纪录片《恐龙灭绝真相》 第17期 有孔虫

Gerta Keller also had samples from the core.

Gerta Keller也有一些岩芯样本。

She was looking for something quite different.

她正在观察一些很不寻常的东西。

I just scanned them very rapidly, and at first I didn't see anything,

我大致看了一下，一开始没有什么发现，

and then I began to see some shapes that looked familiar.

后来我开始观察一些相似的结构。

What Keller thought she had seen, were microscopic¹ plankton² fossils called forams,

Keller认为她看到的是一种叫做有孔虫的微小浮游生物的化石，

but they were poorly preserved and it took an expert eye to make them out.

但它们保存得很不完整，只有专家的眼光才能发现它们。

This is a 3D image of a perfect foraminifera.

这是完整有孔虫的3D图像。

This is what we found in the core, it is a cross section of the same species.

这是我们在岩芯中发现的，这幅横截面上的是同一种类。

This is another 3D image, you see five chambers³ arranged in a circle,

这是另一幅3D图像，你可以看到圈的周围有5个小室，

you can see the same chambers in the cross section.

这幅横截面上有很多这样的小室。

Here is another species, each of the segments come to a pinched end, and the same you can see on the cross section.

这是另一种，每一部分都有收缩末端，它们同样遍布整个横截面。

All these species went extinct at the same time as the dinosaurs⁴,

所有这些物种都与恐龙同时灭绝，

yet Keller had found their fossils in rock, formed after the Chicxulub impact.

可是Keller在岩层中发现的这些化石却是在希克苏鲁伯大碰撞后形成的。

For Keller the meaning of the discovery was clear.

对于Keller来说，这一发现的结论不言而喻。

1 microscopic   

adj.微小的，细微的，极小的，显微的

参考例句：

• It's impossible to read his microscopic handwriting.不可能看清他那极小的书写字迹。
• A plant's lungs are the microscopic pores in its leaves.植物的肺就是其叶片上微细的气孔。

2 plankton   

n.浮游生物

参考例句：

• Plankton is at the bottom of the marine food chain.浮游生物处于海洋食物链的最底层。
• The plankton in the sea feeds many kinds of animals. 海的浮游生物成为很多种动物的食物。

3 chambers   

n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅

参考例句：

• The body will be removed into one of the cold storage chambers. 尸体将被移到一个冷冻间里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mr Chambers's readable book concentrates on the middle passage: the time Ransome spent in Russia. Chambers先生的这本值得一看的书重点在中间：Ransome在俄国的那几年。 来自互联网

4 dinosaurs   

n.恐龙( dinosaur的名词复数 )；守旧落伍的人，过时落后的东西

参考例句：

• The brontosaurus was one of the largest of all dinosaurs. 雷龙是所有恐龙中最大的一种。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years. 恐龙绝种已有几百万年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》