地区的脊椎动物群虽有众多相似之处,也不乏具体乃至重大的差别。当今世界脊椎动物的分布,就显示了这种一致性与差别性的美妙平衡。比如,中国和其他许多国家一样,都拥有熊、鹿、鹭鸟、喜鹊、响尾蛇和飞蜥,但加拿大的鹿与中国的鹿就有所不同。很多其他脊椎动物,比如袋鼠、犀牛和蜂鸟在中国就不见踪影。脊椎动物的演化是个全球现象,但也包含了很多地方性的特色。

Fig.8 A bust of “Peking Man”, a form of the primitive human species Homo erectus.
属于直立人的原始古人类——北京人的复原头像(中国古动物馆)

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【免费在线读】
Key Transition 2: To Jaw-Jaw is Always Better
脊椎动物演化关键事件(之二):有颌的感觉真好

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the most quotable English-speaking politician of the twentieth century, once opined that “To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.” Churchill was using the word “jaw” to refer to the endless chatter of diplomatic negotiation, but the original function of vertebrate jaws undoubtedly had more to do with feeding than communication. Predators had no interest in negotiating with their prey in the Palaeozoic seas.
作为20世纪中名言被引用得*多的政治家,英国前首相温斯顿?丘吉尔曾经说道:“动动下巴总好过动手”。他用“下巴”这个词表达的是无休止的外交谈判中的斗嘴,但脊椎动物的“下巴”的*初功能无疑更多地是用来进食而不是交流。当然了,在古生代的海洋中,猎食者可没有兴趣与它们的猎物进行谈判。

Jaws probably did not appear in the march of vertebrate evolution until sometime in the Silurian Period. Until that time all vertebrates were jawless, and several lineages of jawless fishes survived into the Devonian. Two jawless groups, the hagfish and lampreys, are still with us today. Hagfish are scavengers that tear into carrion with a protrusible tongue that bears teeth made of keratin, the protein that forms human hair and fingernails. Some lampreys do not feed as adults, but others use a similar tongue to feed on the flesh or blood of other fishes, to which they cling with a sucker-like mouth containing more keratinous teeth. Experiments on hagfish have shown that the protrusible tongue is surprisingly powerful, and effective at removing pieces of food and transporting them into and through the mouth cavity. Some fossil jawless fishes had either a fringe of small bony plates along one edge of the mouth, acting to scoop detritus from the sea floor or filter it from the water, or tooth-like mineralised structures inside the mouth or throat. A diverse range of successful feeding mechanisms has clearly existed among jawless fishes, past and present.
直到志留纪之前,脊椎动物的演化过程中还没有出现“颌”这一属性。在这之前,所有脊椎动物都是无颌的,有几个无颌鱼类的谱系存活到了泥盆纪。其中的两个类群——七鳃鳗和盲鳗,一直延续到了今天。盲鳗是食腐动物,它们用自己突出的、带角质齿的舌钻挖进腐肉中觅食,这种角质与构成人类头发以及指甲的物质是同一种蛋白质。一些七鳃鳗的成体并不进食,其他的则使用和盲鳗类似的齿舌取食其他鱼类的血肉。它们吸盘一样的嘴里长有更多的角质齿,能把自己固定在猎物身上。对盲鳗的实验发现它们突出的舌十分强壮有力,能够有效地扯下食物碎片送入口腔。一些无颌鱼化石的口缘长着细小的骨片,可以用来在海床上铲起碎片或从水中过滤碎渣;另外一些则在口腔内部或喉内长着经过矿化的齿状结构。显然无论在现生还是化石无颌类中,都已拥有了多种多样的、成功的进食机制。

Fig1. The funnel-like mouth of a modern lamprey, jawless but armed with small keratinous teeth for rasping through the skin of other fishes.
一条现生的七鳃鳗的口部,它没有上下颌,但有很多细小的角质齿,用于咬穿其他鱼的皮肤

However, jaws were an important innovation that opened up new functional possibilities and, in particular, must have ushered in a new age of successful predation by early gnathostomes. In jawed vertebrates the lower jaw, called the mandible, acts like a lever made of bone or cartilage. The mandible is connected by a hinge to the back end of the upper jaw, which in some fishes is itself mobile relative to the skull proper, and muscles can be used to rapidly raise or lower the mandible to close or open the mouth. Lowering the mandible quickly can draw in a sizeable volume of water along with any small prey that it may contain, the key manoeuvre in the “suction feeding” of many aquatic vertebrates, whereas raising the mandible quickly can trap prey in the mouth and forcefully drive teeth into the prey’s body.
然而颌的出现依然一个重要的创新,也开启了全新的功能,特别是开辟了早期有颌类动物成功捕食的新纪元。有颌脊椎动物的颌的下半部分称为下颌(或下颚),它由硬骨或软骨构成,像杠杆一样通过铰链结构与上颌的后端连在一起。在某些鱼类中,上颌与头盖骨的连接是可活动的。肌肉能够使下颌快速张合以控制口的开闭。迅速减低下颌能够将大量的水和其中的小型猎物吸入口中,而另一方面,对于很多水生脊椎动物来说,“吸入式进食”的关键策略,是快速抬升下颌将猎物困在嘴里,并把自己的牙齿用力地插入猎物的身体。

In evolution, new structures are commonly built by modifying pre-existing ones. In the case of jaws, anatomists long ago noticed a basic similarity to the gill arches of fishes, vertical bars of bone or cartilage that separate successive gill slits and support the gills themselves. Gnathostome gill arches are made up of multiple segments, and it is tempting to interpret the upper jaw and mandible as the two surviving segments of a highly modified gill arch. In the traditional account of the origin of jaws, the gill arches were all similar to each other in the jawless ancestors of gnathostomes, and the first arch in the series was transformed into the jaws.
在进化过程中,新的结构一般都是通过改造旧结构而产生的。在颌的演化问题上,解剖学家很久以前就意识到了它和鱼类鳃弓之间的基本相似之处。鳃弓是由硬骨或软骨构成的垂直的棒状结构,它分割连续的鳃裂并为鱼鳃提供结构性支撑。有颌类的鳃弓由多节构成,于是人们很容易假设上颌和下颌应该是高度衍变的鳃弓中保留下来的两节。对于颌的起源,传统观点认为在有颌脊椎动物的无颌祖先中,每一对鳃弓都十分相似,而其中的*对鳃弓演化成了颌。

Fig2. The front part of a shark skeleton in side view. Each of the gill arches, structures made of cartilage that support the gills, has upper and lower portions. This is also true of the hyoid arch, which lies in front of the gill arches and helps to support the jaws. The jaws themselves look as though they might just have evolved from yet another "arch" at the very front of this series, the upper and lower jaws corresponding to the upper and lower parts of a gill arch or the hyoid arch.
鲨鱼的头骨前部,侧面观。每一个鳃弓(即支持鱼鳃的软骨结构)由上下两部分构成。鳃弓前面的用于支持颌骨的舌弓也是如此。从这张图看,颌骨似乎是从*前面的一个“弓”演化出来的:上颌骨和下颌骨似乎分别对应着一个鳃弓(或舌弓)的上部和下部。

However, studies of gene expression in the embryonic development of lampreys and gnathostomes fail to support this elegant scenario, suggesting instead that much of the gnathostome jaw apparatus is equivalent to structures surrounding the mouth of the lamprey rather than to the first gill arch. A major reconfiguration of the internal structure of the head clearly occurred in early gnathostomes and their close relatives among jawless fishes, but how jaws appeared as part of this reconfiguration remains a topic of extremely active research.
不过对七鳃鳗和有颌类的胚胎发育的基因表达的研究并不支持这一简单而精妙的方案,而是认为有颌类大部分的颌部器官应该与七鳃鳗的口周而非*对鳃弓的结构相对应。头骨内部结构的一次重要重建明显发生在早期有颌类和它们的无颌鱼近亲中,但是颌的出现在这一重建中扮演什么角色依然是热议的话题。

Whatever their exact evolutionary origin, jaws have played an important part in the march of vertebrate life ever since their first appearance. Vertebrates of different types use their jaws to crush the throats of prey animals, slice and grind their way through tough vegetation, and filter plankton out of seawater. The utility of jaws, however, goes beyond feeding. Animals may use their biting ability to fend off attacking predators or do battle with rivals of the same species, and Winston Churchill was entirely correct to draw attention to the usefulness of jaws in oral communication. Ultimately, prime ministers and diplomats owe their ability to jaw-jaw to an anatomical innovation that appeared more than 400 million years ago.
不论颌的具体来源如何,它们自出现之日起,一直都在脊椎动物演化的进程上扮演着重要的角色。不同的脊椎动物用不同的方式使用它们的颌,有些用来咬破猎物的喉咙,有些切碎研磨植物,又或者从海水中过滤藻类。然而颌的作用远不止进食,动物可以用它们的啃咬技能反抗捕食者,或者和同种的竞争者搏斗,而温斯顿?丘吉尔对于颌在语言交流方面的看法肯定也毋庸置疑。*重要的是,4亿年多前的一次身体结构创新才使得现在的首相们和外交官们有了“动动下巴”的本领。

Fig3. Jaws are useful to a predator, as the osteichthyan Megamastax amblyodus of the Silurian Xiaoxiang Fauna demonstrates by biting down on a hapless galeaspid of the species Dunyu longiforus.
上下颌对捕食者而言*重要。这是志留纪潇湘动物群中的一条硬骨鱼——钝齿宏颌鱼捕食的场景,它用颌咬住了一条无助的盔甲鱼——长孔盾鱼
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