纪录片《进化缺环》 第2期 寻找化石（在线收听）

Darwin said the answer would lie out there in the rocks.

达尔文说过，答案就躺在岩石堆里

Somewhere there would be fossils that would explain everything.

某个地方的化石应该能解释一切

Palaeontologists would go scurrying all over the world trying to find them, but such early fossils are rare.

古生物学家们走遍了全世界，试图找到它们，可是这类古老的化石实在太少了

There's still so very, very few pieces of evidence.

目前的证据仍旧非常非常少

This is like one of those terrible classic murder mysteries, you know, that goes on for 30 or 40 years

就像那些经典的变态谋杀案，拖了三四十年都没能侦破

and people slowly trying to pick up a little bit of evidence, a little bit there.

人们只能慢慢地、一点一点地收集证据

But the more scientists looked the more they realised one crucial fossil was missing.

但是科学家们在寻找的过程中逐渐意识到他们缺少一块关键的化石

This would become a challenge to the whole Theory of Evolution and the story of how we got our legs

这成为对整个进化论的一大挑战，而有关我们如何进化出腿的故事，

would become the quest for the ultimate missing link.

也就变成了对“终极进化缺环”的追寻

The whole quest began 150 years ago with one simple observation.

整个搜索开始于150年前，起因只是一个简单的现象

A vast array of animals are, in fact, related. They all have four legs, they are tetrapods.

实际上大批动物都牵涉其中，它们都有4条腿，它们是四足动物