征程
出版日期:2015-6-1
ISBN:9787110089371
作者:[加拿大] 舒柯文,王原,[澳大利亚] 楚步澜
页数:576页
内容概要
舒柯文
加拿大维多利亚大学本科毕业，多伦多大学获得硕士，美国哈佛大学的博士毕业生。现为中国科学院古脊椎动物与古人类研究所副研究员，兼任学术刊物《古脊椎动物学报》的英文编辑。经常在中国和他的故乡加拿大进行野外古生物考察。不忙野外的时候会在研究所做恐龙和其他中生代脊椎动物的研究，或者努力学习汉语。这本书是他对古生物科普的首次主要尝试。
Corwin Sullivan is an associate research professor of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He completed his undergraduate education at the University of Victoria, Canada before going on to earn an MSc degree at the University of Toronto at Mississauga and a PhD at Harvard University. He is the English editor of Vertebrata PalAsiatica, the Institute’s peer-reviewed scientific journal. When not busy with fieldwork in China or his native Canada, he pursues research focussing on dinosaurs and other Mesozoic vertebrates at the Institute, and studing Chinese hard in leisure time. From Fish to Human: the March of Vertebrate Life in China is his first major science outreach effort.
王原
本科毕业于北京大学地质系古生物及地层专业，曾赴美留学，在中国科学院获得博士学位。现为中国科学院古脊椎动物与古人类研究所研究员，曾获中国国家自然科学奖和中国科学院杰出科技成就奖。发现和采集了很多重要的脊椎动物化石，喜欢研究化石青蛙和化石蝾螈。他倾尽心力担任的中国古动物馆馆长一职，决定了他还是讲述中国恐龙故事的高手。
Wang Yuan graduated from the Geology Department of Peking University and received his second MS degree in the US and his PhD from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is now a research professor of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, CAS, and serves as director of the Paleozoological Museum of China. He has been awarded China’s National Prize for Natural Sciences and the Outstanding Science and Technology Achievement Prize of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He has discovered and collected many important vertebrate fossils, and loves to study fossil frogs and salamanders. As the diligent director of a palaeontological museum in China, he also excels at telling the stories of Chinese dinosaurs.
Brian Choo
生于新加坡，少年移居澳大利亚，本科毕业于默多克大学，在澳大利亚国立大学获得博士学位，后在中国科学院古脊椎动物与古人类研究所做博士后研究（2009-2013），现就职于澳大利亚弗林德斯大学。他的主要研究方向是志留纪和泥盆纪的化石鱼类，偶尔也发表一些中生代海洋爬行动物的论文。他还是位自学成才的画家，曾为学术论文、科普文章、博物馆展览、图书、电视纪录片等绘制古代生命的科学复原图。
Brian Choo, currently at Flinders University, was born in Singapore but moved to Australia at a young age. He graduated from Murdoch University and received his PhD at the Australian National University before going on to work as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, from 2009 to 2013. His research has focused primarily on fossil fishes from the Silurian and Devonian Periods, but he has also published occasional papers on Mesozoic marine reptiles. As a self-taught illustrator, he has provided scientifically rigorous life-reconstructions of fossil animals for academic papers, popular articles, museum exhibits, books and television documentaries.
书籍目录
Part One Palaeozoic
Cold Blood and Scales
第一篇
古生代
冷血与鳞片的时代
第1章
The Chengjiang Biota: Dawn of the Vertebrates
澄江生物群：脊椎动物的出现
The forces of biological competition and predation, environmental change, and simple chance winnowed the field of early animal life, eliminating some creatures and thereby creating ecological space in which others could flourish.
生物竞争和捕食的力量、自然环境的改变，以及单纯的机遇在早期动物的生命中进行筛选，剔除了某些动物，也因此为其他动物的繁盛提供了生态空间。
[Key Transition 1: The Beginnings of the Backbone] 大事件1：脊梁骨的起源
What emerges clearly from the fossil record and the anatomy of modern hagfish, lampreys and sharks is that the evolution of vertebrae was not a sudden event.
化石记录以及现生盲鳗、七鳃鳗和鲨鱼的解剖结构明确地告诉我们，脊椎的演化显然不是一个突然的过程。
第2章
The Xiaoxiang Fauna: Fishing for Answers
潇湘动物群：“钓出”真正的答案
As greatly modified lobe-finned fish, we humans stroll about on our pelvic fins and use our pectoral fins to turn the pages of books like the one you are reading now.
我们人类其实就是一种“超级改进版“的肉鳍鱼，我们用“腹鳍”四处行走，并用“胸鳍”翻动书的书页，就像你现在正在做的这样。
[Key Transition 2: To Jaw-Jaw is Always Better] 大事件2 ：有颌的感觉真好
Vertebrates of different types use their jaws to crush the throats of prey animals, slice and grind their way through tough vegetation, and filter plankton out of seawater.
不同的脊椎动物用不同的方式使用它们的颌，有些用来咬破猎物的喉咙，有些切碎研磨植物，又或者从海水中过滤藻类。
第3章
The Zhongning Fauna: A New Breed of Vertebrate
中宁动物群：脊椎动物的新类型
Amid these remains of fierce predators and heavily armoured prey, a single jaw fragment measuring less than 10 cm in length and retaining only small denticles rather than true teeth might seem unremarkable.
就在这些凶猛的捕食者和重装甲的猎物的残骸之间，一段不起眼的颌骨化石隐匿其中。
[Key Transition 3: Fish Nearly Out of Water] 大事件3：即将离开水的鱼
The somewhat ironic upshot is that the first tetrapod limbs were probably used more for swimming than for walking.
值得玩味的是，最早的四足动物的四肢很可能更多地用于游泳而不是行走。
第4章
The Dashankou Fauna: Beasts and Belebey
大山口动物群：兽与蜥的世界
A particularly interesting beast from the Dashankou Fauna is the carnivore Raranimus dashankouensis, whose name means literally the “rare spirit from Dashankou”.
大山口动物群有一种有趣的动物叫大山口珍稀兽，直译就是“珍稀的大山口精灵”。
[Key Transition 4: The Egg, not the Chicken] 大事件4：先有鸡还是先有蛋
Next time you buy amniotic eggs in a supermarket, why not take a moment to appreciate the sophistication and adaptive value of the intricate biological structures that will soon be appearing on your dinner table?
下一次你在超市购买羊膜动物的卵时，在它们变成你的盘中餐前，何不花一点时间欣赏一下这一充满进化意义的，复杂而精巧的生物学结构呢？
Part Two Mesozoic
The Empire of Dinosaurs
第二篇
中生代
恐龙的帝国
第5章
The Guanling Biota: Life Among the Dangling Crinoids
关岭生物群：与摇曳的海百合伴生的生命
Complete crinoids are among the most spectacular of all invertebrate fossils, looking for all the world like flowers in some garden tended by undersea giants.
完整的海百合化石绝对属于现有无脊椎动物化石中最壮观的一景，它们看起来就好像由海底巨人精心照料的花园中的花朵一般。
[Key Transition 5: Back to the Sea] 大事件5：重返海洋
Ichthyosaurs, with their dorsal and caudal fins, went further in resculpting their bodies to suit the demands of the sea than perhaps any other amniotes except cetaceans.
鱼龙甚至长出了背鳍和尾鳍，这种为了适应海洋生活所做的身体改变，可能比除了鲸类以外的任何羊膜动物都走得更远。
第6章
The Lufeng Fauna: China’s Oldest Dinosaurs
禄丰动物群：中国最古老的恐龙
A single partial lower jaw represents perhaps the greatest mystery of the Lufeng Fauna.
禄丰动物群最大的谜团可能来自一件下颌骨化石。
[Key Transition 6: The Stealthy Rise of Mammals] 大事件6:：哺乳动物的悄然兴起
For nearly the first hundred million years of their history, mammals were inconspicuous, mainly insectivorous animals no larger than about one metre in body length, and for the most part much smaller.
在最初一亿年的演化历史中，哺乳动物毫不起眼，主要是食虫性的，身体长度不超过一米，而且在多数时间中其体长远远小于这个长度。
第7章
The Dashanpu Dinosaur Fauna: Giants on the Earth
沙溪庙动物群：地球上的巨龙
By Shaximiao times the dinosaurs had assumed pride of place in the march of vertebrate life, towering over other terrestrial carnivores and herbivores.
在沙溪庙动物群的时代，恐龙已经在脊椎动物的“大游行”中占据了首要的地位，远超过其他陆生的肉食和素食动物。
第8章
The Daohugou Biota: Preserved in their Finery
道虎沟生物群：地层中的华丽霓裳
A few decades ago, palaeontologists believed that almost all Mesozoic mammaliaforms were small, land-dwelling insectivores, and species from the Daohugou Biota have helped to temper that substantially correct but excessively broad generalisation.
几十年前，古生物学者们还在坚信几乎所有中生代的哺乳形动物都是小型、陆生、食虫的动物，但道虎沟的物种有助于调和这一虽然大体正确，但适用度被夸大了的归纳性结论。
[Key Transition 7: Into the Skies] 大事件7：飞上蓝天
By the time pterosaurs went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous, birds had already joined them as denizens of the Mesozoic skies.
当翼龙在白垩纪末灭绝时，鸟类已经成为中生代天空中的姣客。
第9章
The Jehol Biota: Feathered Dinosaurs!
热河生物群：带羽毛的恐龙!
The feathers are long enough to suggest that Yutyrannus would have been rather shaggy, a murderous fuzzball stalking the forests of the Early Cretaceous.
羽王龙很像一个外表蓬松的凶残杀手，鬼鬼祟祟地游荡在白垩纪早期的森林里。
[Key Transition 8: A Profusion of Urvögel] 大事件8：美羽不怕多
Exactly how old feathers are, in evolutionary terms, is a matter of profound uncertainty.
从演化的角度观察，“羽毛的具体产生时间”是个很难回答的问题。
第10章
The Wangshi Fauna: A Vast Dinosaurian Necropolis
王氏动物群：巨大的恐龙墓场
Shandong is an appropriate setting for a rich trove of bones from a late chapter in the history of one of the greatest dynasties of all, that of the Mesozoic dinosaurs.
由此可见，这里作为中生代恐龙帝国余辉篇章的化石产地，的确十分合适。
Part Three Cenozoic
The Triumph of Mammals
第三篇
新生代
哺乳动物的大捷
第11章
The Qianshan Fauna: Life After the Apocalypse
潜山动物群：劫难后的新生
If niches in an ecosystem are like jobs in an economy, then mass extinctions create vacancies that are automatically filled by the first suitable candidates to step forward.
如果把生态系统中的生态位比做经济领域中的职场职位，那么生物大灭绝所创造的空位会自然而然地被那些最早适应的“求职者”所填补。
第12章
The Shara Murun Fauna: Hooves, Horns and Rams
沙拉木伦动物群：各种各样的蹄子和角
What Granger thought of lending his name to a large, and quite possibly aggressive and ill-tempered, Eocene herbivore is uncertain.
至于格兰杰博士对把他的姓氏授予这种巨型、好斗、脾气暴躁的始新世食草动物是什么心情，我们就不得而知了。
第13章
The Shanwang Biota: Almost Like Today
山旺生物群：往昔如今
Most of the major groups of vertebrates that dominate our modern world were already thriving in the Miocene, whereas the brontotheres and many other characteristic denizens of earlier Cenozoic epochs had long since succumbed to extinction.
现今统治地球的大多数脊椎动物的主要类群，在中新世时已经十分繁盛，而雷兽和其他诸多新生代早期的居民们则早已灭绝。
第14章
The Hezheng Biota: Horses, Hogs and Hyenas
和政生物群：马、猪和鬣狗们
However, the story of horses also exemplifies the baroque complexity of evolution, in that considerable diversification took place at every stage of the slow canter from Eocene horses to Equus.
马类演化的故事是典型的巴洛克风格——的确非常复杂：从只会慢跑的始新世马类到健步如飞的真马类，演化过程中的各个阶段都伴随着显著的多样性分异。
第15章
The Zhoukoudian Fauna: The First Beijingers
周口店古人类遗址：最早的“北京人”
The hyenas could easily have killed occasional Peking Folk or seized the bodies of individuals who had died of other causes, devouring them in the fissure and leaving only fragments of shattered bone.
鬣狗会很容易杀死偶遇的北京人，或把因其他原因死去的北京人尸体带回裂隙，大快朵颐，然后留下满地的碎骨。
[Key Transition 9: Ecce Homo] 大事件9：人类的黎明
In recent decades it has become clear from a variety of evidence, but above all from genetics, that humans are especially closely related to the African apes known as chimpanzees.
最近几十年越来越多的证据，特别是遗传学证据清晰地显示，人类与非洲的现生猿类——黑猩猩的亲缘关系特别近。
Concluding Thoughts: the March Continues, Under Fire
结语：演化在“枪林弹雨中”继续
A strong case can be made that a sixth mass extinction is unfolding in our modern world, as a result of human activity.
可以很有理由地说，由于人类的活动，我们现在的地球正在经历第六次大灭绝。
Afterword 后记
Further reading 延展阅读
Appendix 1: Locations of Major Vertebrate Fossil Sites in China
附录1：中国主要的脊椎动物（含人类）化石产地
Appendix 2: Chinese Museums that display fossils to the public
附录2：中国含古生物展陈的博物馆名录
Index of Genus Names Used in the Book
本书中使用的生物属名的索引
作者简介
《征程:从鱼到人的生命之旅》是一部由三位来自不同国度的古生物学家还原与重建的中国古脊椎动物演化的历史，不仅回答了“我们从哪里来”，还让我们看到生命演化历程中充满的惊奇、偶然与不可思议。作者把这纵横5亿年的历史讲得生动有趣，恢弘而不失其细节，充满了形象的比喻和深刻的思考。本书特别聚焦了“从鱼到人”演化中的九个精彩转折，也值得读者悉心地品味。
这段史诗般的历程藉由15个有代表性的中国古生物群以及数万块珍贵的化石为凭证。一些我国特有的绽放着几亿年生命之美的高清晰化石图片和结构复原图系首次精心呈现，引领化石爱好者踏上远古生命的探秘之旅。同时，认知生命演化历程中的这些记录，正是古生物学的魅力所在。
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卞美年在禄丰组的初次野外调查中，发现了一个完整的三列齿兽头骨。1940年，杨钟健命名为“云南卞氏兽”。英国古生物学家D.M.S.Watson在其1942年发表的论文《二叠纪和三叠纪的四足动物》中写下“May I at this point express my sincere admiration for a country whose interest in scholarship is such that in the fifth year of war, at a time when a large part of its area is infested by an invader, its Government can support work in a field so remote from affairs as the study of fossil reptiles”.的确，古生物群研究确实是“超脱局外的科研工作”。我们最为熟悉的恐龙霸王龙、纪年侏罗纪均来自于电影。很少有人知道其他恐龙，更不用说鱼类、哺乳动物类。记得“老友记”里的ROSS经常因为给其他人念叨恐龙而被认为无聊。陈列古生物的博物馆也鲜少有人。就在这样的大背景下，竟然有这么一本书，详细介绍中国的古动物们。用语平实，不掉书袋。每种生物群、动物群对应相应的地质年代。在介绍动物们的同时配上复原图。诸城中国角龙的形象活灵活现，让人印象深刻。装帧也很有趣，值得收藏！诸城中国角龙有这样有趣的文章铺垫，将来遇到展品陈列的时候，想来会更有收获。 -
Introduction 前言The soil of China conceals many buried treasures, from mundane but valuable coal and iron ore to the relics of ancient dynasties. Near the city of Xi’an in what is now Shaanxi Province, a whole army of terra cotta warriors stands guard over the tomb of the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, who united China more than two thousand years ago through diplomacy and war. Far to the south, archaeological sites in eastern Yunnan Province have offered up artefacts from the long-extinct kingdom of Dian, the most striking of which are bronze vessels whose lids are decorated with elaborate carved figurines arranged in scenes of hunting, combat and even human sacrifice. Excavations have recovered animal bones that were used to pose questions to spirits and ancestors by the rulers of the Shang Dynasty, the earliest Chinese dynasty whose existence is documented by firm historical and archaeological evidence. The questions were written on the “oracle bones” in symbols that are clearly precursors of the modern Chinese characters that people use every day to read newspapers, write text messages and surf the internet.中国的大地蕴藏着无数宝藏，从常见但富含价值的煤矿和铁矿，到历代王朝传承下来的非凡遗迹，可谓应有尽有。在如今陕西省西安市附近，著名的陶土做成的兵马俑军队守卫着秦朝第一个帝王秦始皇的陵墓。这位帝王在两千多年前通过外交和战争统一了中国。而远在中国南部，云南省东部的考古遗址出土了早已消亡的古滇国文物，其中最令人震撼的是一尊青铜器，器皿的盖子上雕刻着精美的狩猎、战争甚至人牲的场面。商朝是中国最早的有可靠历史学和考古学证据的朝代。人们发掘出了商朝统治者用来向神灵和祖先问卜的动物骨骼——“甲骨”，上面书写的符号即“甲骨文”，正是中国人如今每天阅读报纸、书写文章和浏览网页时所使用的汉字的前身。Fig1. A palaeontologist’s tent, pitched among Jurassic rock outcrops in the Xinjiang region of northwest China that yield spectacular fossils of dinosaurs and other vertebrates..新疆侏罗纪恐龙化石点的科考队员帐篷 [Fig2. Terra cotta warriors standing eternal guard over their emperor.守护皇陵的兵马俑[Fig3. An inscribed bone fragment used in divination.刻有甲骨文的甲骨The beginning of the Shang Dynasty, representing the dawn of the part of Chinese history that can clearly be distinguished from legend, is separated from the present by more than three thousand years. That span of time is awe-inspiring, when seriously contemplated, but still an eyeblink compared to the duration of a far longer story that has also left its traces buried beneath the soil. In many parts of China are exposed rock strata that contain fossils millions or even hundreds of millions of years old, the petrified remains of dynasties of plants and animals that flourished long before the Shang and the Qin. Just as archaeologists can piece together much of the history of the Shang from the material evidence of oracle bones and bronze cauldrons, palaeontologists can use fossils to reconstruct the far longer and more outlandish history of life on Earth.三千多年前建立的商朝是中国历史中现实与神话的分界线。当我们认真审视这段历史，会发现虽然其时间跨度漫长，但是相对于同样留下痕迹却深埋在土壤之下的另一个历史悠长的故事来讲，不过是一眨眼的功夫罢了。放眼中国各地，都有承载着距今百万甚至上亿年之久的化石的岩层，这些化石所记录的动植物王朝，远在商、秦之前就已经繁荣昌盛了。正如考古学家能够从发掘出的甲骨和青铜器中拼凑出商代的历史概貌，古生物学家也能够用化石信息重建更加遥远和奇异的地球生命史。[Fig4. Exquisitely ornamented bronze ware from the Shang Dynasty, which ruled from about 1600 to 1046 BC. 商代（公元前1600-1046年）的精美青铜器The subject of this book is one particular strand in the history of life, namely the story of our own group – the vertebrates – as documented in the Chinese fossil record. Through approximately the past half-billion years of geological time, an ever-changing menagerie of these backboned animals has inhabited the part of the Earth’s surface that is now China, leaving fossil remains at every turn. The tiny bodies of early jawless fishes emerge from hillsides in eastern Yunnan, geographically close to the bronze relics of the kingdom of Dian but separated from them by an immense gulf of time. In Liaoning Province, in the northeast, early birds and small predatory dinosaurs can be found within rock layers laid down in Cretaceous lakes, many still lying in mantles of preserved feathers. Caves and fissures near Beijing contain the bones and tools of ancient humans, alongside the remains of other animals. Each of these occurrences is like a glimpse into a different slice of the remote past, a different lost world entombed in stone.本书的主题是关于地球生命史中特定的一段，即我们人类自己所属的类群——脊椎动物——在中国的化石所揭示的历史。在过去的大约五亿年间，各种各样的拥有脊椎骨的动物们栖息在中国的这片土地上，并在每个角落都留下了化石遗迹。人们在云南东部的山丘上发现了早期无颌鱼类细小的身体，虽然在地理位置上与古滇国青铜器的发掘点临近，但是两者却被时间的鸿沟赫然分开。在东北的辽宁省，远古的鸟类和小型肉食恐龙沉睡在白垩纪湖泊的岩层中，许多身上依然覆盖着羽毛。北京郊区的山洞和岩缝中则保存着原始人的骨骼和他们使用过的工具，以及其他动物的遗骸。这些发现好似打开了一扇扇窥视远古历史的天窗，让人们得以了解那些深埋在岩石中的“迷失的世界”。Fig5. A fossil of the small dinosaur Microraptor gui from the Early Cretaceous of Liaoning, showing preserved feathers. 辽宁发现的白垩纪早期的恐龙——顾氏小盗龙，羽毛也被保存下来。The glimpses provided by the fossil record are few and far between, and distinctly haphazard. Attempting to make sense of them is like trying to reconstruct an elaborate military parade from a collection of snapshots taken by an excitable chimpanzee that swivels its camera at random among the vehicles, marching soldiers and spectators, sometimes taking a dozen pictures in rapid succession and sometimes leaving the button untouched for ten or twenty minutes as troops and tanks sweep by unrecorded. Nevertheless, the efforts of many palaeontologists applied to the raw material of the Chinese fossil record have pieced together the general outlines of a parade in which the marchers are not military troops but rather dinosaurs, woolly mammoths, low-browed men and women with stone axes, and other representatives of vertebrate life through the long millennia of China’s geological past. 然而这些化石提供的记录稀少而分散，其发现也确属偶然。想要在其中找出意义，就好像试图通过一只拿着相机的黑猩猩所拍摄的照片来重构一场盛大的军事游行的全貌一样困难重重，因为这只激动的家伙会挥舞着相机对着周围的车辆、军人和观众时不时胡乱地连拍，而当坦克和军队列队驶过时却又十几分钟都不碰一下相机！然而众多古生物学家通过对中国化石材料地努力研究，成功拼接出了这场游行的大致轮廓：它的参与者不是军人，而是恐龙、猛犸象、挥舞着石斧的低额头的男女原始人，以及其他在漫长中国地质历史中的脊椎动物的代表。Fig6. An enthusiastic but unreliable photographer.热情但不靠谱的黑猩猩摄影师Some of the marchers naturally slither, and others swim or fly. At first the only marchers are a few jawless fishes, which are soon crowded out almost entirely as fishes of other kinds and eventually land vertebrates take their places. Species are periodically lost to extinction as the march continues, but are replaced by others that are newly evolved or newly introduced to China from other regions. Now and then an episode of mass extinction thins the ranks dramatically, but in general new marchers are added at such a rate that the total number gradually swells. By the time the march of vertebrate life in China reaches the present, it contains a remarkable and motley collection of creatures – all of the vertebrates that inhabit China today, from fish in Bohai Bay to yaks in the Himalayas and Chinese people from every walk of life.这些“游行者”有的爬行，有的游泳，还有的飞行。最早参与的游行者仅仅是几种无颌鱼类，不久之后就几乎被其他鱼类挤出了视野，最后陆生脊椎动物也加入进来抢占阵地。随着游行队伍的前进，生物物种在周期性地灭绝，但很快又被新演化出的物种和来自中国之外的外来物种所替代。时不时发生的大规模灭绝事件戏剧性地缩减了游行的队伍，但是总体来讲总会有新的游行者以某种频率加入进来，使队伍的规模始终在缓慢地增大。当脊椎动物的征途进行到了今天，在中国大地上已形成了形形色色的众多物种——现今栖息在中国的所有脊椎动物，从渤海湾的鱼类到喜马拉雅山上的牦牛，以及遍布中国大地的每一个中国人，都是其中的一员。Fig7. The “Yellow River Elephant” (Stegodon) from the Pleistocene of Gansu Province. 甘肃发现的更新世的黄河象骨架（中国古动物馆）The march of vertebrate life in China has not taken place in isolation, and in fact is an integral part of a larger march encompassing the planet as a whole. Throughout Earth’s history, groups that have evolved and begun to flourish in one area have often spread far and wide, becoming more numerous and varied in the process. At any given time in the geological past, the vertebrate fauna inhabiting what is now China would have been similar in many ways to its counterparts elsewhere, although with myriad differences of detail and some larger discrepancies. The distribution of vertebrates in our modern world exemplifies this balance between uniformity and heterogeneity. China resembles many other countries in having native bears and deer, herons and magpies, pit vipers and agamid lizards, and so on. But Canadian deer, for example, are different from Chinese deer, and there are significant groups of modern vertebrates – such as kangaroos, rhinoceroses and hummingbirds – that are not found in China at all. The march of vertebrate life is a global phenomenon, but one with important local variations.中国脊椎动物的演化并不是独立发生的，它们其实是这个星球上更大规模的动物演化的一个缩影。纵观地球历史，一个生物类群进化并逐渐繁盛后，经常会从起源地向其他地区扩散，达到种类和数量的极致。回眸任何一个地质历史时期，生活在现今中国的脊椎动物群与同时期的其他地区的脊椎动物群虽有众多相似之处，也不乏具体乃至重大的差别。当今世界脊椎动物的分布，就显示了这种一致性与差别性的美妙平衡。比如，中国和其他许多国家一样，都拥有熊、鹿、鹭鸟、喜鹊、响尾蛇和飞蜥，但加拿大的鹿与中国的鹿就有所不同。很多其他脊椎动物，比如袋鼠、犀牛和蜂鸟在中国就不见踪影。脊椎动物的演化是个全球现象，但也包含了很多地方性的特色。Fig.8 A bust of “Peking Man”, a form of the primitive human species Homo erectus. 属于直立人的原始古人类——北京人的复原头像（中国古动物馆） China’s fossil record, like that of any country, is therefore unique. It contains the relics of a succession of floras and faunas that inhabited a particular part of the Earth’s surface in the remote past, perceived in a series of glimpses – the chimpanzee’s snapshots – whose clarity and timing are dictated by the vagaries of the local geology. Studying this record brings the march of vertebrate life into view through a specifically Chinese lens, providing information that augments and complements what can be learned from fossils that occur elsewhere in the world. Better yet, the past two or three decades have seen a surge in all types of palaeontological activity in China, from hunting for fossils in previously untapped places to publishing scientific papers about new discoveries, and to building palaeontological museums. As a result of the ongoing fossil rush, the story of the vertebrate life of China’s past is coming into sharper focus than ever before. The aim of this book is describe science’s current understanding of that story in a clear and accessible way, with proper attention to the global context, and to convey a hint of the wonder and fascination of standing face-to-face with the fossils themselves.由此而言，中国的化石记录与其他地区一样都是独特的。它所记录的动植物群的遗迹，仅仅是地球远古时期的一个特定角落的一系列快照——就像前文的那个黑猩猩所为——其清晰度和时间点的选择由当地的地质特征所决定。尽管如此，从中国的特有镜头，我们能提供更多、更完整的信息，以了解世界脊椎动物的演化。更令人高兴的是，在过去的二三十年，中国经历了古生物学领域的发展高潮，从在少有触及的地方发掘化石，到出版各种学术文章和报道新的发现，再到建立古生物专题博物馆。在持续的化石发掘浪潮下，中国脊椎动物的历史故事正在变得前所未有地清晰。本书的目的就是要用清晰易懂的方式讲述目前科学界对这一故事的了解，并尽力将那些化石栩栩如生地带到读者面前，展现它们的神奇与魅力。 -
今天拿到书，略一翻，还没细看。本书的专业性是无需置疑的，只是有两个不方便处：一是中英文分开为两本书，两本书又用黑布粘合在一起，翻起来不太得劲；二是中文部分文字是竖排的，看起来不太习惯。当然，竖排版的好处是无法一目十行，只能认真看。另外，中英文两部分的图版并不是完全一致的，互有解说，也是一个有趣的地方。
精彩短评 (总计15条)
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内容详实、画面精美、用语幽默、装帧特别，值得收藏！“谨以此书献给中国古脊椎动物学之父杨钟健先生”，钦佩各位古生物学家、古人类学家做出的贡献，也欣赏作者们填补中国古脊椎动物成果科普的努力！ -
多么精美、专业、翔实的书。 -
在图书馆时偶尔翻到，装帧太带感，图片也精美。因此被吸引。很不错的普及读物，小孩子成年人看都很不错。作为书籍颜控，每一本美貌的书都让有想读的欲望。但是很遗憾的是，价格不太美丽。装帧做成连接的两开本的中英对照也很不错。介于只是匆匆翻完，保守四星。 -
很早之前在电视上看过相关的纪录片，就觉得鸟和恐龙这种看似无关的动物居然是人类进程中紧密相连的一部分。这本书由三位作者全面系统的讲了演化的过程，书籍装帧很美、纸质也很好，喜欢！ -
封面超级有质感，深入浅出 -
看的时候总是想到进化论不知道为什么，不错，很好的书 推荐 -
文津图书奖获奖图书 -
不知道什么原因，读的时候特别容易出戏，经常一排排读着读着就不知道在讲什么了，仔细想想可能是并不难懂翻译腔造成的，既不难懂又不符合纯中文阅读习惯，所以不特别用心的话就出戏了。本想因此给4星，但是书装帧得太美了，也是很有专业性的读物，不忍减星呢。 -
演进的过程真是迷人，但金线捋着捋着咋就变成了各种类别的走马灯式登场？ -
经常问自己一个问题，我从哪里来，我要到哪里去？如果你仅仅以为这只是一个哲学问题那就大错特错了，任何形而上的思考都离不开形而下的支撑，建议那些和我一样只知道整天胡思乱想的人读读这本书，你的世界会宽广很多。 -
这书设计真棒 -
虽然作者们尽量科普了，可很多内容还是比较专业的，对普通读者来说有一定障碍～不过内容上还是很有开创性的，系统介绍国内古生物进化的书真心不多 -
专业性和独特性毋庸置疑，正是我所需。古生物迷必看。 -
中文选择竖排版的时候有考虑过读者的感受吗？！这一点差评 -
一次价格上并不普及的科普，形态上过于强势了，导致内容没有完美地呈现，不如老老实实做分开的两本，排版的行距松紧相当随意，许多提及的标本没有图