Not only was he unhurt but he then showed us just how giant pandas scale trees.

它不但没受伤，还向我们展示了大熊猫是如何爬树的。

They can help an animal quickly scale a tree or dig a hole with no tools required.

它们可以帮助动物快速爬树或者挖洞，而不需要工具。

Meet the Lepidodendrales, also known as scale trees.

遇见鳞木目，也被称为鳞片树。

As juveniles, scale trees looked more like giant spikes sprouting out of the ground.

作为幼虫，鳞片树看起来更像是从地里长出来的巨大尖刺。

The outer layer of the scale tree, the periderm, was extremely thick and actually made up most of the trunk.

鳞片树的外层， 也就是周皮，非常厚实，几乎占据了树干的大部分。

So, scale trees were weird by the standards of your modern oak or pine.

因此，按照现代橡树或松树的标准，鳞片树很奇怪。

Named for their scaly looking bark, scale trees were tall plants topped with crowns of branches that sported long, narrow leaves.

以鳞片状的树皮命名，鳞片树是高大的植物，树冠上长着长而窄的叶子。

But the scale trees' success may also have led to their downfall.

但鳞片树的成功也可能导致它们的衰落。

But scale trees only produced a small amount of lignin.

但是鳞片树只产生少量的木质素。

This allowed scale trees to reach great heights -- some growing as large as 50 meters high and more than 2 metres across!

这使得鳞片树可以长到很高的高度——有些高达 50 米，宽超过 2 米！

But at the same time, the scale trees were also sucking up tons of CO2 from the atmosphere.

但与此同时，鳞片树也从大气中吸收了大量的二氧化碳。

The resulting extinction became known as the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse, and the scale trees were among its casualties.

由此导致的灭绝被称为石炭纪雨林崩塌，鳞片树也是其中之一。

As the trees matured and shed their leaves, diamond-shaped marks were left in the bark, called leaf scars, giving the scale trees their name.

随着树木的成熟和落叶，树皮上会留下菱形的痕迹，称为叶痕， 鳞片树因此而得名。

Scale trees produced cone-like pods that dropped their spores into the water below, to be whisked away to the nearest patch of soil.

鳞片树长出圆锥形的豆荚， 将孢子落入下面的水中，然后被迅速带到最近的土壤中。

And eventually, some hairless ape dug it up and burned it, releasing the energy that the scale trees absorbed from the Carboniferous sun over 300 million years ago.

最终， 一些无毛猿将其挖出并焚烧，释放出鳞片树在 3 亿多年前从石炭纪太阳吸收的能量。

This period is named after the carbon-rich layers of sediment that formed from countless millions of scale trees, ferns, and other early plants that died, piled up, and fossilized.

这一时期以富含碳的沉积层命名，这些沉积层由数以百万计的鳞片树、蕨类植物和其他死亡、堆积和化石化的早期植物形成。

Scale trees were built to grow fast and die young, allowing them to spread across North America, Europe and Asia, leaving huge swaths of organic matter in their wake.

鳞片树长得快，死得早，这使它们能够遍布北美、欧洲和亚洲，在它们的身后留下大片的有机物。

This is because scale trees were a type of plant called lycopods, which originated way back in the Silurian Period -- before seeds were even a thing!

这是因为鳞片树是一种叫做石松的植物，起源于志留纪时期——甚至在种子出现之前！

During the Carboniferous, much of the Earth was covered in lush forests and swamps, and this is where the scale trees flourished, sometimes growing as tall as a 15-story building.

在石炭纪， 地球的大部分地区都被茂密的森林和沼泽所覆盖，这里正是鳞茎繁茂的地方，有时甚至可以长到 15 层楼那么高。

So, over time, scads of scale trees collapsed and piled up, without decomposing, keeping much of the CO2 that they had taken up, locked away in their tissues.

因此，随着时间的推移，大量的鳞片树倒塌并堆积起来，没有分解，将它们吸收的大部分二氧化碳锁在它们的组织中。