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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 of these 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.
它们吸取日月的精华 They harness light from the stars.
带给地球能量 Bringing energy to our world.
它们创造生命带给地球生机 They created our life giving atmosphere.
它们塑造着地球表面 They sculpted the very surface of the Earth.
它们推动着动物的进化历程 And they drove the evolution of all animals...
包括人类的祖先 ...including our own ancestors.
这是一个关于地球的全新故事 It's a whole new story about our Earth.
有许多神奇的景象 Told through remarkable images,
几乎都是首次捕捉拍摄到 captured for the very first time.
这一集我们要讲述一种新型植物的故事 This programme is about just one type of plant.
它不曾被重视但却拥有最重要的地位 The most underrated but perhaps the most important of all.
它丰富了植物王国并取得了自己的一席之地 One that by taking on and conquering the rest of the plant kingdom...
它美化了地球表面并推动创造了人类文明的诞生 ...shaped the face of the planet and went on to help create human civilisation.
这就是草的故事 This is the story of grasses.
种出个地球
挑战者
数亿年前整个恐龙时期 For hundreds of millions of years throughout the time of the dinosaurs,
森林统治着地球 forests ruled the land.
那时候气候温暖森林蔓延到地球大部分地区 It was so warm trees extended over most of the earth.
即使是北极圈和南极洲因为没有冰川 Imagine the Arctic and Antarctic without ice.
也覆盖着森林 Carpeted with forests.
欢迎来到森林星球 Welcome to the planet of the trees.
今天依然残存一些当年的丛林 Today isolated remnants of those expansive forests still exist.
这里是东非地球上最迷人的丛林之一 And here in East Africa is one of the most impressive.
卡西格云林从肯亚干旱大平原上升起 The Kasigau cloud forest rises out of the dry plains of Kenya.
湿度很高和当时的环境差不多 Cloaked in moisture it's much the same as it was then.
我们回到过去森林占据统治的地位 Back then, trees ruled...
因为树木的特性是向上生长 ...because wood gave them the strength to grow ever taller...
高处能更易吸收所需的阳光 ...and to gorge on the sunlight all plants need.
我们向下看去 As you descend,
一切都被笼罩在霸道的树荫之下 you get real sense of how trees bully and overshadow everything below.
但也并非一片漆黑 But it's not complete gloom.
斑驳的阳光冲破树荫映照到地面 Patches of sunlight do breakthrough to the forest floor.
这些零星的阳光滋养了一种新的植物 And those shafts of precious light provided the niche for a new type of plant.
那将会大大地挑战森林的地位 One that would come to take on the trees.
那么科学家是如何发现这个新植物的呢？ So how did scientists discover the identity of the Challenger?
这还得感谢恐龙族群 It was all thanks to dinosaurs.
这是蜥脚龙 This is a sauropod.
但科学家们感兴趣的不是恐龙 But the scientists weren't too interested in the dinosaur.
他们更感兴趣这个他们称为粪化石的东西 They were far more interested by it's poo, or coprolites as they're called.
科学家们很爱这些粪化石 Scientists love fossil coprolites...
因为粪化石中揭示了动物在那个年代的饮食状况 because they reveal the diet of animals and in this particular case...
以及恐龙兴盛时期植被的生长情况 ...the plants that were around when dinosaurs roamed.
科学家们几年前对这些化石进行了分析 And when scientists analysed it a few years ago,
发现里面含有一些奇怪的物质 they found it contained something really strange.
在显微镜下科学家们发现某种植物的残骸 Under the microscope the scientists saw a fragment of a plant.
它的纹路很特别有8个凸起的小结 It had a distinctive pattern, these figure of eight nodules.
后来科学家惊奇地发现这些就是植物家族新成员的主要特征 They turned out to be the defining feature of a family of plants they were astonished to see.
这位新成员就是草 The grasses.
6千6百万年前 It was from sixty six million years ago.
出现了早期的草 Evidence for the earliest grass ever found,
称为原始草 called Matleyites.
这种卑微的小草将成为地球上最重要的一股力量 From its humble birth grass would go on to be on of the most important forces on our planet.
今天我们能找到原始草的后代 You can still find the descendants of those early grasses today.
我们认为这些一定和最初的原始草类似 We think these are similar to what the first grasses must have looked like.
能想象在这地面上它们努力地生长着 You can imagine them struggling away on the forest floor.
靠着零星的阳光破土而出 Feeding off little scraps of light making it through the canopy.
体型巨大的恐龙 It's wonderful to think that dinosaurs the size of houses...
穿过丛林时 ...were trampling through forests like this.
吃着那些小块的草地 Just grazing on little patches of grass.
但恐龙的日子突然到了尾声 But the dinosaurs' days of grazing were about to end abruptly.
6千5百万年前天外的小行星将恐龙毁灭了 Sixty five million years ago an asteroid ten kilometres across killed them off.
但草却存活了下来 The grasses survived.
但同样的它们也有自己的危机 But in turn they would face their own crisis.
接下来发生的事情和植物动物关系不大 What was coming had nothing to do with the plants and animals that lived on earth.
而是跟大气层有关系 It was all to do with the atmosphere.
这一切都因为那些触目惊心的骤变 And that was changing for the most surprising of reasons.
空气中含有二氧化碳 Our air contains carbon dioxide.
植被需要二氧化碳来呼吸来生存 It's the gas that plants' need to breathe, to stay alive.
但在5千万年前至3千万年前之间二氧化碳开始消失 But between fifty and thirty million years ago this gas began to disappear.
这威胁着整个植物王国 Threatening all plants.
骤变始于喜马拉雅山脉这种巨型山脉的形成 The crisis started with the creation of huge mountain ranges like the Himalayas.
地球历史上最大规模的地质骤变期 The biggest period of mountain building in earth's history.
裸露的岩石被水冲走 The freshly exposed rock was washed away.
一些矿物质流向了大海 Some of the minerals ended up in the sea.
空气中的二氧化碳 And here the suck the carbon dioxide gas out of the air...
和断岩发生反应 ...combining with it to form an entirely new type of rock.
形成了一种新的岩石石灰岩 Limestone.
但3千万年前 By thirty million years ago,
随着山体的攀升二氧化碳量下降了 as the mountains had risen the level of carbon dioxide fell.
事实上二氧化碳量降至之前的六分之一 In fact carbon dioxide levels dropped to a sixth of what they had been beforehand,
那可是降到了最低点了 which is an enormous fall.
对植物们来说这意味着灾难 And for the plant kingdom it meant crisis.
没有足够的赖以生存的二氧化碳 Without enough vital carbon dioxide,
许多植物包括草在内都濒临死亡 many plants including the grasses were struggling to survive.
我们可以透过人类的机械发明来揭示二氧化碳对植物的影响 One way to reveal the impact this had on plants is to look at a clever bit of human machinery.
我们使用的道具是汽车引擎 The car engine.
因为阀盖之下的东西和植物惊人地相似 Because what's under the bonnet shares surprising similarities with plants.
汽车引擎需要两样东西才能工作 The car engine relies on two things to work.
它需要汽油还需要空气中的氧气 It needs petrol and it needs oxygen from the air.
引擎内部要这两样东西同时作业才能释放出汽车所需的能量 Inside the engine these two are combined to release the energy to power the car.
这个过程我们称为燃烧 It's called combustion.
像引擎一样植物也需要空气中的气体才能存活 Like the engine plants also need a gas from the air to work,
植物需要的是二氧化碳 in their case the carbon dioxide.
因此对植物来说二氧化碳量下降和缺乏氧气的汽车引擎类似 So for plants the collapse of carbon dioxide levels was similar to a car engine starved of oxygen.
当通风口堵住后引擎无法发动 When the air intake is blocked, the engine stutters away...
因为它需要氧气才能工作 ...because it's struggling to get the oxygen that it needs to work.
缺少二氧化碳的植被同样也开始凋零枯萎 With less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere plants also began to stutter.
但草类进化出巧妙的解决办法 But the grasses were evolving a new and ingenious invention.
我们还是拿引擎做对比 Again the engine provides a parallel.
这个程亮的装置是和汽油口相互作用的 There's a piece of shiny machinery here that any petrol head will recognise.
它要做的就是为引擎输入更多的氧气 What it does is force more oxygen into the engine.
它就是涡轮增压器 It's called a turbo charger.
氧气越多意味着汽油燃烧得越彻底 More oxygen means that the petrol burns more fiercely.
也意味着能提供更多的能量 And that means more power.
艰难时期总能进化出最棒的解决办法 Evolution often comes up with our cleverest solutions during desperate times.
一类植物 And one group of plants -
草类将危险转化为机会 the grasses turned this crisis into an opportunity.
比如这些象草 它们是地球上生长速度最快的植物之一 Grasses like the elephant grass, which is one of the fastest growing plants in the world.
三个月它们就能长到4公尺 每天都能长4厘米多 In three months it grows four metres, or over four centimetres every day.
因为3千年前进化出的一项技能 This phenomenal growth rate was only possible...
使得这样的快速生长成为可能 ...because of a technology that evolved thirty million years ago.
这个设计很有效以至于旁边如果有一个人站着他都会被吹走 A design so effective that if you were a mechanic you'd be blown away.
进化了的新草本身都有类似涡轮增压器作用的细胞 The new grasses came up with the equivalent of a turbo charger inside the leaves.
光合作用正是发生在这些叶子的细胞中 It's in the cells of the leaves that photosynthesis occurs.
在那里二氧化碳和水分结合形成了糖分 Where carbon dioxide is combined with water to make sugar.
但新草创造了一种额外的物质 But the new grasses created an add on.
我们称为维管束的圆环状特殊细胞 Rings of specialist cells known as bundles.
它就像是迷你的吸气管专门收集二氧化碳 It all acts as a miniature pump sucking in and concentrating vital carbon dioxide.
因此尽管空气中的二氧化碳含量减少了 So although there was less carbon dioxide in the air,
草类比其他植物更有优势 the grasses had the edge over other plants.
但当时森林仍统治着世界 But forests still ruled the world.
高大的树木仍然繁茂生长着 The huge trees had also survived.
然而弱势的草类使用了毁灭性的新武器 Then the underdog unleashed a devastating new weapon.
8百万年前气候和现在的完全不同 Eight million years ago by now the climate had altered.
那时地球上大部分地区都很干燥 Much of the earth was drier than ever before.
那是草类等待已久的时刻 It was the moment grasses had been waiting for.
草类自身的特性使得它们极易燃烧 The grasses had evolved unique properties that made them especially flammable.
当气候干燥时 When dry,
它们就像堆易燃物 they became like a tinderbox.
想点燃它们只需零星的火花 All they needed was the spark.
今天有个理想的地方让我们看到8百万年前发生了什么 Today there's an ideal place to see what happened eight million years ago.
这里是南非的国家公园 Here in the national parks of South Africa,
巡逻队故意放火烧这片地方 rangers deliberately start huge fires to manage the land.
这对巡逻队长克里斯·奥斯汀来说是个绝佳的机会 It's the perfect opportunity for Chief Fire Starter, Chris Austin,
看看草地是如何起火的 to see how grasses first exploited flames.
克里斯·奥斯汀正拿着对讲机说话 Chris Austin speaking into radio
直升机负责朝草地丢火苗克里斯正协调着直升机队员们 He co-ordinates the helicopter crew as they drop fire capsules onto the grass.
人造闪电也开始了 Artificial lightening strikes.
火苗落地还需要46秒时间才会产生化学反应 The capsule lands in the grass and it takes about forty six seconds- for a chemical reaction,
那就是高锰酸钾和乙二醇作用的结果 which is the potassium permanganate and the glycol to react,
然后草地被点燃了草燃烧了起来 and then it ignites and that starts the fire.
我们在每10公尺处放下火苗 You put the capsules down every ten metres,
它们会互相影响最终连成一片火线 they join up and they form one continuous line of fire.
更像是一面火墙 It becomes a wall.
草原火势蔓延得非常迅速就像克里斯的实验那样 Grassland - fires are particularly fast moving as Chris Austin has experienced.
我见过的最猛烈的火势 The most aggressive fire that I've seen...
蔓延超过每秒3公尺非常急速地扩张 ...moved at more than three metres a second, which is really quick.
人根本无法从中逃脱 You can't you can't outrun it.
草原上的火势能置人于死地 Fires that kill people are grassland fires,
因为火势移动急速 because they're so fast moving.
并且当风向变化时它们会随风转向 And when the wind changes they change direction just as quickly.
这还没完呢 And that's not all.
草地起火的方式也很特别 Grass burns in a special way.
那对它的对手来说是个致命的打击 A way that was devastating to its enemies.
为了发现更多这种特性 To discover more about its unique properties,
一个科学家自愿进入火势的中心地带 a scientist has volunteered to enter right into the heart of the fire.
你要进去火里面了 You're wired for fire.
是的我要进去了 Yeah I'm wired for fire.
接下来要做什么 So what happens next'?
嗯 我… Lum...
我们要确保你很安全 So we want to make sure you're safe.
祝福你 Bless you.
像你这样有消防员的装备时其实是安全的 You know and when you're outfitting fire fighters you build in a safety factor.
这件衣服可以使你抵御工业起火的强度 And this is designed mainly for oil refinery fires and things like that, industrial things.
现在即使是炼油厂起火你穿这身也是很安全的 You'd be well suited for industrial fires.
这件特殊设计的衣服可以使人类在火场待上几分钟 It's designed so that a human being can actually be in a fire for a few minutes.
我们称之为消防衣 It's called a fire entry suit.
一旦进入火焰中 Once in the flames,
衣服中的热感器会和热感摄影机一起工作 the heat sensors of the suit will be combined with the readings of a thermal imaging camera...
揭示出草场着火的秘密 ...to reveal the secrets of a grass fire.
草场起火和其他的场所起火不同 Grass fires are very different from other fires.
读数显示最热的部分就是画面中的白色部分 The readings show that the hottest area of the fire, the white parts on this image,
并非燃烧着的草是其1公尺以上之处 is not in the burning grass but a metre above it.
这里的温度超过360度 The temperature here is over three hundred and sixty degrees.
草比其他植物更易燃 燃烧后转化为挥发性气体 Grass ignites more easily than other plants and is transformed into a volatile gas.
烟气上升燃烧温度比草本身还高 This gas rises and burns even hotter than the grass itself.
使之成为自然界最猛烈最快速的火势 Making it one of the fiercest and fastest fires in nature.
穿着这身衣服着实方便不少 It was actually quite a privilege to be in there.
要知道通常如果人困在火堆中 You know normally if you're stuck in one of them.
肯定是无法逃脱 You just don't come out.
奇妙的是我总是认为这种野火会烧遍整个地区 What was amazing is I always thought that kind of a wild fire would be all over the place...
它是一道快速经过你身边的火墙 ...but it's a really fast wall of flame that just comes shooting past you,
速度很快 and just the speed of it.
这里的树木就遭殃了 You kind of feel sorry for the trees.
直到第二天火势还在蔓延 The next day the fire still smoulders.
这太奇怪了 It's so strange.
为什么草会进化得如此易燃呢？ Why did grasses evolve to encourage fires to take hold'?
无情地撕开裂口摧毁所有的植物 Ripping through the landscape and destroying plant life.
看上去似乎是自杀行为 It seems suicidal.
草地不只是易于起火 Grasses don't just encourage fires to start,
它们也能在火势过后复苏 they're also designed to survive them.
事实上草类是地球上抵御火最顽强的植物 In fact, they're the most fire resistant plant on earth.
草类为何能在火势过后恢复关键不在地表而在地下 The solution to how grasses can survive isn't on the surface, it's just below.
如果你剥开植物的茎秆就能看见一个小芽 If you open up the stalks you can see there's a little bud,
藏在这个厚厚的绝缘层下部还是活着 stuck under an insulated thick coating and that's still alive.
看这个两星期后它肯定又会恢复成绿色 Look at this, I mean it's, come back in two weeks time and it'll be green.
它已经开始绿化 It'll start greening up.
但其他的植物如树木都死了 But everything else such as a tree is dead.
这样的情况下草类绝对是这里的老大 In this situation definitely grass is the boss.
这样的大火会控制这些小嫩芽 Fire like this will control the small seedlings,
那树木的数量也会控制在一定的范围内 so they'll keep the number of trees in an area within a certain limit.
一旦火势蔓延这个区域将会变得沉寂 As soon as you keep fire out the system the area becomes moribund.
草类被烧光 You find that the grass starts to die off,
接着嫩芽们才有机会复苏 and then the seedlings get a chance to get through,
等它们长到一定高度时 they get above a certain height,
火其实控制不了它们了 and then the fire doesn't play a role in controlling them.
是的野草在火中重生 - Grass thrives on fire. -yeah.
如果这里没有火灾草地继续这样自然生长着 If you take fire out of the system grasslands go backwards.
它们会变得越来越不健康 They actually become unhealthy.
8百万年前应该就是这样的情形 This could easily be a scene from eight million years ago.
草地不断地燃烧也不断地复苏 Where the grasses recovered and re-colonised.
它们复原的速度比树木快得许多 The sneaky bit was they did it much faster than trees.
随之而来的是丛林开始衰落了 In the wake of this onslaught the forests started breaking up.
草类是陆上的霸主 The grasses were on a land grab.
控制着这些曾经是丛林的领地 Conquering the territory once held by the trees.
扩张的草地把地球变为易燃的星球 The expanding grasses turned earth into a flammable planet.
当时的地球一定见证了数百万树木的燃烧 A fireball world that must have seen a million, million trees burn...
黑烟充斥着天空上千年 ...and black ash fill the sky for hundreds of thousands of years.
这些对树木来说都是启示 For the trees this was apocalypse.
整个地球都着了火 The world was ablaze.
这个大事件引发的革命正改变着地球表面 The challenge that had sparked a revolution that was changing the face of the planet.
地表不断滋生的草地不仅仅重塑着植物世界 But the global rise of grasses wasn't just re-shaping plant life.
也正改变着动物的王国 It was transforming the animal kingdom too.
我们怎么知道的呢？ So how do we know this?
草地蔓延的影响力 The effects of the spreading grasses has been revealed...
可透过法医学的技术来揭示 ...by one of the most elegant pieces of forensic science.
证据就在北美洲的这里 Part of that evidence has been discovered here in North America.
就在马的嘴巴里 And it came literally straight from the horse's mouth.
当动物吃一株植物时 When an animal eats a plant,
植物中的碳元素被牙齿中的釉质吸收 the carbon of the plant is absorbed into the enamel of its teeth.
透过研究它们牙齿的釉质 Studying the carbon signature of the teeth,
可以判断食草动物如马儿 tells you whether the herbivore, such as a horse,
吃的是树叶或是新草 had eaten the leaves of trees or the new grasses.
多恩·盖顿是一个生态学者 Don Gayton is an ecologist.
我们很幸运地找到 We're fortunate enough to find...
多恩·盖顿生态学者 (Don Gayton Ecologist)
发现马牙齿中的釉质清晰记录着它们所吃的食物 ...that the enamel of horses teeth is an excellent record of what they've been eating,
能一直追溯到远古时代 all the way back into the ancient time.
这张图片是我们分析北美马牙齿中的釉质所得到的结果 This graph is the result of the scientific analysis of teeth enamel of horses from North America.
图片显示8百万年前 It shows us here prior to eight million years ago...
马儿们基本只在树林里觅食 ...that horses were basically browsing in the forest,
那时它们嚼着灌木吃着树叶等等 they were nibbling on shrubs on tree leaves and so on.
之后从调查牙齿中的釉质发现结果发生了骤变 Then there was a sudden and very dramatic spike in the, urn, grass component of their diets,
马儿的食物变成了草 as reflected in the tooth enamel.
这个突然的变化不只发生在北美洲 This sudden switch over was not confined to North America.
南美非洲和亚洲也都出现了同样的情况 It happened in South America, in Africa, in Asia.
在100万年间地质变化 In a period of one million years a geological instant...
全球以树叶或灌木为生的动物都改变了它们的饮食习惯 the world's herbivores dramatically changed their diet...
它们都开始觅食新草 ...so that they were eating the new grasses.
这个发现证明600万年前 This discovery proves that by six million years ago,
草类是陆地植物的霸主 grasses were dominating the land.
正是这样的控制地位促进了动物的进化历程 It was a domination that would have striking consequences for many animals.
草儿还有些有利的特质 And it involved another piece of clever engineering from the grasses.
那种特质是我们多数人都曾接触过的 It's something most of us have all done at one time or another.
那就是被一根青草割伤 Cut our self on a blade of grass.
那是因为草的边缘很锋利 It's actually all to do with something that coats the edge of the leaf.
草从土壤中吸取二氧化硅 Grass extracts a mineral called silica from the soil.
二氧化硅在草叶表面像匕首般一排排地排列着 The silica is built into row upon row of tiny daggers along the leaf.
警告动物们别靠近它 It's a defence to discourage animals from eating it.
尽管只是小武器 Although tiny these weapons...
却也导致地球历史上一种喃乳动物的大灭亡 ...lead to one of the biggest extinctions of mammals in Earth's history.
当时的地球上存在许多不同以树叶或灌木为生的动物 The world had been full of many different plant eaters.
其中就包括傅路支兽 Including the vast Baluchitherium.
这些20吨重的怪兽是当时地球上最大的喃乳动物 These twenty tonne beasts were the largest mammals ever to exist.
它们靠树叶和灌木为生 They fed off trees and shrubs.
但当它们的食物消失时 But as their food source disappeared,
这些动物也灭绝了 these animals died out.
在北美洲 In North America alone,
草类的蔓延引起以树叶或灌木为生的半数动物的灭亡 grasses led to the extinction of over half of all plant eating mammals.
但一些食草动物繁衍下来了 But some herbivores thrived.
多恩·盖顿揭示出它们的牙齿是如何帮助它们消化草类的 And Don Gayton can reveal how their teeth helped them deal with grass.
在一具现代马的头盖骨中有着大块扁平的耐久性釉质 In this skull of a modern horse, these very large flat teeth endurable enamel,
因此它们能吃一大口草 so they were able to take a mouthful of that grass...
草中硅含量很高像这样磨着嘴中的草 ...with all that high silica content and grind it latterly like that.
分解着草中的硅使之更易消化 Break down the silica and make it more digestible.
6百万年前 By six million years ago,
草的繁茂导致许多种类的动物灭亡 the triumph of grasses had caused the death of many types of animals.
同时也创造许多新的食草动物 While creating vast herds of new ones.
它们更为我们所熟知 The more familiar plant eaters we know today.
但这仅仅是个开始 But that's just the start.
因为食草动物消化着富含硅的草 Because if you've got herbivores consuming silica rich grasses,
那么硅又将去往哪里呢 all that mineral has to go somewhere.
化为粪便 As manure.
食草动物每天产生数百万吨的粪便 The herds of herbivores were producing millions of tonnes of manure every day.
它们会被冲进河里 It's washed away into rivers.
最终流向大海中 Until finally it reached the ocean.
粪便所含的主要物质便是二氧化硅 And within it was all that silica.
海洋之中硅物质开始发挥巨大的作用 It's out in the oceans that things really began to take off.
因为有些海洋生物非常喜欢二氧化硅 Because out here are creatures which are addicted to silica.
它们都是海洋的微生物 These creatures are microscopic.
只有百分之几毫米长 A few hundredths of a millimetre across.
它们是硅藻类绿藻的一种 They're diatoms, a type of green algae.
硅藻的外表很精致 Diatoms are wonderfully delicate.
像是一种奇特的建筑 Like some kind of alien architecture.
但它们骨骼的主要物质是硅 But essential for the construction of their tiny skeletons is silica.
5百万年前它们以草类中的硅物质为食 Five million years ago they were feasting on huge amounts of silica from the grasses.
硅藻很重要因为它们是海洋食物链的基础 And diatoms are crucial because they form the foundation of the oceans food chain.
硅藻越多就越能吸引鳃鱼和鲜鱼鱼群 With more diatoms came huge shoals of anchovies and herring that eat them.
接着又吸引来海鸟和海豚这样的肉食动物 This in turn attracts predators like seabirds and dolphins,
甚至更大的海洋生物 and even bigger hunters.
从太空看则更明显 But it's from space you really appreciate their importance.
尽是大片的绿色海洋 They appear as vast green blooms.
当硅藻盛开时能覆盖超过十分之一的海洋面积 When they bloom they cover over a tenth of the oceans.
硅藻是绿色的所以像植物它们体内也含有叶绿素 They're green because like plants diatoms contain chlorophyll.
和植物一样它们也可以产生氧气 And like plants they all release oxygen.
大气中四分之一的氧气是这些硅藻产生的 Those photosynthesising diatoms produce about a quarter of the oxygen in the atmosphere.
因此你每吸氧四次就有一次要归功于硅藻 So every fourth breath you take on average has been exhaled by the diatoms.
它们是海洋的肺 They really are the lungs of the ocean.
5百万年前不起眼的小草竟能产生如此影响 实在太不可思议 It's remarkable what the humble grasses had achieved by five million years ago.
曾经的树林现在是一片片开阔的草原 A once forested planet was now dominated by open plains.
8千种不同的草类覆盖了四分之一的陆地 Eight thousand different species of grasses covering a quarter of all land.
它们将决定动物们的生死 They'd selected which animals would live or die.
同时它们也将彻底改变海洋 And they'd fundamentally altered the oceans.
它们对大气层的形成发挥了重要的作用 Playing a crucial role in the make-up of our atmosphere.
但草儿最重要的影响还在后头 Yet perhaps the most important impact of this remarkable plant was still to come.
那就是对我们也就是 The impact on our story.
人类历史的影响 Human beings.
这是非洲大草原 This is the Savannah of Africa.
我们人类的祖先正是在这里出现的 And it's in this part of the world that our earliest ape ancestors emerged.
5百万年前为何一群猿类要离开丛林前往大草原呢 Why did one group of apes leave the trees for the savannah five million years ago'?
并且经过不断地进化最终成了人类 And develop so differently to eventually become human.
这里的大猩猩可以提供些许答案 Well the chimpanzees here might provide some answers.
由于和非洲其他的猩猩不同 Because unlike almost all other Chimps in Africa,
方果力这里的猩猩是生活在草原上的 the ones here in Fongoli live on grasslands.
这就是为何人类学家吉尔·普利兹如此着迷这里的原因 It's what makes them so fascinating to anthropologist Jill Pruetz.
她感兴趣对照这些猩猩的行为方式 She's most interested in parallels between the remarkable behaviours of these chimps.
以及哪些行为可能出现在人类进化过程中 And what could have happened during the evolution of humans.
吉尔花了10年的时间研究方果力的猩猩 Jill has spent ten years studying the Fongoli chimps.
正是这个地方 This really is the first place where we've been able to habituate chimps to,
吉尔·普利兹爱荷华州立大学 (Jill Pruetz Iowa State University)
我们使得猩猩习惯人类的出现这样我们才能跟踪研究它们 to our presence so that we can follow them and, and study them,
在这个栖息地研究它们是很不同的 study them in this habitat and it, it is different.
草原的环境深刻地影响着它们的行为方式 Um it affects their behaviour significantly...
并且也造就了这里猩猩们个体行为的不同 ...and every difference that you see between chimps living here...
居住在丛林中的猩猩肯定也和丛林关系密切 ...and chimps living in a forest can be traced back, linked back to the habitat.
但我认为这里的猩猩更聪明 I mean I think the chimps are pretty smart here and ah...
我可能有点主观但我认为 ...you know I'm a little biased towards my own study group but,
这里的猩猩更加智慧 but I think they're, they're pretty intelligent...
它们不得不适应不同的环境 ...and they have to adapt to a different type of environment,
我认为那样人类才开始诞生了 that's what brings out the most exciting findings I think.
方果力的猩猩有着人类的特性 The Fongoli chimps have human attributes.
它们对工具使用熟练 They're proficient at using tools,
比如它们善于用棍子挑出白蚁 such as sticks for collecting termites.
许多非洲黑猩猩常用棍子挑白蚁 Many chimps in Africa catch termites in this way,
但许多其他的非洲猩猩也用这种方式找白蚁 although these chimps do it more than any others.
真正令它们与众不同的是另一项捕食的技能 But what makes them really special is another hunting technique.
一种奇特的技能 One that is unique.
我认为这是我们团队观察到的最激动人心的发现 Well I think that probably the most exciting discovery we made was
它们用工具捕食 that they hunt with tools,
之前我们一致认为只有人类才会用工具捕食 which before we had thought only humans did.
它们将树枝做成矛的样子 They'll fashion branches into sort of like a spear...
将矛状的树枝戳进树洞中 ...and they'll use it to jab into these tree hollows...
树洞中有一只丛猴 ...where you have another kind of primate, a bush baby,
接着猩猩将丛猴刺进了洞中 and then they jab it into the hole.
吉尔拍到了这珍贵的影像 Jill's filmed this remarkable behaviour.
这也是首次被拍摄到的 The first time it's been recorded.
它展现猩猩用自己做的矛状树枝刺死了一只小喃乳动物 It shows a chimp using a spear he made to stab and kill a small mammal.
一只丛猴 A bush baby.
我很喜爱猩猩为了更好地保护它们我开始研究它们 I love the chimps and I'm really interested in them for their own sake but-
但我研究的主要原因是探究6百万年前发生了什么 one of my main reasons is really to get at what could have happened four to six million years ago...
那是第一个双足猿原始人类出现了 ...when the first bipedal apes, um, hominids, were around...
它们也居住在同样的草原环境中 ...and used to the same type of environment, a grassland type of environment...
我相信这里的猩猩能向我们揭露些答案 ...and um I mean I think the chimps here can tell us something about that.
方果力的猩猩是地球上唯一 The chimps of Fongoli are the only ones in the world...
能制造矛状树枝并用其捕食喃乳动物的猿类 ...that have been observed using spears to hunt mammals.
吉尔相信它们必须掌握这项技能 Jill believes they've had to come up with this behaviour...
这样才能在这严酷又干燥的草地上生存 ...to cope with the harsh and dry grasslands.
草地环境比丛林更恶劣 It's a more hostile habitat than the forest,
因此大猩猩不得不变得更聪明些 so the chimps here have to be smarter.
吉尔还有了另一个重大的发现 And Jill has discovered a final extraordinary behaviour of these chimps.
那同样也揭露出当我们远古的祖先走出丛林时 It also reveals more about how our ancient ancestors...
它们可能已经进化了 ...might have evolved as they moved out of the forests.
这个片段是我在湿季时拍摄的有几只猩猩在草原上 So this is actually a clip I took in a wet season, and the chimps are in the grassland.
当它们进入草原时高高的草模糊了它们的双眼 When they enter the grasslands they are obscured by the grass.
它们爬行时草长得比它们的背还高 So the grass is just over their back, and urn...
因此首先要做的就是直立起来看清四周 ...one thing they do is they'll stand up and look around.
它们不得不站起来这是它们看清四周的唯一方式 They have to stand that's the only way they can really see...
因此我们常能看到它们会时不时站立起来 ...and so we see that quite a lot actually.
其他地方的猩猩无此行为的关键在于 The key is that chimps elsewhere don't have this type of habitat,
它们并非栖息在草原上 they don't have grass.
这些猩猩生活在草原上那是一种完全不同的环境 They live in a forest and you have a completely different type of environment...
因此正是这样的环境 ...so it really is the environment,
草原环境使得它们的行为方式开始与众不同 the grassland that is driving the, the differences in behaviour that we see here.
许多科学家认为这可能就是一个缩影 Many scientists think this is perhaps a mirror of what happened...
影射了我们的祖先首次直立在草场上的情景 ...as our own forbearers stood up on the grasslands for the first time.
这样它们才可以同时观察敌人和猎物 It allowed them to keep an eye out for predators and prey.
最终进化成能够直立行走 And eventually to evolve walking.
因此我认为这里的猩猩确实给了我们一些启示 So I think it does give us some insight into how early humans may have,
早期的人类是如何适应草地上的生活的 have reacted to the same grassland.
之后的5百万年 Over the next five million years,
这些猿类继续在非洲进化 these ape men continued to evolve in Africa...
直到最终进化成智人 ...until eventually they became Homo sapiens.
10万年前 And then a hundred thousand years ago,
这些新人类就像你我同样的智人 these new people, for they really were people now, like you and me,
开始移居至世界各地 began to migrate across the rest of the world.
也就在那时我们的祖先变成了采集狩猎的人 At this point in time our ancestors were hunter-gatherers.
他们以家庭为单位顽强地生活着 They were living a tough life in small family groups.
猎杀野生动物采集浆果和树根 Killing wild animals and collecting berries and roots to eat.
但草类对人类的影响还未结束 But grasses hadn't finished with us.
它们引发了人类历史上最具影响力的进化 Because they'd trigger the greatest revolution in human kind's existence.
不止在非洲 It's not in Africa,
在土耳其南部人类学家相信 but here in Southern Turkey that archaeologists believe...
他们找到了进化发生的原因 ...they've discovered why that revolution happened.
这个地方叫哥贝克力石阵 The place is called Gobekli Tepi.
是现代考古学的圣地 It's one of the most exciting sites of modern archaeology...
因为这里有许多古老的建筑 ...because these are some of the oldest buildings in the world.
比首座埃及金字塔还古老三倍 They're three times older than the first Egyptian pyramids.
这里蕴藏着真正的秘密 And there's a real mystery here.
谁建造了哥贝克力石阵呢？ Who built Gobekli Tepi'?
更重要的是他们是如何完成的呢？ And more importantly, how could they have done it?
这些匪夷所思的建筑已经有1万2千年的历史了 This astonishing structure is twelve thousand years old.
考古学界直到1994年才发现它 It lay buried and undiscovered until 1994.
发现它的考古学家是克劳什·斯密特 The archaeologist who unearthed it is Klaus Schmidt.
是的这是人工雕琢的杰出的工艺品 Yeah, here we have a masterpiece of craftsmanship.
这里有大尺寸的人像 We have the stilisized human being, depicted in a very, very, stilisized scale,
也有立体浮雕的豹 and we have this high relief of a leopard.
最重要的是没有一个雕像雕刻了脸 One thing is very important never a face is depicted,
所有的雕刻上都是不露脸的 they are always faceless.
问题来了这些雕刻是指谁呢？ The big question is who are they?
我们现在正在做的是揭开尘封的历史 What we are doing here we at a chapter in world history,
克劳什·斯密特德国考古研究所 (Klaus Schmidt German Archaeological Institute)
这段历史之前无人知晓 a chapter which we didn't know it exists before.
为了要用50吨巨石建造哥贝克力石阵 To construct Gobekli Tepi with its fifty tonne megaliths...
就必须要有一大批训练有素的工匠 ...would have needed a huge army of well-organised workers.
然而1万2千年前是石器时代 Yet twelve thousand years ago was the stone age,
那时的人类应该是采集狩猎者且小众群居着 a time when people were supposed to be hunter gatherers, living in small groups.
那他们如何维持建造巨殿所需的大批工匠呢？ How did they sustain the numbers essential to build such a vast temple?
答案就在不远处 The answer lies a short distance away.
从哥贝克力石阵看过去是卡拉贾德山脉 With insight of Gobekli Tepi are the Karacadag mountains,
这里曾发生的事情永远地改变了我们的世界 here something happened at this time that would change our world forever.
这都和一种特殊的草有关系 It was all to do with one particular type of grass.
这是一种古代的小麦和今天一样它们都是自然生长的 It's an ancient type of wheat, which grew totally wild just as it does today.
被称为单粒小麦 It's called einkorn wheat.
然而如何收割它们就是一个大问题 Yet collecting it presented a huge problem.
艾文·凯比是研究早期小麦的专家 Evren Cabi is an expert on early wheat.
当小麦的麦尖成熟时只要轻轻一碰 When the head of the wheat is ripe just the tiniest of touches...
它就剥落了下来 ...and it scatters everywhere.
因此我认为用小麦是不可能做出面包的 Therefore, I don't think we can make bread out of it.
艾文·凯比中东技术大学 (Evren Cabi Middle East Technical University)
当时想收拢落地的麦子不是件易事 It would be difficult to collect the grains from the ground.
我来展示一下 I'd like to demonstrate.
这些小麦由于自身的重量和风的力量 They disperse so easily
成熟后很容易剥落 because of the pressure and even the wind.
它们会剥落得很快 They break apart immediately.
你看它们都裂开了 You see, they all disintegrate.
坦白说很难相信有人会注意到这些落地的小麦 Frankly it's hard to believe anyone would bother.
但发生了一件重要的事一切都开始改变了 But everything was about to change triggered by a crucial event.
野生的小麦基因中有个细微的变化 A tiny alteration in the genetic make-up of a wild wheat plant.
一株小麦种只有一种基因 Just one gene in in just one single plant.
基因突变能在此找寻到踪迹 That mutation has been traced back to here.
离哥贝克力石阵30公里处 Just thirty kilometres from Gobekli Tepi.
如果你靠近仔细看这两种麦子 If you look closely you can see the difference between the two types of wheat.
在这株原始的野生小麦种中 In the original wild wheat,
茎秆间有一排特殊的细胞并且小麦成熟时种子就要脱落 a special ridge of cells between the stalk and the seed breaks down as the plant ripens.
这个结构可以让种子更容易掉落 And this allows the seed to fall away.
但在基因突变的小麦种中这些细胞更加坚硬 But in the wheat with the genetic mutation these cells remain as a solid band.
那意味着新的麦种不会放开它的种子 It means the new wheat never lets go of its seeds.
因为这个突变的基因 Because of a genetic mutation,
植物托住种子的这个部分变得更加强壮 the part of the plant that holds onto the seeds became much stronger...
这使得麦种的脱落变得困难 ...and this made the dispersion of the wheat seeds difficult.
那么这样让脱落变得困难对种子来说是好事吗？ Was the limited dispersion of seeds a good thing for the wheat'?
不 绝对不是 No, absolutely not!
那么对谁来说是好事呢？ For whom was it a good thing then'?
只对我们人类动物世界是好事 It was only good for us humans - members of the animal world.
因为麦子成熟后种子依然留在麦尖上 Because the seed remained on the stalk after it had ripened,
这样人类不仅可以采集更多的谷物 it meant that not only could the people who lived here collect more grain,
而且也可以种植它们 they could also begin to farm it.
换句话说人们可以将季末多余的一些种子 In other words they could take some of the spare seed at the end of the season,
撒回地上待来年收获新的粮食 put it back into the ground and harvest the new plants the following year.
这是人类种植小麦的开始 It was the dawn of domesticated wheat.
我现在手中拿的这个便是迄今为止发现的最早的种植小麦 What I'm holding in my hand is the first domesticated wheat ever found.
它是在考古挖掘中发现的 It was discovered during archaeological excavations.
它十分珍贵因为它是世界上最古老的麦种 It's incredibly precious because it is the oldest wheat in the world.
麦子能给我们面包 And this wheat gave us bread.
为我们身体提供所需的能量 A fabulously concentrated form of energy.
它易于携带 It could be carried,
易于分割 it could be divided up,
也易于储存 it could be stored,
反观而言面包带来了更大的东西 and in turn bread would lead to something even bigger.
哥贝克力石阵的疑惑解决掉 The mystery of Gobekli Tepi was solved.
为了建造哥贝克力石阵 In order to build Gobekli Tepi,
石器时代的人类已经放弃狩猎采集果实 the stone age people turned their back on hunter gathering.
他们成了第一批的农民 They became the first farmers.
1万2千年前它们开始以面包为食 Twelve thousand years ago they began to sustain themselves with bread.
由一种称为小麦的草制成 Made from the grass we call wheat.
现在他们有足够的食物能供养建造这个庞大且复杂庙宇 Now they could feed the huge workforce required to construct...
所需的人力 ...such a vast and sophisticated temple.
人类过去是狩猎采集者现在那个时代已经终结了 People had been hunter-gatherers and now this site marks the end of their time,
狩猎采集时代的结束新时代来临了 it was the end of their period, the beginning of a new age.
哥贝克力石阵中的人们是首批食用面包的人类 The people being in Gobekli Tepi are the first people having bread,
不仅在此地也在许多村庄中 also in the villages, not only here, but also in the villages.
这是世界历史的转折点 It's a turning point in world history.
人类现在有办法利用工具劳动 Human beings had now invented a way of harnessing the power of plants.
并且能够一直发扬光大下去 And once invented it could never be reversed,
因为有了麦子人类群居的规模越来越大 because farming allowed us to come together in bigger and bigger groups.
人类开始建造村庄小镇甚至城市 To build villages, towns and eventually cities.
透过这几集的介绍我们了解了植物是如何为我们提供氧气的 Over the series we've seen how plants gave us the oxygen in the atmosphere.
也知道了植物如何推动动物王国的进化历程 And we've discovered how plants shape the animal kingdom.
我们也观察到花儿的兴盛使得世界呈现多彩多姿的景象 We've watched as the rise of flowers painted a drab world with brilliant colour.
对我们人类来说不起眼的小草其实是最重要的 And for us, the humble grasses played the most important role of all.
它们推动了类人猿祖先的崛起 They drove the rise of our ape-like ancestors,
最终促进人类文明的诞生 and ultimately triggered the birth of civilisation.
植物造就人类以及活在其中的这个万千世界 Plants made us and the world we live in.