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看看这颗种子 Just look at this seed.
它还不到1克重 It weighs under a gram.
看起来十分普通 It looks pretty ordinary,
但你能想象这是它长大后的样子吗 but what it will become is truly extraordinary.
影片压制&调校:timmy 招募Q号:76846146
它们是巨杉 These are giant sequoias.
有些的树龄超过3千岁 Some are over three-thousand years old.
巨杉是地球上最大的单体生命形式 And sequoias are the largest single life form on Earth.
这一切都始于一颗小种子 All from a tiny seed.
纵观地球的历史 Yet even that pales into insignificance...
和地球这个郁郁葱葱的植物王国相比 ...compared to what the whole of the plant kingdom has done...
那颗小种子有点微不足道 ...throughout the history of our planet.
现在我们已经了解了原始植物是如何为地球生产氧气的 So far, we've seen how plants and their ancestors began by producing our life-giving atmosphere.
植物从太阳中吸收光亮又为地球带来能量 They'd harnessed light from the sun, bringing energy to the world.
因为植物我们有了肥沃的土壤 And they'd formed the fertile soil...
因为植物生命可以离开海洋登陆陆地 ...allowing life to colonise the land.
这一集我们将更深入地探索植物世界 But the next chapter will take us even further,
因为植物王国将迎来一位新成员 because a powerful newcomer to the plant world was on its way.
它将占领世界的每个角落 It would conquer every corner of the planet.
也将改变地球表面 It would shape the very surface of the Earth.
同时它将推动动物的进化历程 And it would drive the evolution of animal life,
其中包括了我们人类 including our own ancestors.
这一集我们讲述它的故事 This is its story.
种出个地球
花的力量
这些建筑有上千年的历史了 These buildings are nearly a thousand years old.
世界上最大的宗教遗址占地200平方公里 The largest religious site in the world, covering two-hundred square kilometres.
这是柬埔寨的吴哥窟 This is the temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
这里你能见到对人类十分有意义的遗迹 Here you can witness the importance of one of the most powerful symbols known to humankind.
同时它也是佛教古老仪式的重要象征 A symbol central to an ancient Buddhist ceremony.
花 Flowers.
莲花看起来像是人的手指 The Lotus flower is designed like our fingers,
它象征着尊重佛陀 as a symbol of respect for Buddha.
莲花代表着一种感恩 The lotus flower is important for Buddhism...
因此它对佛教很重要 ...because it shows the gratitude.
佛陀发现了世间的奥秘 We have for Buddha...
我们对佛陀心存敬畏 ...once he found the law of nature.
对这些和尚来说花的地位很崇高 For these monks, flowers have a crucial role.
这只是一种宗教中的一种仪式 And this is just one ceremony, from one religion.
花对全世界文明都至关重要 Flowers are central to cultures throughout the world.
它们深深地影响着我们的生活 They're deeply woven into all our lives.
不仅仅只有人类喜爱花 But it's not only a human obsession,
随着花的进化 because since they evolved,
它们也推动地球一切生命的进化 flowers have been the driving force for the whole of life on Earth.
为了了解它们是如何改变地球的 To understand how they changed our planet,
我们需要回到史前时代 you need to go right back to a prehistoric time.
回到第一朵花出现的时刻 To the moment when the very first flower appeared.
1.4亿年前 Up until around a hundred-and-forty-million years ago,
当时的地球和现在的完全不同 the Earth was very different.
动物王国中恐龙占据着主导地位 The animal kingdom was dominated by dinosaurs.
如今分离的大洲当时是不存在的 And the separate continents we know today didn't exist.
当时只有一块巨大的陆地 Instead there had been a single huge continent-
我们称为盘古大陆 Pangea.
这个地方和古代的超级大陆离得最近 There is a place that's about as close as you can get to that ancient supercontinent.
这里是南太平洋的偏远地区 离澳洲海岸1500公里远 It's in the remote South Pacific, fifteen-hundred kilometres from Australia.
这是新喀里多尼亚岛 The island of New Caledonia.
因为这个小岛独处于大洋中 Because this part of the world is so isolated,
所以可以一窥花出现前的植物世界是怎么样的 it gives a glimpse of the plant world before flowers existed.
那时候植物王国中有两个强大的统治者 Back then the plant kingdom had two mighty rulers.
一是针叶树它是松树的史前物种 One of them was the tall conifers, like this prehistoric species of pine.
我们称其为库克松 They're called cook pine,
是以探索这个小岛的库克船长的名字命名的 named after Captain Cook who explored this island.
花的出现如此具有革命性 What made flowers so revolutionary...
是因为在花出现前古代植物的种类很少 ...was the limitations of the ancient plants that came before them.
为了再生这样的针叶树必须依靠变化莫测的风 To reproduce, conifers like these relied on the vagaries of the wind.
这是植物花粉 This is pollen -
它们是雄性针叶树的生殖细胞 the male sex cells of conifers.
每一粒要被放大上千倍才能看见 Each grain has to be magnified a thousand times to really see it.
这两个气囊是捕捉微风的 The two air sacs catch the breeze.
运气好的话花粉会被吹到旁边一棵树的雌性果实上 With luck the male pollen will be blown to a female cone on a nearby tree.
一般来说要大量的针叶树花粉才能成功授粉一次 But for that to happen, each conifer needs vast amounts.
这是个巨大的浪费 It's very wasteful.
一棵树能释放多达100亿粒花粉 Up to ten-billion grains have to be released by a single tree.
植物王国中另一个强大的统治者是蕨类植物 The other big player back then was the ferns.
它们再生的方法也很受限制 Their method of reproduction was also restricting.
因为蕨类植物性喜潮湿的沼泽环境 Because ferns evolved in wet swampy conditions,
它们需要水来运输生殖细胞 they needed water to transport their sex cells.
它们利用一种特殊的装置 And they use a surprising device.
首先它们要做的就是释放一颗精子 What they do is release a sperm,
精子会沿河流游到附近一株植物并使其受精 which swims through the water to a nearby plant and fertilises its egg.
在显微镜下我们能看到这些精子不停地抖动着 Under a microscope you can see that by thrashing around,
它们能在水中前行 the male sperm cell can propel itself through water.
能不间断地游两个小时 It's able to swim for over two hours.
但受限的是蕨必须靠近水流生长 But the downside was that ferns had to live near water.
这是个很大的限制条件 It was hugely limiting.
这意味着盘古大陆缺乏 All this meant something was lacking in the world of Pangea -
生命多样性 Diversity.
那时蕨的种类很少针叶树种也不多 There were few species of ferns and even fewer types of conifers.
只是我们今天种类的1%左右 Just one percent of the range of plants we have today.
动物王国的种类也很受限制 And the animal kingdom was also limited.
科学家发现当时有700种不同的恐龙 Scientists have found evidence of seven-hundred different dinosaurs.
听上去好像蛮多的 It sounds a lot,
但今天就喃乳动物来说地球上就有5500多种 but today there are over five-and-a-half-thousand species of mammals alone.
当时的物种比较单一 There was little variety.
只是一整片单调的绿色 It was a monotonous green world.
当时地球上的生命本来就应该那么延续着了 And that's how life on the planet would have continued.
但1.4亿年前盘古大陆的某处 A hundred-and-forty-million years ago, somewhere in Pangea -
某株植物偶然采用了一种新的再生方式 one plant of one species happened to chance on a new way of reproducing.
而这种方式将永远改变地球 And it would change the Earth forever.
新喀里多尼亚的植物学家布鲁诺·佛利亚尼 Bruno Fogliani - a botanist from New Caledonia,
他对植物研究很着迷 is fascinated by this plant.
这个物种仅存在在新喀里多尼亚 The species exists only in New Caledonia.
地球上只有这里才能找到它 It is the only place in the world where you can find this plant.
无油樟是原始花的近亲 Amborella trichopoda is the closest living relative of the first flower to evolve.
无油樟分子生物的研究 Studies on the molecular biology of Amborella
布鲁诺·佛利亚尼在新喀里多尼亚大学 (Bruno Fogliani University of New Caledonia)
表明无油樟 show that it comes directly from
和原始花有着直接的联系 the common ancestor of flowering plants.
因此我们认为它也是一种花 We therefore consider it to be the sister of all flowers.
植物学家相信一切始于一株植物的叶子 Botanists believe it started when a single plant mutated...
从绿色变为白色开始 ...to have leaves that instead of being green were probably white,
就像这些无油樟 like those of Amborella.
花的出现很重要因为它们可以吸引昆虫的注意 The appearance of the flower was important because insects were attracted by it.
花的形状花的颜色都会吸引各种昆虫 The shape of the flower, the colour of the flower, will attract insects...
那将有助于更成功地传播花粉 ...which will lead to better pollination...
更大可能地受精成功 ...and a better chance of fertilisation.
早期的花朵为其传播花粉的是甲虫 With the early flowers, the pollinator would have been a beetle...
因为当时蜜蜂还未进化出来 ...because bees had not yet evolved.
这些携带花粉的甲虫在植物间爬来爬去 These beetles would have carried pollen from plant to plant,
就在它找寻食物时将花粉传播了开来 pollinating them as they looked for food.
植物已经找到了一种高效的再生方式 Plants had evolved an ingenious way of reproducing...
再也不用依靠风或者水这样的随机方式了 ...that no longer relied on haphazard methods like the wind for conifers or water for ferns.
相反进化了的方法更加可靠 Instead it was reliable.
携带花粉的昆虫直奔另一株植物 Insects carried pollen directly to other plants.
花开始诞生了 It was the birth of flowers.
那时候盘古大陆开始分离了 Back then the supercontinent of Pangea was splitting up.
小大陆开始形成 Smaller continents were forming,
在气候和环境的双重影响下 creating countless new landscapes...
产生出了无数的新地貌 with new climates and environments.
有绵延不绝的高山 Rising mountain ranges.
也有干旱荒凉的沙漠 And dry inhospitable deserts.
对完全依靠风和水的针叶树和蕨类来说 For conifers and ferns, so dependent on wind and water,
新地貌对它们帮助不大 the new landscapes were impregnable.
但对开花植物来说这是它们梦寐以求的沃土 But for flowering plants, it was the chance they'd been waiting for.
1.4亿年前 A hundred-and-forty-million years ago,
花儿们开始改变这些恶劣的环境 flowers began to exploit these hostile environments.
就像南非的台地高原 Just like Tankawa Karoo, in South Africa.
因为沙漠之下藏着大量的花朵 Because beneath this desert is a hidden carpet of flowers.
每年这里只有两个月下雨 Each year it rains for just two months.
因此植物再生的时间很短 The plants only have this brief window to reproduce.
那么它们如何保证花粉得到及时传播呢 So how do they ensure they're pollinated in time'?
它们进化出了各种颜色 They evolved colour.
这里有上百种不同的花 Hundreds of different flowers,
也有数十种不同的颜色 dozens of different colours.
无论是橙色的菊花 Whether it be orange gazanias,
还是紫色的小花 purple dew flowers,
又或者是红色豌豆花 or the red balloon pea plant.
这些颜色都不是随机生长的 And it wasn't random.
许多花朵用一种独特且鲜明的花色吸引昆虫 Many used a different and specific colour to attract insects.
这样即使距离很远 They became targets using insects to transfer the right pollen to the right plant,
也可以利用昆虫使其在同类植物中传播花粉 even over great distances.
花朵的颜色已经进化得十分多彩了 And flowers evolved a clever way to enhance this colour.
肉眼看去花瓣表面很光滑 To the naked eye, a petal looked smooth...
但若是放大1千倍那才是花的真正结构 but magnified a thousand times and you can see its real structure.
表面一点也不平整 It's not a flat surface at all.
相反地花瓣由无数的小结组成 Instead, the petal is made up of countless nodules.
每一个都像是个小棱镜反射和分散着太阳光 Each acts like a tiny prism, which reflects and diffracts light.
熠熠生辉的花瓣更容易吸引经过的昆虫 It gives the petal an iridescence to attract passing insects.
在颜色利用上面 And in their use of colour,
花朵们进化得更深入 flowers went even further.
昆虫和照相机能捕捉到紫外光线 Insects and this camera can see a part of the light spectrum called ultra violet.
人类肉眼是看不见紫外线的 That is normally invisible to us humans.
照相机揭示了在人类眼里看似平凡的花朵 The camera reveals how flowers that appear plain to us,
是如何成功吸引昆虫的 look completely different to insects.
这些暗痕很重要 The markings are important...
因为这些暗痕像机场跑道一样可以引导昆虫降落在花瓣上 ...because they're like airport runway lights that guide the insect down onto the petals.
就如同广告牌表示这里有免费的食物 Neon signs that say free food here.
但一旦花儿授粉成功又要面临一个大困难 But once the flowers were pollinated, they still faced a big challenge.
因为那些新长的花儿不得不在此熬过这一年剩下的日子 Because their offspring then had to make it through the rest of the year.
这是南非的台地高原这里已经干旱了10个月了 Here in the Karoo that can be ten months of drought.
为了生存 To survive,
花儿们完善了另一项技能那将对地球上的生命有极大影响 flowers perfected another trick which had a powerful impact on life on Earth.
那就是花的种子 Seeds.
种子有着我们通常想象不到的非凡能力 Because seeds have this remarkable ability that we don't normally think about.
这些是美人蕉的种子 These are the seeds of the Canna lndica flower.
它们被置于空弹中 They're being placed inside an empty shotgun cartridge.
故事开始于19世纪印度叛变时期 The story goes that during the Indian Mutiny of the nineteenth century,
士兵们用种子而非铅弹射击 soldiers used these seeds instead of lead shot.
事实上这些种子都很硬 These seeds are so tough in fact,
据说即使用其射击射出之后它们仍然可以生长发芽 that it's said that despite being fired from a gun, they can still germinate.
将这些射出的种子放进土中看看它们是否还能发芽 Planting them, and then waiting will show whether this happens.
种子不仅仅拥有坚硬的外壳 But a tough shell wasn't all.
因为开花植物的种子 Because seeds from flowering plants...
已经发展了一种 ...developed a further evolutionary advantage
其他植物都不具备的更具革命性的优势 that no other plant possessed.
一切开始于那个授粉的瞬间 It all starts at the moment of pollination.
昆虫带来了花粉 Having been delivered by an insect,
花粉中的两类细胞沿着花茎进入花的子房 two cells from the pollen burrow deep down into the flower's ovary.
其中一个使卵子受精产生一个胚胎植物 Here one fertilises an egg to create an embryonic plant.
接下来的更加巧妙 But, and here's the clever bit,
另一个来自花粉的细胞则承担着另一项不同的任务 the second cell from the pollen does a completely different job.
它不会变成一个新植物 Instead of becoming a new plant,
它会为受精卵提供食物来源就像是一种打包的食物 it grows into a food source for the fertilised egg, a kind of packed lunch.
这称为双受精 It's called double fertilisation.
花的种子就是这么地奇特 And it's unique to the seeds of flowers.
它可以休眠数月或数年直到条件成熟 It meant seeds could lie dormant for months or even years until conditions were right.
对美人蕉的种子来说 As for the Canna lndica seeds,
它们就是这样的 well this is how they faired.
尽管充当了一把枪的子弹 Despite being blasted from a shotgun.
但四星期后它们成功地生长成为一株小的开花植物 Four weeks later here they are now, successfully germinating into a tiny flowering plant.
太不可思议了 Remarkable.
1亿年前 By one-hundred-million years ago,
花儿们重新规划着植物生长区域的世界地图 flowers were redrawing the global map of where plants could live.
它们将曾经贫膺的地区变成了生命的绿洲 They were turning once infertile areas into oases of life.
不仅仅是植物 And it wasn't just about plants...
花的绿洲现在也开始诱惑着各种动物 ...because these flower oases were now luring animals too.
花有一种最重要的能力可以使其成功吸引各种动物 There was one ability above all that gave flowers the power to do this.
开花植物有种特殊的技能能够在其他植物中脱颖而出 Plants can do something unique that marks them out amongst all other living things on the planet.
那就是它们的叶子能够捕捉到离我们最近的恒星的能量 Their leaves can capture energy from our nearest star,
那颗恒星就是太阳 the sun,
并将吸收的能量转变为食物 and turn it into food.
有了食物的花带来了另一项改变 Flowers then took this, and came up with another adaptation...
这种改变将对动物王国产生巨大的影响 ...that would have enormous repercussions for the animal kingdom.
那种食物我们称为花蜜 It's called nectar.
生物学家提姆·范德内特研究着这种不凡的液体 And biologist Timo van der Niet studies this remarkable liquid.
提姆·范德内特开普敦大学 (Timo Van Der Niet University of Cape Town)
这里我们有一种天堂鸟花 Here we have the beautiful bird of paradise flower...
它们富含能提供能量的食物就是我们常说的花蜜 ...which contains vast quantity of this energy rich food source, which is nectar.
我这里有个注射器待会我会很小心地从这株花中提取花蜜 I've got a syringe here, which I'm going to gently slip into the flower to extract this nectar.
因此植物在进化过程中如此成功的重要原因 So one of the reasons why plants become so successful in the course of evolution...
可能正是因为它们能生产 ...might be exactly because they produce this...
我们称之为花蜜的东西这也算是对授粉者的报答 ...this energy rich reward for pollinators, which we call nectar.
花蜜在植物和授粉者之间起着重要的作用 Nectar is so important in in interactions between plants and pollinators.
那意味着全球的植物开始多样化起来了 It meant that plants could diversify all across the world.
它能适应不同的地区以及不同的授粉者 It could adapt to different pollinators in different regions,
比如鸟类和喃乳动物 such as birds and mammals,
以及以花蜜为生的各种各样的昆虫 and various kinds of insects that rely on nectar as a food source.
花朵为各种昆虫提供食物花蜜成为它们食物链中的一环 Flowers were now pumping bite-size packets of liquid energy into the food chain.
这推动了整个昆虫世界的进化 And this began driving the evolution of entirely new insects.
这个美丽的化石是一个被困在树脂中的原始蜜蜂 This beautiful fossil is a very primitive bee that got stuck in liquid tree resin.
1亿年前像这样的蜜蜂化石开始出现 Bee fossils like these began appearing roughly one-hundred-million years ago.
从食肉黄蜂进化而来的蜜蜂已经不吃肉了 Bees evolved from carnivorous wasps...
现在爱吃花粉和花蜜 which had turned their backs on meat in favour of pollen and nectar.
蜜蜂现在进化到身上长满浓毛便于采集更多的花粉 As they evolved their whole bodies became covered in hair to collect more pollen.
它们进化出更敏锐的眼睛 有着数百个小透镜能定位花朵 They developed sophisticated compound eyes with hundreds of tiny lenses to spot the flowers.
眼睛内部也有特殊的细胞能监测紫外光线 Inside were special cells to detect UV light.
花和蜂蜜相依相存 Without the power of flowers you'd have no bees at all.
有了昆虫帮助授粉后 But by creating insects to pollinate them,
开花植物又遇到了一个新的问题 the flowers introduced a new problem for themselves.
昆虫从花上采集了花粉 There was a risk that after an insect picked up pollen from a flower,
随后它有可能爬到了不同类的花朵上使得受精失败 it would then travel onto a different species of flower and fail to fertilise it.
那花粉也就会浪费了 The pollen would be wasted.
这种状况刺激开花植物找到解决的方法 The solution of flowers was inspired.
这里位于南非海岸这些悬崖下面 Down under these cliffs on the South African coast,
你等一下就会看到了 you can see what they came up with.
奥芬花不含花蜜 Orpheum flowers don't contain nectar,
它们只提供花粉 the payment they provide is pollen.
但很奇怪它们的花粉是未开苞的 But strangely they keep it locked up.
扭曲的雄蕊正保护它们不被来访的昆虫偷走 Special twisted stamens stop it being stolen by visiting insects.
除了一种昆虫 All that is except one -
雌木蜂 the female carpenter bee.
只有它能撬开花粉的保护门它只需扇动翅膀 Only she has the key and she does it by beating her wings.
只要我们比照雌木蜂震动翅膀的频率 You can see this process actually in action...
我们就真的能观察到这个过程 ...by simulating the frequency at which the female carpenter bee vibrates her wings,
比如我们用一个音叉 for instance by using a tuning fork...
将其靠近花粉囊 ...and holding it very close to the anthers.
一团花粉真的就出来了 You can see a cloud of pollen coming out.
当蜜蜂落在花瓣上时 When the bee lands on the flower,
它会将翅膀扇动速率调整到合适的频率 she changes the rate at which she beats her wings to just the right frequency.
中音频率 Middle C.
那样花粉就显现出来了 And it unlocks the pollen.
木蜂和奥芬花之间奇特的关系 This exclusive relationship between carpenter bee and Orpheum...
保证花粉能够在同类开花植物中进行传播 ...ensured that the flower's pollen was successfully taken to a plant of the same species.
至此各种各样的开花植物开始出现 Flowers were now driving a huge increase in the diversity of life.
同时成为食物链中一环的花蜜也加速了开花植物多样性的增加 And they were fuelling this increase by pumping nectar into the food chain.
采花粉的有小昆虫们蜜蜂 The insects, bees,
蝴蝶和飞蛾 butterflies and moths,
比如这只天蛾正用长长的舌头吃着花蜜 such as the hawk moth, were eating it with long probing tongues.
没过多久新物种出现了 Soon to evolve were new species of birds...
就像这只星蜂鸟它的嘴巴很适合吸食喇叭花 like the calliope hummingbirds with beaks perfect for trumpet shaped flowers.
肉食动物们也参与其中 And predators,
比如这些巨嘴鸟它们吃授粉动物 such as these toucans that ate the pollinators.
1.2亿年前至9千万年前 Between 120 and about 9O million years ago,
一切生命都要感谢开花植物 all thanks to flowering plants.
那时候地球的进化历史进入了爆炸式增长阶段 Evolution had entered the most explosive phase in the Earth's history.
现在盘古大陆已经分离了形成今天我们都很熟悉的各大陆 By now Pangaea had split up, creating the continents so familiar to us today.
开花植物在各大陆上占据了绝对的优势 And flowers dominated them.
花儿们取代针叶树和蕨类的地位覆盖了大半个地球 They'd conquered the ancient conifers and ferns, and covered half the Earth.
但它们不仅仅改变着地球上的生命 But it wasn't just life they were changing...
它们甚至开始影响地球本身 ...because they started altering the very shape of the planet itself.
这是越南的下龙湾 This is Halong Bay in Vietnam.
这里我们能找到花儿深深影响地球的证据 Here there's evidence of how flowers unleashed some of the most powerful forces on Earth.
这里尽是高耸的石灰岩山峰 All over Vietnam are pinnacles of limestone soaring upwards.
这种奇特形象的地貌我们称为喀斯特地形 It gives a really distinctive, even iconic landscape, called karst.
你可能认为这样的地形必定要经历巨大的地质瘪变 You might assume huge geological processes had created the karst,
但事实上不是那样的 but this isn't the case.
那是因为9千万年前 That's because 9O million years ago,
开花植物以一种完全想不到的方式 flowers began to build an empire across the planet...
在地球的每个角落生长着 ...in a totally unexpected way.
它们创造了广袤的热带雨林 They did it by creating vast tropical rainforests.
几乎所有的树都是巨大的开花植物 Almost all the trees are actually giant flowering plants.
这是盛开的黄钟木树 This is a tabebuia tree in bloom.
现在所有的树都在做一件事 And the trees are all doing one thing.
它们正不断地透过叶子释放出水分 They're constantly pumping out water through their leaves.
当我们用一个透明的塑料袋套住一片叶子 And when a clear plastic bag is tied over a leaf,
这样就能看到发生了什么事 it's possible to actually see this happening.
2小时后 袋子变湿了 In two hours the bag is full of moisture.
通过叶子中我们称气孔的微孔隙水分流失或蒸发掉了 This loss of water or transpiration happens through tiny pores in the leaf called stomata.
靠近一点我们能看见叶脉它们是植物运送水分的通道 Close up you can see the veins of the leaf, which transport water around the plant.
开花植物的叶脉上匕其他植物的多出4倍 Leaves of flowering plants contain four times more veins than other plants.
那意味着开花植物流失更多的水分 It means that trees transpire lots of water.
事实上一棵树每天会流失掉5吨的水 In fact, a single trees can pump out 5 tons of water every day.
9千万年前 All this transpiration meant that 9O million years ago...
开花植物产生的这些水分创造了更多的云 flowering plants were creating more clouds...
从而带来了更多的雨水 ...which led to more rain.
落下的雨水又被那些树木吸收 Water that when it fell was then drawn up from the forest floor by the same trees,
植物透过定期的雨水形成了一个自给自足的良性循环 forming a self-sustaining cycle of almost perpetual rainfall.
事实上雨林中80%的雨水来自开花植物自身的蒸发 In fact, 80% of the water in the rainforests came from the flowering plants themselves.
下雨时雨水的力量是不容忽视的 In this new age of rain water became an ever powerful sculpting force.
今天我们经由一个隐藏的世界可以看到雨水的影响 And today, you can see its effects in an astonishing hidden world.
越南中部的雨林之下是著名的韩松洞 Deep beneath the rainforest in central Vietnam are the caverns of Hang Son Doong.
一支由英国人和越南人联合组成的探险队 A joint British - and Vietnamese expedition...
是首批探险此迷宫的队伍之一 ...is one of the first teams to ever explore this labyrinth.
韩松洞是迄今为止 Hang Son Doong is the largest cave passage ever discovered...
人类发现的最大的地下洞穴 ...anywhere on Earth.
这一个洞就有2公里长 This single cavern is nearly two kilometres long.
所有这些奇形怪状的石头都是由水流自然雕刻而成 All carved from solid rock by nothing more than water.
所有这些水都是从一个地方滴流下来的 All of which has trickled down from a single source,
那就是其上广袤的灌木林 the vast jungle above.
这股不可阻挡的力量塑造了12个这样的巨洞 It's a relentless force that has carved out a dozen enormous caverns.
这是开花植物力量的最佳见证 An underground monument to the power of flowering plants.
在这洞穴深处拥有植物世界中的所有奇迹 And deep in this labyrinth is perhaps the greatest of all the wonders of the plant world.
这是洞穴的中心地带一整片雨林区 Here at the heart of the cave, a whole rainforest.
这里洞顶坍塌了 Where the roof has collapsed,
开花植物在此地生长起来 flowering plants have made their home,
这里位于地平面200公尺以下 200 metres below ground level.
乌阿泰是河内国家大学的植物学家 Vu Anh Tai is a botanist from Hanoi National University.
最让我印象深刻的事是韩松洞这里的各种植物 The most impressive thing for me at Hang Son Doong is the plants here.
乌阿泰河内国家大学 (Vu Anh Tai Hanoi National University)
它们对我的研究来说都很独特 They're unique in my own research,
也让我了解到地球上的另一种植物群 and what I know about other flora in the world.
我相信这里的植物群很特别 I believe that the flora here have formed especially,
就像一个原生态的植物系统 as it is a primeval ecosystem
未受到人类活动的任何影响 and has been untainted by human activity.
我是第一个也是唯一一个 I am the first and only person
研究韩松洞内 to study the floral system
生态系统的植物学家 inside the Hang Son Doong cave.
经由研究 According to my research,
我记录了三种主要的植物类别共105种分类 I have recorded 105 plant species in three main families,
包括92种开花植物 including 92 species of flowering plants.
剩下的是蕨类和针叶树 The rest are tree ferns and conifers.
像香蕉花这样的植物 Plants such as this banana flower thrive,
会吸引来燕尾蝶和其他的生物 which in turn attract swallow-tail butterflies and other animals.
地面上雨林有的开花植物地下的这里也应有尽有 Flowering plants have created a small, but perfect version, of the rainforest above.
在洞中灌木林内 Within the cave jungle,
形成了微型气候的云其湿气提供了一切 there's a microclimate clouds of moisture envelop everything.
植物们吸收着空气中的湿气之后又蒸发掉形成乌云提供雨水 The plants soak up that moisture and then pass it back out again.
洞穴其上的热带雨林中发生的大范围的雨水循环 The cycle of transpiration that occurs on a big scale in the tropical forest above...
在洞穴内也发生着只是范围小得多 ...is captured in miniature down here.
地球上所有的大雨林之下总有洞穴形成 Caves formed under all the world's great rainforests.
洞穴中的雨水甚至也开始影响着全球气候 And this extra water even began to transform the global climate.
因为水分蒸发时需要吸收热量植物本身的温度就下降 As water evaporates, it absorbs heat and cools the planet.
亚马逊丛林整体的温度要比附近低5度左右 The Amazon rainforest alone keeps its whole region five degrees colder.
全球范围内雨水侵蚀出深深的峡谷 Across the planet, water injected into the water cycle was eroding deep canyons...
雕刻出高山塑造亚洲特有的喀斯特地形 ...carving high mountains and sculpting the Karst towers so iconic of Asia.
这些不禁让我们想到所有这些地形特征 It's remarkable to think that all these geological features...
并非都因为地底的地质瘪变 ...comes not from huge forces deep underground,
一部分是由于开花植物叶子发生的细微变化造成的 but in part, are caused by tiny changes in the leaves of flowering plants.
6千5百万年前是雨林的兴盛时期 65 million years ago was the age of the rainforests.
它们从赤道延伸至地球的大部分地区 They'd spread from the equator to cover most of the Earth.
其中四分之三的植被都是开花植物 It meant three quarters of all plants were now flowers.
它们是数百万生物富饶的家园 A rich, lush home for millions of new animals.
开花植物的统治地位似乎不容置疑 The dominance of the flowering plant seemed unassailable.
但持续时间却不长 But it was not to last.
一个外太空直怪10公里的小行星朝着地球方向飞速驶来 A ten kilometre wide asteroid coming from deep space was on a collision course.
以相当于10亿颗广岛原子弹同时爆炸的力量撞上地球 It hit the Earth with the force of a billion Hiroshima bombs.
70亿吨碎石被喷进低地轨道中 7O billion tons of pulverised rock were blasted into a low orbit.
科学家们称其为喷出物 Scientists called it ejecta.
它们以超声速行进 And travelling at supersonic speeds,
和大气的摩擦产生出巨大的热量使得当时地球温度高达200度 its friction with the atmosphere heated the Earth up by over 200 degrees Celsius.
可以想见地球当时遍地起火 It spontaneously triggered fires across the land.
这是地球历史上最严重的物种灭绝事件之一 It was one of the worst mass-extinctions in the history of the Earth.
恐龙也因此灭亡了 And famously killed off the dinosaurs.
但鲜少有人知道对植物也有直接的影响 But less well known is the immediate impact on plants.
科学家们相信这次碰撞对植物也是个致命的打击 Scientists believe that for them the effect of the asteroid was also devastating.
不仅仅是这些火 Not only were there fires,
碰撞产生的喷出物形成的云层富含硝酸和二氧化硫 but the ejecta created clouds of nitric and sulphur dioxide...
它们降落时 which fell...
就形成了酸雨 ...as acid rain...
酸雨连植物的根部都破坏了 destroying plants from the roots up.
布鲁斯·克拉克逊是植物生态学者 Bruce Clarkson is a plant ecologist.
他来到这个火山地看看对植物造成的破坏 He comes to volcanic sites to see the damage they cause to the plants.
我们来到怀卡里白岛 We're on what's called Wakaari,
它位于纽西兰北岛普伦蒂湾上 white Island on the Bay of Plenty, North Island, New Zealand.
布鲁斯·克拉克逊怀卡托大学 (Bruce Clarkson University of Waikato)
这座火山的历史还很年轻而且是座活火山 it's a very young and active volcano.
而且你知道这里破坏性大而且荒无人烟 And it's you know it's a desolate devastated landscape...
这里有着所有你需要的组成元素 ...and it has all of the ingredients you need to understand...
借此了解植物是如何在大破坏之后复原的 the processes of how plants recover after major devastation.
对植物来说小行星碰撞地球的后果 For plants, the aftermath of the asteroid impact must have been similar...
其实和怀卡里白岛火山喷发时的状况类似 ...to the conditions of White Island after an eruption.
植被因为火山的连续喷发而化为灰烬 Vegetation has been incinerated by successive eruptions.
火山烟产生的酸雨就如小行星撞地球时的一样 And the volcanic fumes create acid rain just like after the asteroid.
对开花植物来说就是个灾难 For flowering plants it was a disaster.
它们和动物间密切的关系现在却成了它们的致命伤 That close relationship with animals was now their Achilles Heel.
因为花儿们的授粉者都灭绝了 Because often their pollinators had simply been wiped out.
那意味着行星撞击地球后第一类复甦的植被是蕨类植物 It meant the first plants to re-colonise after the asteroid were the ferns.
当时的树木都被摧毁了 The trees would have been blasted and devastated.
断木残垣遍地都是 They would have been logs lying all round the place.
树木因为分解而腐烂了 They would have start to decompose.
但它们却为蕨类的复苏提供了营养 That would have been an ideal substrate for a colonisation of ferns.
蕨类本来可以从数百年 That fern spike could have lasted for anything from hundreds of years...
延续到甚至是上千年 ...to possibly even thousands of years.
但大自然进化过程中蕨类被取代了 But progressively the ferns would have been replaced,
首先应该是被针叶树取代了 possibly first by conifers.
最后开花植物回归重新拥有统治地位 Eventually though the flowering plants came back and reasserted their dominance.
那些让蕨类首先在贫膺的大地上再次繁茂起来的养分 All those evolutionary devices that had allowed them to thrive on a hostile planet in the first place...
现在变成了所有生命生存的唯一来源 ...now became their ultimate tools for survival.
色彩鲜艳的花瓣吸引着许多授粉小昆虫 Coloured petals to attract the few surviving pollinators.
在艰难时期花儿们也以花蜜来回报它们 Nectar to repay them in desperate times.
花朵能够凭借这些胶囊大小的颗粒存活 Above all, flowers could rely on those superb survival capsules...
它们像是被设计过的很适合在这灾难时期生存 ...that could have been purpose-built forjust such an apocalypse.
它们就是种子 Seeds!
现在在小行星的影响下种子帮助开花植物重新统治地球 Now, following the asteroid impact, seeds help flowers to re-colonise the Earth.
当开花植物遍地开花时 And as they did so,
花儿和动物们再次形成了相互依存不可分割的紧密联系 once again flowers formed an inseparable relationship with animals.
恐龙灭亡了 The dinosaurs had gone,
但另一种取代恐龙的动物出现了 but another type of animal had replaced them -
喃乳动物 mammals.
这次花儿可以在喃乳动物帮助下散布它们的种子 This time flowers used mammals to help them distribute their seeds.
这里是泰国 Here in Thailand,
这个水市正在庆祝果实的丰收 this whole floating market celebrates the evolutionary device flowers came up with.
这个方法不仅将种子散播几公尺远 It was a method that didn't just disperse seeds a few metres,
而是数公里之外 but over kilometres.
同时它们为饥饿的动物提供食物 And to do that they again harnessed the hunger of animals.
它们进化出了果实 They developed fruit.
植物学上对果实的定义是… The botanical definition of a fruit...
必须是从花朵本身发展而来的才能称为果实 is that it must actually develop from the flower itself.
果实内部富含种子果实的表层肉质曾是花的子房 The fleshy coating was once the ovary as it grew around the maturing seeds.
果实散发出的香味深深吸引着喃乳动物和鸟类 The sweetness of fruits made them extremely attractive to mammals and birds.
同时种子也一并被带走了 This meant that the seeds were also taken.
接着种子被当成肥料散播于各处 Then later on the seeds were passed out in a little dollop of manure.
这就是各种水果得以大范围生长的奥秘 And that's really the point of all these different types of fruit.
它们也以自身的多样性反馈大自然 All this diversity,
它们鲜艳的色彩鲜嫩的果肉是动物们不能抵抗的诱惑 it's designed to persuade animals to eat it.
果实是自然进化过程中最神奇的变化 Fruit is one of the most remarkable transformations in nature.
最初是作为诱惑昆虫的筹码 What begins as an advertisement for an insect,
对花儿来说果实保护着内部的种子 a flower, becomes the protective covering for the seeds inside.
最终摇身一变 And in a final burst,
变成了一个多汁且肉质丰富的水果 swells into the juicy flesh of a fruit.
5千5百万年前 Fifty-five-million years ago,
一群早期的喃乳动物进化到完全依靠果实为生 one group of early mammals was evolving that relied almost entirely on fruit.
事实上没有果实的出现早期喃乳动物可能也不会存在 In fact, without it they'd probably never have existed.
有种动物让花儿和人类的历史有了直接的联系 It was an animal which would directly link flowers to our human story.
它们居住在泰国的考索国家公园 They live here, in Thailand's Kao Sok National Park.
在这些树丛中有着灵长类动物 Somewhere in these trees there are primates.
诺贝特·阿森休是灵长类动物学家 Norberto Asensio is a primatologist.
他正在此研究长臂猿寻找果实的能力 He studies the ability of gibbons to find fruit in the forest.
这些灵长类动物它们偏爱水果 Their preference is looking for fruits, fruits in the forest.
但在这里找寻果实并非易事 But actually it's not that easy to look for fruit in the forest.
诺贝特·阿森休利物浦约翰摩尔斯大学 (Norberto Asensio Liverpool John Moores University)
果实长得很分散 那表示并不是到处都有的 It's an item that is highly dispersed which means it's not everywhere.
由于具有季节性并非随时都有 It's seasonal which means that it's not at any time...
因此要找到果实并没有看起来那么容易 ...so actually it's it doesn't look as easy as it may seem.
这些灵长类动物狐猴猴子和猿类 The primates, lemurs, monkeys and apes...
进化出了一种和果实密不可分的关系 evolved an inseparable partnership with the fruit from flowers.
并且这种关系决定着灵长类动物的骨骼构造 And it determined their whole anatomy.
灵长类动物拥有获取食物的最佳工具 Primates have got the perfect tools for reaching fruit.
它们拥有长长的手臂 强有力的胸膛和结实的肩部肌肉 They've got strong hands, which along with their powerful chest and shoulder muscles,
这些都有助于它们上树采摘果实 allow them to get up into the trees.
这些重要的特质我们人类也继承至今 All these are important traits that we human primates have inherited today.
特质的出现都来自于灵长类动物采摘开花植物果实的需要 And all came from the need for the first primates to reach the fruit of flowering plants.
而开花植物自身也遇到了一个难题 Back then flowering plants created a problem for themselves.
灵长类动物极需要果实 Primates were so hungry for fruit,
它们会在种子未长成前就将其采摘下来 they would pick it long before the seeds inside were mature.
那意味着里面的种子全都浪费了 It meant seeds were being wasted.
花儿们进化出了一种解决办法 So flowers came up with a solution.
那就是种子成熟时又甜又多汁颜色又鲜艳 When fruit was ripe they made it sweet, juicy and brightly coloured.
果实需要一定的时间让颜色变得鲜艳 It was a colour-coded time delay.
这样让灵长类动物只采摘那些完全成熟的果实 And it encouraged primates to take only fruit that was fully mature.
诺贝特对鲜艳的果实如何影响进化的历程 Norberto is interested in how the colour coding of fruit...
很感兴趣 ...affected the evolution of vision.
大部分喃乳动物 包括早期灵长类动物 在当时都是二色视的 Most mammals, including the early primates back then, were dichromatic.
它们能辨别的颜色很有限 They were limited in the colours they could see.
二色视是指眼睛里只有两个接收器 Dichromacy is about having two receptors in the eye,
因此有色的事物物体甚至是整个世界 so, the colours, the colour of things, the colour of objects, the colour of the world...
二色视的眼睛是难以捕捉到更多颜色的 ...is limited by using two pigments to understand and perceive colour.
这就是所谓的人类色盲现象 It's what we call colour blindness in humans.
我们可以凭借技术通过实验 It is actually possible to understand how a dichromate will see the world like...
了解二色视者看到的世界 ...yes by doing an experiment and a bit of technology.
我们把一些熟悉的水果放在这里 So let's put some colourful fruits that we know very well here...
比如香蕉和芒果 ...like a banana and mango,
火龙果 dragon fruit,
和红毛丹果 and rambutan.
这副特制的眼镜 And this is our special glasses that are going to allow us...
能让我们看到二视者眼中的世界 ...understanding how the dichromacy looks like.
好 我们现在戴上它 So we set them on.
这个粉红看起来像紫色和真实的颜色完全不同 While this pink is looks like purple, so actually different colour.
这个黄色看起来像绿色 What this yellow looks like green.
这也和摄影机拍到的颜色不一样 You see we don't see in the same way when we use the lens...
因为我们只用了二色视镜而非三色视镜 ...because we are actually using two pigments instead instead of three.
对灵长类动物来说要它们识别红色 For primates to perceive red,
必须进化出更复杂敏锐的视觉系统 they had to evolve a more sophisticated vision system.
视网膜内有些特殊的感色细胞我们称为视锥细胞 In the retina are special photoreceptor cells that detect colour called cones.
每平方毫米上有15万个视锥细胞 There are a 150,000 per square millimetre.
早期喃乳动物只有两类视锥细胞只能辨别绿色和蓝色 Early mammals only had two types of cone, one for green and one for blue.
当时的它们还是色盲 It meant they were colour blind.
但灵长类动物进化出了第三种视锥细胞 But primates evolved a third type.
这第三种细胞对红色很敏感 It was sensitive to red.
现在它们能认出成熟的果实了 Now they could spot ripe fruit.
彩色视觉系统让灵长类动物能辨别多种颜色 Colour vision helped give primates the advantage...
这大大地促进了它们进化成人类的历史进程 ...kick-starting the evolutionary journey that resulted in us humans.
那也就是为什么今天人类能拥有那样彩色的视觉系统 That's why we have colour vision now...
能让我们看到七色彩虹 ...and we have this wonderful rainbow of colours that we can see now and enjoy.
1.4亿年前从植物开始进化以来 Since they'd evolved 140 million years ago,
开花植物改变了整个地球 flowers had transformed our planet.
它们开始引领着植物王国并且改变着地球本身 They'd came to dominate the plant kingdom sculpting the Earth itself.
最终开花植物推动着动物们的进化历程 Above all, flowers drove the evolution of animals...
特别是灵长类动物并且最终促进了人类的诞生 ...especially primates, shaping our human evolution.
下一集我们将揭开 Next we reveal the epic battle between the forests and their greatest challenger,
丛林和它最大的挑战者一种新型的植物 a new type of plant -
草 the grasses.
森林和草之间的冲突很激烈 It was a conflict that would set the world on fire.
胜利者迫使我们的古猿祖先走出森林 The victor would force our ancient ape ancestors out of the forests...
走进大草原 ...and into the savannah.
也将继续促进人类文明的诞生 And go on to trigger the birth of human civilisation.