As they report in Nature, the critter, which lived around 55m years ago, in the Eocene epoch, seems to be the most primitive relative of tarsiers, mouse-sized primates which now inhabit the islands of South-East Asia.

这种生活在大约五千五百万年前始新世时期的动物似乎是眼镜猴（这种灵长类动物有老鼠一样的体型，现在居住在东南亚的岛屿上）最原始的亲戚。

You see the Amazon formed during the Eocene epoch, up to 56 million years ago when the whole world was a lot warmer and wetter.

你可以看到亚马逊河形成于始新世时期，距今约5600万年前，当时的地球要温暖，湿。

The Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum is one of the most radical climate events ever unearthed, and the mass extinction that followed it was triggered — at least in part — by an injection of greenhouse gases into the air.

古新世-始新世极热事件是众未被发掘的极端天气事件之一，后面发生大规模灭绝的原因至少有部是因温室气体排放进了大气。

Now, one of the oldest and smallest of the group of Megatooths that gave rise to Megalodon was a shark known as Otodus obliquus, which lived in the Early Eocene, nearly 20 million years before Megalodon appeared on the scene.

现在，导致巨鲨出现的鲨群中最古老且体型最小的一个是一种名鲨的鲨鱼，它生活在早始新世时期，这个时期几乎距离巨鲨首次出现的时间大约早了2000万年。

Humans weren't at risk of dying out during the PETM, because we didn't exist.

在古新世–始新世极热事件时人类并没有濒临灭绝的危险，因我们还不存在。

Though the Cretaceous asteroid cleared the stage, mammals did not really get going until 10m years later, in the Eocene epoch.

尽管白垩纪时期的小行星灭绝了居统治地位的恐龙，但哺乳动物却一直到1000万年后的始新世才真正兴起繁盛起来。

Filling  ecological niches once occupied by dinosaurs, mammals came to dominate the dry grasslands and  forests of the Eocene and beyond, but no species may have been more threatening than humankind.

哺乳动物填补了曾经被恐龙占据的生态位，并开始主宰始新世及以后的干燥草原和森林，但没有任何物种比人类更具威胁性。

Were the beautiful volute and cone shells of the Eocene epoch, and the gracefully sculptured ammonites of the Secondary period, created that man might ages afterwards admire them in his cabinet?

始新世美丽的蜗壳和锥壳， 以及第二时期雕刻精美的菊石， 是了让人们在以后的岁月里在他的橱柜里欣赏它们而创造的吗？

From their early, possibly-tree-climbing origins in the Late Eocene or Early Oligocene, they diversified and expanded with the spread of grasslands in the Miocene, taking advantage of new predatory niches.

从它们起源于晚始新世或早渐新世的早期（可能是爬树）开始，它们随着中新世草原的扩张而样化和扩张，利用新的掠食性生态位。

Or there's the Eocene, more than 34 million years ago, a hothouse time during which the continents drifted into their present configuration.

或者我们可以追溯到3400万年前的始新世，那是一个全球变暖的时代， 各大陆漂移至现今的布局。

As a result, our world is warming faster than it did back in the Eocene.

结果，我们的世界变暖的速度 比始新世早。

Floristic Region, but their family was clearly much more widespread during the Eocene Epoch.

植物区的地区发现，但它们的科显然 要远 在始新世时期广泛存在。

This period  of warming, known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum or PETM, was likely caused by  a combination of natural factors.

这一变暖时期被称古新世-始新世极热事件或PETM，可能是由种自然因素造成的。

And a big environmental change was also underway in the last half of the Eocene, thanks to the chemistry of mountain-building.

而在始新世的后半期，由于造山运动的化学作用，也发生了一场巨大的环境变化。

What we do know is that the late Eocene and early Oligocene was a time of global cooling.

我们所知道的是，始新世晚期和 渐新世早期是全球降温的时期。

By the late Eocene, practically all of the primates on those continents died out.

到始新世晚期， 这些大陆上几乎所有的灵长类动物都灭绝了。

So given its size, it was able to support many different ecosystems in the Eocene.

所以考虑到它的大小，它能够支持 始新世许不同的生态系统。

Let's rewind back to the Eocene, about 45 million years ago.

让我们时光倒流到始新世，大约4500万年前。

Around 34 million years ago, the Eocene-Oligocene Transition  marked the first major period of global cooling and glaciation.

大约 3400 万年前，始新世-渐新世过渡标志着全球变冷和冰川作用的第一个主要时期。

Over the course of the Eocene epoch, the climate slowly began to cool.

在始新世时期，气候 开始慢慢变冷。