During the Cambrian Period, many major animal groups first appeared on Earth.

寒武纪时期，地球上首次出现许多主要的生物群。

The fall of the Ediacaran fauna was followed by the creative outburst of the Cambrian period.

埃迪亚卡拉动物群的没落之后是寒武纪的创造性爆发。

But some might be the ancestors of the Cambrian megafauna.

但是他们中的一些可能就是寒武纪大型动物的祖先。

Scientists call the period between about 541 million to 530 million years ago, the Cambrian explosion.

科学家将大约5。41亿到5。3亿年前的这段时间称为寒武纪大爆发。

But it would take you twenty years to reach the dawn of the Cambrian period.

但是，你要花上20年的时间才能抵达寒武纪初期。

In fact, we now know, complex organisms existed at least a hundred million years before the Cambrian.

实际上，现在我们知道，复杂的生物至少在寒武纪l亿年以前已经存在。

The real business of complex life, in other words, started with the Cambrian explosion.

换句话说，正经八百的复杂生命始于寒武纪大爆发。

Shortly after the Cambrian explosion, mud slides rapidly buried thousands of marine animals under conditions that favored fossilization.

在寒武纪大爆发后不久，滑落的泥土迅速掩埋了成千上万的海洋动物，形成了极有利于化石形成的环境。

Back in the Cambrian, new phyla and new classes arose. Nowadays we only get new species!

而在寒武纪，新的门和新的纲不断产生。如今我们只有新的种！”

In the context of the Cambrian, explosion would soon have more to do with modern tempers than ancient physiological facts.

联系到寒武纪的氛围，“爆发”很快跟现代人的脾气，而不是跟古代生理上的事实更有关系。

Alas, it turns out the Cambrian explosion may not have been quite so explosive as all that.

啊呀！寒武纪大爆发被证明也许并非爆发得那样厉害。

AMONG the mysteries of evolution, one of the most profound is what exactly happened at the beginning of the Cambrian period.

在众多进化之谜中，其中意义最深远的就是在寒武纪开始时期到底发生了什么。

The earliest fossils that scientists are relatively sure are animals come from around 550 million years ago, just before the Cambrian explosion.

科学家相对确定为最早的动物化石来自于大约5.5亿年前，恰好在寒武纪大爆发之前。

That explosion is the Cambrian, and it's where we are now.

那次爆发就是寒武纪，也就是我们现在所处的位置。

The English team's revisions showed that the Cambrian had been a time of unparalleled innovation and experimentation in body designs.

这个英国小组的重新分类表明，寒武纪在动物体形方面是个无与伦比的创新和实验的时代。

Priapulids also became more common in the Cambrian.

Priapulids 在寒武纪也变得更加普遍。

This then enabled the rise of carnivores, which in turn spurred a productive arms race, resulting in what's known as the Cambrian explosion.

这就促成了食肉动物的出现，它们激起了一场繁殖力的竞赛，最后演变为我们所知的寒武纪大爆发。

Seaweeds, jellyfish-like creatures, sponges and the odd worm do start to put in an appearance a few million years before the Cambrian begins.

海藻、类似水母的生物、海绵生物和奇怪的虫子确实在寒武纪开始的前几百万年已经出现。

And that's what led paleontologists to realize that the Cambrian extinction never happened.

这就是让古生物学家意识到寒武纪灭绝从未发生过的原因。

They became super common during the Cambrian, so something about their body plan was working.

它们在寒武纪期间变得非常普遍，因此它们的身体计划正在发挥作用。