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。

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。

Tommotian and Burgess Shale formations give clues about Precambrian evolution.

早间，Tommotian和伯吉化石群为前寒武纪进化提供了线索。

In fact, says Fortey, there are relatively few Cambrian designs that are wholly novel.

实际上，福泰说：“寒武纪造型只有几种是完全新的。

Now go back to the Cretaceous Period and look at our tiny, fuzzball ancestors.

人类的眼光足以让我们看出它有多么特别再回到寒武纪时期。

These findings are not of Precambrian animals themselves, but of their tracks.

发现的并是寒武纪前的动物本身，而是它们的足迹。

Precambrian animals must therefore have lived at such depths.

此，前寒武纪的动物肯定曾经生活在这么深的地方。

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

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。

But basically, you know, the 90s and internet feels like a pre-Cambrian era when there were only sponges.

但基本上，你知道的，90年代和互联网给人的感觉就像前寒武纪时代，那时只有海绵宝宝。

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。

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。

Mr Volpi talks of a " Cambrian explosion" .

沃尔皮先生谈到" 寒武纪大爆发" 。

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。

But by the middle Cambrian, a new use for digging had evolved.

但到了寒武纪中期，挖掘出现了一种新用途。

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

而在寒武纪，新的门和新的纲断产生。如今我们只有新的种！”

But red in tooth and claw the Precambrian was not—for neither teeth nor claws existed.

但是前寒武纪时期却是腥牙血爪，为那个时候牙齿和爪子都没有出现。

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。

The schoolboy turned it in to a paleontologist at the University of Leicester, who identified it at once as Precambrian.

那位小学生把化石交给了莱特大学的一位古生物学家。他马上认出那是寒武纪之前的东西。