纪录片《进化缺环》 第16期 棘螈的趾

Clack returned to Cambridge with dozens of tetrapod fossils.

Clack带着许多四足动物化石回到了剑桥

It meant that at last someone else would be able to do original work in the field of how we got our legs,

这意味着其他人终于可以对我们长出腿的事件进行初步研究

but the true importance of the trip did not emerge until 1990

但是这趟旅程的重要性直到1990年才显露出来

when a colleague, Mike Coats, started work on the specimen she'd almost thrown away, the acanthostega.

当时她的同事Mike Coats正开始研究这件几乎被她丢弃的标本，棘螈

He started to dig its hand out of the rock and he expected, of course, to find just five fingers.

他开始清除前爪周围的石头，当然，他希望看到5根趾

The first thing he found on this block was a finger. This digit here.

他在这块区域找到的第一样东西是一根足趾，就是这根趾

So we've got a number of finger bones aligned along the edge of this block.

我们可以看到这个地方排列着好几根趾

Then he continued with the preparation. He found the next finger which is here with its end curled over

后来他继续清理，他在这里发现了第二根趾，趾尖是弯曲的

and then a third similarly with this crooked finger end and a fourth, again with that,

接着是第三根，同样也有类似弯曲的趾尖，第四根，也是如此

and then there's a gap and then he went on to find another finger. Individual finger bones are really quite clear

接下来是一段空隙，他又找出了另一根趾头，每段趾骨都清晰可见

and that makes a total of five, but he still had all this area here to prepare so instead of stopping

这样他就找全了5根趾，但他还需要剖析这片区域，所以他没有停下来

he went on to clean up the rest of this area and lo and behold here is another digit, so that makes six

他继续清理剩下的部分，瞧，这看起来又是一根趾头，这样就是6根了

and he expected to finish there and then to his amazement here's a seventh and finally an eighth.

他以为这样就结束了，但是让他吃惊的是，这里还有第七根趾，最后是第八根

What? But it was true. Acanthostega had eight fingers on one hand.

怎么会这样？但这却是事实，棘螈的一个爪子上有8根趾