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There was just a huge range of little tiny fossils in these rocks,
这些岩石中包藏着大量微小的化石，
which were telling us in fantastic detail just what was going on at this time
含有关于那个时期相当丰富的信息，
and there was no need to guess anymore, we could actually see the order in which things were going extinct
毫无疑问，我们能从中了解到生物灭绝的顺序，
and get the full extinction story right from the beginning all the way through to the end.
从而从头到尾了解整个灭绝过程。
For the first time he was able to work out exactly what had happened.
他将首次揭露当时到底发生了什么。
It was a complete surprise.
结果令人大吃一惊。
The extinction had occurred in 3 distinct phases.
大灭绝经历了3个独立的阶段。
The extinction crisis first begins on land
大灭绝首先是在陆地上开始的，
and what we see is species of plants, species of animals start disappearing about 40,000 years this goes on for.
陆地上的动植物都相继灭亡，这一阶段大约持续了4万年。
This was the first phase, a period when some, but by no means all, land species died.
这是第一阶段，这一时期导致部分而不是全部陆地物种灭亡。
And then what happens next at about 40,000-45,000 years after the crisis has begun
接下来在大灭绝开始后的40000-45000年间，
is that we see a really quite sharp, abrupt extinction in the seas at this time,
是一个非常剧烈而突然的海洋物种灭绝时期，
so this is the marine extinction event, much shorter and sharper than what we see on land.
这就是海洋生物大灭绝事件比先前陆地上的短暂迅猛得多。
So the second phase of the extinction was the abrupt death of virtually everything in the sea.
看来大灭绝的第二阶段导致所有海洋生物极速灭亡。
Then came the third phase as the extinction moved back to the land.
接下来就是第三阶段，大灭绝再次杀回陆上。
Following on from that we then see the culmination of the land extinction,
在那之后便是陆地物种灭绝的高潮，
so we start losing all our typical plants and all our typical animals as well,
所有最典型的动植物都开始消失，
and this carries on to a point of about 80,000 years after the extinction began.
这一阶段一直持续到大灭绝开始后大约8万年。
