万物简史 第500期:多灾多难的生命进程(20)

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As Flannery notes, the period immediately after the dinosaur² extinction³ could well be known as the Age of Turtles. 弗兰纳里指出，恐龙灭绝之后的时期，很可以称之为鳖时代。

Sixteen species survived in North America and three more came into existence soon after. 16个物种在北美存活下来，过不多久又出现了3个。

Clearly it helped to be at home in water. 显而易见，家住水里很有好处。

The KT impact wiped out almost 90 percent of land-based species but only 10 percent of those living in fresh water. KT撞击消灭了将近90%的陆基物种，而生活在淡水里的物种只有10%遭殃。

Water obviously offered protection against heat and flame, but also presumably provided more sustenance⁴ in the lean period that followed. 水显然起了防热和防火的作用。还可能在随后的萧条岁月里提供了食料。

All the land-based animals that survived had a habit of retreating to a safer environment during times of danger, 凡是存活下来的陆基动物，都有在危险时刻退缩到安全环境的习惯，

into water or underground — either of which would have provided considerable shelter against the ravages⁵ without. 钻进水里或地下——二者都能在相当程度上防护外面的灾难。

Animals that scavenged for a living would also have enjoyed an advantage. 靠搜寻食物来维持生命的动物也有个优势。

Lizards⁶ were, and are, largely impervious⁷ to the bacteria in rotting carcasses. 蜥蜴总的来说不受腐烂尸体里的细菌的伤害，过去如此，现在依然如此。

Indeed, often they are positively⁸ drawn⁹ to it, and for a long while there were clearly a lot of putrid¹⁰ carcasses about. 实际上，它们还往往对其怀有好感。在很长时期里，蜥蜴周围显然存在着大量腐烂的尸体。

It is often wrongly stated that only small animals survived the KT event. 经常有人提出错误的看法，认为只有小动物才挺过了KT撞击。

In fact, among the survivors¹¹ were crocodiles, which were not just large but three times larger than they are today. 实际上，在幸存者当中有鳄鱼。它们不仅很大，而且比今天的鳄鱼还大3倍。

But on the whole, it is true, most of the survivors were small and furtive¹². 不过，总的来说，没错儿，大部分幸存者是行动诡秘的小动物。

 

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