科學(xué)60秒:熱帶雨林坍塌，爬行動物激增
來源：滬江聽寫酷
2011-06-18 10:00
The November 26th issue of the journal Science included a study showing that the extinction of the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago allowed ____1____ mammals to get really big. But well before all that happened, another event triggered a different burst of evolutionary activity.
A new study finds that about 300 million years ago, the tropical rainforests along the equator fell apart. The familiar ____2____—global warming.
Present-day Europe and North America were on the equator back then, and were covered with rainforests. But global warming made things even hotter and drier.
The ____3____ rainforests broke up into smaller fragments, and reptile populations became ____4____ from each other in the fragments. Such geographical isolation allows different populations to evolve in different directions, which led to a great increase in reptile diversity. The research appears in the journal Geology.
The explosion in reptiles ultimately led to the evolution of the dinosaurs, which dominated the planet until they ____5____ the massive impact that allowed us mammals to take over. As Vonnegut would say, so it goes.
【視聽版科學(xué)小組榮譽(yù)出品】
A new study finds that about 300 million years ago, the tropical rainforests along the equator fell apart. The familiar ____2____—global warming.
Present-day Europe and North America were on the equator back then, and were covered with rainforests. But global warming made things even hotter and drier.
The ____3____ rainforests broke up into smaller fragments, and reptile populations became ____4____ from each other in the fragments. Such geographical isolation allows different populations to evolve in different directions, which led to a great increase in reptile diversity. The research appears in the journal Geology.
The explosion in reptiles ultimately led to the evolution of the dinosaurs, which dominated the planet until they ____5____ the massive impact that allowed us mammals to take over. As Vonnegut would say, so it goes.
【視聽版科學(xué)小組榮譽(yù)出品】
puny culprit expansive isolated fell victim to
11月26日發(fā)布的《自然》雜志里有一項(xiàng)研究表明，6千5百萬年前恐龍的滅絕讓弱小的哺乳類動物變得強(qiáng)大起來。但是在恐龍滅絕之前，另一件事件引起了大規(guī)模的生物進(jìn)化。一項(xiàng)新研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，大約在3億年前，赤道沿線的熱帶雨林坍塌了，罪魁禍?zhǔn)拙褪谴蠹叶际煜さ娜蜃兣，F(xiàn)在的歐洲和北美在當(dāng)時(shí)位于赤道，被熱帶雨林覆蓋著。但全球變暖讓當(dāng)?shù)刈兊酶蔁崞饋?。一大片熱帶雨林瓦解成零碎的部分，零碎的雨林帶將爬行動物和其他物種隔離了起來。這種地理阻隔讓不同種群向不同方向進(jìn)化，讓爬行動物種類大幅增加。這項(xiàng)研究刊登在《地質(zhì)學(xué)雜志》上。爬行動物的激增最終導(dǎo)致了恐龍的進(jìn)化，恐龍一直是這個星球的支配者，直到后來它們成為某次巨大的沖擊犧牲品，我們哺乳類動物才大權(quán)在握。正如馮內(nèi)古特說的，事情就是這樣。
