×

Usamos cookies para ayudar a mejorar LingQ. Al visitar este sitio, aceptas nuestras politicas de cookie.


image

It`s Okay To Be Smart, The Mystery of Earth's Disappearing Giants | IN OUR NATURE

The Mystery of Earth's Disappearing Giants | IN OUR NATURE

I want you to imagine for a moment that you've

been instantly transported through time. 50,000 years in the deep past,

what you see would shock you. In North America, you gaze upon

short-faced bears, larger than a grizzly. Mastodons. Dire wolves. Saber-toothed cats.

In Australia, you'd be eye to eye with a gargantuan wombat

and see monitor lizards half as long as a bus. In South America, sloths as tall as elephants,

automobile-sized armadillos. Rodents the size of small bears.

In Europe, towering arc cattle, wooly mammoths, even lions, hippopotamuses, and hyenas.

And in Asia, an elephant that stood a full head above today's largest African bulls.

During Earth's glacier covered Pleistocene Epoch, every continent was home to mammalian giants,

the megafauna, species that dwarf their relatives alive today. But during the last 50,000 years,

these giant mammals, plant and meat eaters alike, have gone extinct on every continent except one.

Today, Africa is home to nearly all giant land animals left on Earth. The mystery is why?

These giant animals are so awesome. I wish that they were still here. It's not fair.

Why did they have to disappear? I always heard That it was our

fault. Humans and our spears hunted mammoths and all that stuff to death.

Well, there's definitely a correlation between when humans arrive in a place and when its

megafauna disappear. The earliest anatomically modern homo sapiens, they show up around 300,000

years ago in Africa. It wasn't until around 50 to 70,000 years ago though, that we first left

Africa in big numbers. First to Asia and Europe, then to Australia, and finally the Americas. So

compared to human origins, human expansion across the globe it just happened so fast.

According to archeological evidence, less than a thousand years after the first humans that

crossed the Bering land bride, they were already at the tip of South America. So outside of Africa,

at least, the megafauna must've been like, "Wow, there's suddenly humans here." Just like that. But

at the same time, humans hunting every large animal on five continents to just nothing,

it seems too simple. Yeah. There's theories to

explain the extinction of megafauna and they've been debated really fiercely for decades.

I think what we really need though, is a time capsule.

Lucky for you, Trace, we actually have one and it's in the last place you would expect.

Right here in Los Angeles. Plot twist! I thought it was just influencers.

I've been working with Ranch La Brea fossil since like 2010. I guess you could say that I got stuck.

That's Mairin. She's a scientist here at the La Brea Tar Pits, which includes a museum

and a research site that's active in lots of different ways. This is the best place

on earth for understanding the ice age extinction. This thing

is absolutely incredible. We are looking down into a giant pit. It's bubbling.

There are odors. It's exciting. There's pollen. I don't know what's happening.

There are also sounds as the gases bubble up to the surface, make this [inaudible 00:03:46] sound.

Yeah. Yeah.

It's clearly still a really dynamic place. How did all of this come to be?

These tar pits were here since before the city of Los Angeles was established and they've

actually been here over the last, at least, 55,000 years.

Back then, the tar pits, or more accurately, asphalt seeps oozing up and out of the ground,

were concealed under water or leaves and anything unlucky enough to go

in was also unlikely to get out. So wait, it's like quicksand? The

tar just gets them, sucks them in, and preserves their remains like a giant vat of sticky pickles?

Yeah, pretty much. The green flag over there marks a

saber-toothed cat shoulder blade. What?

Yeah. And the blue flag marks a giant ground sloth pelvis or hip bone.

Can you imagine giant ground sloths being here in Los Angeles today? That in itself

is mind blowing to me. [crosstalk 00:04:45].

And then saber cats. I'm sorry. It's like you have a whole party here of all these different animal.

Paleontologists love it when fossils are stacked like a sandwich. They're easier to understand and

place in time. But because of this seeping, moving asphalt and the fact that California is still a

really tectonically active place, over thousands of years the fossils in this soup pot get all

jumbled and mingle-mangled. This sticky trap is still sticking today. Just like it was when all

these other cool animals were walking around. I love me a good fossil sandwich with a side of

oozy tar soup. Yum. Even 2000 years in the future, I think they would

find a really interesting record of life today. Wow. Maybe plastic or trash even.

To remove the fossils from the sticky resting place, staff and volunteers

have to use airplane degreaser. And afterwards, they're sorted and placed in these collections

where researchers can look at them firsthand. That seems like a mammoth effort.

That was a megafauna mega funny folks. Yeah. This is like putting together a puzzle.

One that is a million pieces and it's all stuck, covered in like GAC and sticky stuff.

GAC. GAC.

GAC. On the left we have our giant grand sloths and

on the right here, we have other large herbivores. For example, right now we're passing by bison.

We are talking shelf after shelf of ancient ice age bison, ground slots, mastodons, tapirs,

hundreds of thousands of fossils grouped by species and anatomical element.

Whole shelf Of baculum. That's penis bone.

So these aren't all from one individual. These represent dozens if not hundreds of different

individuals. Exactly.

That's this bone here. [inaudible 00:06:36] right over here.

That's huge. And this is from a camel? From a camel who lived in North America.

So that's the big question, they were here and then they weren't. What happened?

What happened? Maybe the secret is here

in this very drawer. Maybe this bone right here. This bone right here.

Could hold the secret of why we don't have camels anymore.

Narrator, unfortunately, it didn't hold the secret.

I want to get back to the big, important question here. Why don't we today have

camels and all these other cool animals anymore? How do all these bones pulled from this tar pit

tell us why megafauna disappeared? Yeah. Let's back up and take a look

at the competing ideas as to why these absolute units went extinct.

Scientists studying the decline of megafauna at the end of the Pleistocene first focused their

attention on North America. Partly because of large troves of fossils like those at La Brea but

partly because that's just where the scientists were from. The sudden arrival of humans in North

America and this sudden disappearance of large mammals seemed too closely timed to be a mere

coincidence. Likewise, megafauna extinctions in Australia and on Pacific islands were also

timed closely with early human settlement. Scientists, like Paul Martin, concluded that

humans armed with a new stone weapon technology known as Clovis points swept through the Americas

decimating the large mammal population. It became known as the Blitzkrieg or Overkill hypothesis.

The problem was we now know there were humans in most parts of North America for thousands of years

before Clovis point technology showed up and we just haven't found any of the large

collections of remains that suggest early Americans were hunting on this scale. So

Overkill has become more of a no overkill idea. There was a second idea which also blames our

species. A slower, drawn out extinction only partially due to hunting combined with early

humans changing the environment through setting fires, deforestation, habitat loss,

and negative effects from the critters we brought with us, like cats and rats and dogs and things.

This may explain the extinctions of giant island dwelling birds, like dodos and moas,

but again, there's little evidence that the first humans in the Americas changed the environment to

this degree. The fossils at La Brea are helping paint a different picture of the extinction of

Pleistocene giants. So are they only

pulling out giant extinct species? No, that's the cool thing. They're

not. They've recovered coyotes, bobcats, foxes, skunks, and badgers. Species we still have today.

So here we have our typical coyote skull, for example. It's the same species of coyote that

we have today, Canis latrans, but found in deposits that could be 55,000 years old.

Okay. So wait, let's put the giants aside for a minute and instead of looking at why megafauna

disappeared, I think it's interesting to think about what survived, all the medium things. What

happened to let these regular fauna persist? Think about it, compared to a giant cave bear

or American lion, if you're a raccoon or a skunk, you eat less, probably reproduce

faster and likely have more available habitat. A badger takes up way less space than a mammoth.

It seems like the fossils should be able to tell us was this some big extinction tidal

wave that affected all of the species or were the big stuff already just about to kick the

bucket and something pushed them over the edge? So the clues that can lead us to those answers,

aren't the fossils we've been talking about. In fact, they're not animal fossils at all.

Well, here we are. This is the Wait.

Paleobotany collection. These four cabinets?

Well, there's some more but Okay.

this is part of it. Here's some of the wood that's preserved.

Oh my gosh. Yeah. It's a beautiful

brown texture because of the asphalt that stains it. This is from juniper and that's probably

the most common wood fossil that we have here. They find plants at La Brea too. And what's so

cool about all the plants they find here, they have modern relatives, meaning they still exist.

Look at these. So these are oak leaves and they're just perfectly preserved, right?

They look exactly just like the leaf litter. Okay, you can hold this one.

Oh my gosh. They look just like something you would find on the sidewalk on a fall day.

Exactly. You'll notice these fossils are quite a bit smaller. They're all in their own vials.

They're tiny. I'm seeing this one. It's in a pill capsule.

Yeah, exactly. It's so tiny. Every time

I see stuff stored in pill capsules I have the like the innate urge to just swallow it.

These are from Pit 91. They're from the top of Pit 91. So this is probably

right around the time of the extinction. So this is a pretty significant specimen.

It is. It actually is. Yeah. Wow. I could be ingesting the

You could. mysteries of the universe.

These plant microfossils, from bits of leaves to seeds and pollen grains,

stuff so small you need a microscope to see them. These micro plant parts

paint an even more detailed picture of what was happening than even those large

mammal fossils do. But finding these itsy bitsy, teeny weeny bits of leafy greeny, isn't easy.

It's like Looking for a literal pine needle in a tar pit.

Yeah, but what's so cool is that those really small bits can be big clues.

How did these fossil plants and their remnants fit into this bigger story?

In order to understand the ecosystem at all, you have to start with the primary producers.

How does changing climate affect animals? It affects them through the plants that they

eat, that they live in, their habitats. Really understanding the plants and what happens

because of the climate to the plants is key to understanding the response to the animals later.

So let's say you find pollen from ragweed, junipers pines,

daisies, and sunflowers that would indicate this region had a dry arid climate, not unlike today.

Okay, but how do you go from pollen to the extinction of gigantic mammals?

Maybe they sneezed to death. No Trace, but you can compare these microscopic

plant fingerprints over time to see how the plant species change. And that's a really good indicator

of the overall climate. What scientists at La Brea have noticed is that the plant species did

in fact start to change about this same time these megafauna disappeared from the tar pits,

right around 12,000 years ago. Which was also just a few thousand years after

humans show up in North America. Now that is quite a coinkydink.

I know, but it's more than that. The plants tell us at the end of the Pleistocene, Earth's climate

was changing drastically likely affecting what giant animals could eat, where they could live,

and how they could move from one place to another. Okay. So that makes sense. The effects of a

changing climate is likely a big reason why Earth's megafauna went extinct. So

does that mean that it wasn't humans fault? Not necessarily. Humans still probably had

an impact here. For example, we've got evidence at the tar pits of more fires, but why? Because

it's getting hotter and drier or because people were setting them or something else?

Obviously alien space lasers and very large magnifying glasses. I

know it's not either of those things. This is what I mean when I say that

extinction is a messy business. Right? Nature is pretty resilient, short of like an asteroid

or something. Extinctions are usually just not caused by one thing. I think with these complex

systems you have to change a few things in huge ways or a lot of things in pretty big ways between

people and plants and animals and the climate. Our current best understanding of what happened in

North America is also kind of messy. It probably wasn't just one thing but many disruptions

of a complex web of interactions. Decreasing habitats, human impacts, global climate change,

these trends are really familiar to us today. This past that we've been talking about was really

not so long ago in the scale of life on Earth, at least. Understanding how things played out then

can inform our future and there's. That combination of factors that wiped out so many

prehistoric megafauna species; climate change and humans killing them and changing their habitat.

These are the same challenges facing Africa's giants today. Only all those factors are taking

place at scales and speeds that just dwarf the changes of the past. Our impacts reach every

corner of the planet today and it's playing out faster than at any time since our species evolved.

We need to understand that while our impact may be larger than other species on Earth,

we aren't the only species on Earth. Right? To find a place that's still so full of

it's rich megafauna, is so rare nowadays. It's very much something that hooks you in place in

the world. To see the sense of scale, just how large the savanna is and all the megafauna and

these incredible vistas. I don't know. There's something very humbling about that. Putting

it in a grander sense of scale, this is where humanity developed. This is the cradle of mankind.

Think about that. The earliest human ancestors descended from their Australopithecine

predecessors right here in the rift valley of east Africa, nearly 3 million years ago.

That is an incredible sense of connection. This is kind of where we evolved. Isn't that cool?

And this gets at one possible reason why African megafauna made it. For more

than a hundred thousand years, Africa's giant species were co-evolving with us,

with homo sapiens. And they lived alongside our specie's ancestors before that.

Early humans in Africa, they certainly hunted these giants and modified the habitat in big

ways. But living alongside humans for so long coevolving that could have given Africa's

megafauna a resilience that the other giants just didn't have. Outside of Africa, human's

sudden global expansion combined with rapid climate change at the end of the Pleistocene

might've meant that evolution couldn't keep up. There's a lesson in the past hidden in those

tar pits. If the environment changes too fast, things disappear on massive scales

And the story locked in those plant fossils that ancient climate change happened over

tens of thousands of years, the climate changes we're seeing today, they're happening on the scale

of decades and they're even more severe. That really puts into perspective how

quickly our climate is changing today. Megafauna aside, places like the tar pits

are offering more supportive evidence of how our climate slowly shifted in the past in comparison

to this rapid shift, we're seeing today. Big things disappeared more than once on

five different continents. We have to understand that that can happen again.

There's really nowhere else on earth that you find the scale of animals in number, but also,

like I said, in size. It would be cool if there was elephants walking around everywhere, but

we've changed the planet in ways that just doesn't seem to be able to support what we

see here. I think that's just what makes it even more special. It's something to

remind us of how much of the world used to be. To be able to study these ecosystems with the

megafauna intact gives us a much better understanding of how environments change

and we could lose all of this. Think for a second about how we're trying to

protect the surviving giants today. We're drawing lines on maps, creating these protected places,

but that's not enough to protect these species and these ecosystems. Because the challenges that

we're facing today, they don't pay attention to those borders. And think about the risks of losing

these ancient migrations, these deep animal cultures, these long lasting relationships,

highly developed skills and senses. The ways of surviving in this place and all of these places,

it'll take tens of millions of years to restore the biodiversity that has disappeared from Earth,

just since the dawn of our species. These are things that are

built into them with millions of years of evolution

to do the things that they do in this place. Changing that in a few human years

is asking a lot, maybe too much of these species. So you may not be able to go to Africa yourself

or fix climate change on your own, or save every species from extinction with your own hands,

but there has never been a better time for individuals to make a positive impact.

So true. Volunteers help protect that Mission blue butterfly. And scientists

climb trees to understand how to save forests. Passionate people listen to birds singing during

a pandemic. All of these people do their part and we don't know how big our impact might be.

But we have to try because the only way to find the answers is to keep looking for them.

When I was at La Brea, I saw just how much there is to still learn about our place in all of this.

It kind of blows my mind. A hundred years ago, the people who were initially excavating these pits

could probably not have any idea that you'd be able to

look at this on literally such a granular scale. Yeah. I'm the only other person that's ever looked

at this. So you're the second person in the world. What?

In the history, in the whole record of time to see these specimens.

That's pretty amazing. I can discover a new species today. Here on camera.

You probably already did and you just didn't know it.

The Mystery of Earth's Disappearing Giants | IN OUR NATURE Das Geheimnis der verschwundenen Giganten der Erde | IN UNSERER NATUR Το μυστήριο των εξαφανισμένων γιγάντων της Γης | ΣΤΗ ΦΥΣΗ ΜΑΣ The Mystery of Earth's Disappearing Giants | IN OUR NATURE El misterio de la desaparición de los gigantes de la Tierra | EN NUESTRA NATURALEZA Le mystère des géants disparus de la Terre | DANS NOTRE NATURE Il mistero della scomparsa dei giganti della Terra | NELLA NOSTRA NATURA 地球から消えた巨人の謎|IN OUR NATURE 지구에서 사라져가는 거인의 미스터리 | 인 더 네이처 Išnykusių Žemės milžinų paslaptis | IN OUR NATURE Het mysterie van verdwijnende reuzen op aarde | IN ONZE NATUUR Tajemnica znikających ziemskich gigantów | W NASZEJ NATURZE O mistério do desaparecimento dos gigantes da Terra | NA NOSSA NATUREZA Тайна исчезновения гигантов Земли | В НАШЕЙ ПРИРОДЕ Mysteriet med jordens försvunna jättar | I VÅR NATUR Dünya'nın Kaybolan Devlerinin Gizemi | DOĞAMIZDA Таємниця зникнення гігантів Землі | У НАШІЙ ПРИРОДІ 地球上消失的巨人之谜|我们的本性 地球上消失的巨人之謎|我們的本性

I want you to imagine for a moment that you've

been instantly transported through  time. 50,000 years in the deep past,

what you see would shock you. In North America, you gaze upon was Sie sehen, würde Sie schockieren. In Nordamerika bestaunen Sie その光景に衝撃を受けるだろう。北米では

short-faced bears, larger than a grizzly.  Mastodons. Dire wolves. Saber-toothed cats. グリズリーより大きい、短顔の熊。マストドン。獰猛なオオカミ。サーベル・トゥース・キャット。 короткомордые медведи, крупнее гризли. Мастодонты. Ужасные волки. Саблезубые кошки.

In Australia, you'd be eye to  eye with a gargantuan wombat In Australien würdest du Auge in Auge mit einem riesigen Wombat stehen En Australia, estarías cara a cara con un gigantesco wombat... オーストラリアでは、巨大なウォンバットと目が合うだろう In Australië sta je oog in oog met een gigantische wombat

and see monitor lizards half as long as a bus. In South America, sloths as tall as elephants, und sehen Warane, die halb so lang wie ein Bus sind. In Südamerika gibt es Faultiere, die so groß sind wie Elefanten, y ver lagartos monitor la mitad de largos que un autobús. En Sudamérica, perezosos tan altos como elefantes, バス半分の長さのオオトカゲを見ることもできる。南米ではゾウの背丈ほどもあるナマケモノを見る、 и увидеть варана вдвое короче автобуса. В Южной Америке ленивцы ростом со слона,

automobile-sized armadillos.  Rodents the size of small bears. 自動車サイズのアルマジロ。小熊サイズのげっ歯類。 броненосцы размером с автомобиль. Грызуны размером с маленького медведя.

In Europe, towering arc cattle, wooly mammoths,  even lions, hippopotamuses, and hyenas. En Europa, imponentes arcos de ganado, mamuts lanudos, incluso leones, hipopótamos y hienas. ヨーロッパでは、そびえ立つアーク牛、ウーリーマンモス、さらにはライオン、カバ、ハイエナまで。 В Европе возвышаются крупный рогатый скот, шерстистые мамонты, даже львы, бегемоты и гиены. В Європі височіла дугоподібна велика рогата худоба, шерстисті мамонти, навіть леви, бегемоти та гієни.

And in Asia, an elephant that stood a full  head above today's largest African bulls. Y en Asia, un elefante que superaba en una cabeza a los toros africanos más grandes de la actualidad. そしてアジアでは、現在のアフリカ最大の雄牛よりも頭ひとつ分も大きいゾウがいた。 E, na Ásia, um elefante que se erguia uma cabeça acima dos maiores touros africanos actuais. А в Азии слон, который стоял на целую голову выше самых крупных нынешних африканских быков. А в Азії - слона, який стояв на цілу голову вище найбільших африканських биків сучасності.

During Earth's glacier covered Pleistocene Epoch,  every continent was home to mammalian giants, Während des von Gletschern bedeckten Pleistozäns waren auf allen Kontinenten riesige Säugetiere beheimatet, 氷河に覆われた更新世時代には、どの大陸にも哺乳類の巨人が生息していた、

the megafauna, species that dwarf their relatives  alive today. But during the last 50,000 years, die Megafauna, Arten, die ihre heute lebenden Verwandten in den Schatten stellen. Aber während der letzten 50.000 Jahre, la megafauna, especies que empequeñecen a sus parientes vivos en la actualidad. Pero durante los últimos 50.000 años, メガファウナと呼ばれる、現在生存している近縁種を凌駕する種である。しかし、過去5万年の間に мегафауна, виды, которые затмевают своих ныне живущих родственников. Но за последние 50 000 лет

these giant mammals, plant and meat eaters alike,  have gone extinct on every continent except one. Diese riesigen Säugetiere, die sowohl Pflanzen als auch Fleisch fressen, sind auf allen Kontinenten außer einem ausgestorben. estos mamíferos gigantes, herbívoros y carnívoros por igual, se han extinguido en todos los continentes excepto en uno. 植物も肉も食べるこの巨大哺乳類は、1つの大陸を除くすべての大陸で絶滅した。

Today, Africa is home to nearly all giant land  animals left on Earth. The mystery is why? 現在、アフリカには地球上に残されたほぼすべての巨大陸生動物が生息している。謎はなぜなのか? Сегодня Африка является домом для почти всех гигантских наземных животных, оставшихся на Земле. Загадка почему?

These giant animals are so awesome. I wish  that they were still here. It's not fair. Diese riesigen Tiere sind so fantastisch. Ich wünschte, sie wären noch hier. Das ist nicht fair. この巨大な動物たちはとても素晴らしい。彼らがまだここにいてくれたらと思う。不公平だ。 Эти гигантские животные такие классные. Я хочу, чтобы они все еще были здесь. Это нечестно.

Why did they have to disappear? I always heard That it was our なぜ彼らは姿を消さなければならなかったのか?いつも聞いていた

fault. Humans and our spears hunted  mammoths and all that stuff to death. Fehler. Menschen und unsere Speere haben Mammuts und all das Zeug zu Tode gejagt. のせいだ。人類と私たちの槍が、マンモスやその他もろもろを狩り尽くしたのだ。

Well, there's definitely a correlation between  when humans arrive in a place and when its Bueno, definitivamente hay una correlación entre el momento en que los humanos llegan a un lugar y cuando su まあ、人間がその土地に到着する時期と、その土地の歴史には相関関係があるのは間違いない。

megafauna disappear. The earliest anatomically  modern homo sapiens, they show up around 300,000 Megafauna verschwinden. Der früheste anatomisch moderne Homo sapiens taucht um 300.000 メガファウナが消える解剖学的に最も古い現生ホモ・サピエンスは、30万年前に姿を現した。

years ago in Africa. It wasn't until around 50  to 70,000 years ago though, that we first left Jahren in Afrika. Aber erst vor etwa 50 bis 70.000 Jahren verließen wir zum ersten Mal das Land. 年前にアフリカで誕生した。しかし、私たちが初めてアフリカを離れたのは、約5~7万年前のことである。

Africa in big numbers. First to Asia and Europe,  then to Australia, and finally the Americas. So アフリカに大挙して。まずアジアとヨーロッパへ、次にオーストラリアへ、そして最後にアメリカ大陸へ。だから

compared to human origins, human expansion  across the globe it just happened so fast. Im Vergleich zu den Ursprüngen des Menschen und seiner Ausbreitung über den gesamten Globus ging es einfach so schnell. 人類の起源に比べれば、人類が世界中に拡大したのはあっという間だった。 по сравнению с человеческим происхождением, человеческой экспансией по земному шару это произошло так быстро.

According to archeological evidence, less than  a thousand years after the first humans that 考古学的な証拠によると、人類が初めてこの地を訪れてから1000年も経っていない。 Согласно археологическим данным, менее чем через тысячу лет после появления первых людей,

crossed the Bering land bride, they were already  at the tip of South America. So outside of Africa, als sie die Bering-Landbrücke überquerten, waren sie bereits an der Spitze Südamerikas. Also außerhalb von Afrika, cruzaron la brida terrestre de Bering, ya estaban en la punta de Sudamérica. Así que fuera de África, ベーリング陸路を越えると、彼らはすでに南アメリカの先端にいた。つまり、アフリカの外側だ、 пересекли невесту Беринговой земли, они были уже на оконечности Южной Америки. Итак, за пределами Африки перетнули Берингову землю, вони вже були на краю Південної Америки. Тобто за межами Африки,

at least, the megafauna must've been like, "Wow,  there's suddenly humans here." Just like that. But 少なくとも、メガファウナは "うわ、突然人間が現れた "と思ったに違いない。そんな感じだ。しかし

at the same time, humans hunting every large  animal on five continents to just nothing, zur gleichen Zeit jagt der Mensch jedes große Tier auf fünf Kontinenten bis auf den letzten Tropfen, al mismo tiempo, los humanos cazan todos los animales grandes de los cinco continentes hasta dejarlos en nada, 同時に、人類は五大陸のあらゆる大型動物を狩り尽くし、無に帰した、

it seems too simple. Yeah. There's theories to parece demasiado simple. Sí. Hay teorías para

explain the extinction of megafauna and they've  been debated really fiercely for decades. メガファウナの絶滅については、何十年もの間、実に激しく議論されてきた。 объясняют вымирание мегафауны, и они очень яростно обсуждаются на протяжении десятилетий.

I think what we really need  though, is a time capsule. Ich glaube, was wir wirklich brauchen, ist eine Zeitkapsel. でも、本当に必要なのはタイムカプセルだと思う。 Я думаю, что нам действительно нужна капсула времени.

Lucky for you, Trace, we actually have one  and it's in the last place you would expect. Zum Glück für Sie, Trace, haben wir tatsächlich eine, und zwar an dem Ort, an dem Sie sie am wenigsten erwarten würden. 幸運なことに、トレイス、私たちには実際にあるんだ。 К счастью для тебя, Трейс, у нас действительно есть один, и он находится в самом последнем месте, которого ты ожидал.

Right here in Los Angeles. Plot twist!  I thought it was just influencers. Genau hier in Los Angeles. Eine Wendung! Ich dachte, es ginge nur um Influencer. Aquí mismo, en Los Ángeles. ¡Giro argumental! Pensé que era sólo influenciadores. ここロサンゼルスで筋書きはこうだ!インフルエンサーだけだと思っていた。 Hier in Los Angeles. Plot twist! Ik dacht dat het alleen influencers waren. Прямо здесь, в Лос-Анджелесе. Поворот сюжета! Я думал, что это просто инфлюенсеры.

I've been working with Ranch La Brea fossil since  like 2010. I guess you could say that I got stuck. Ich arbeite mit Ranch La Brea Fossil seit etwa 2010. Ich schätze, man könnte sagen, dass ich stecken geblieben bin. He estado trabajando con el fósil Ranch La Brea desde 2010. Supongo que se podría decir que me quedé atascado. 2010年ごろからランチ・ラ・ブレア・フォッシルで仕事をしている。行き詰まったというか。 Ik werk al sinds 2010 met het fossiel van Ranch La Brea. Je zou kunnen zeggen dat ik vastliep.

That's Mairin. She's a scientist here at the  La Brea Tar Pits, which includes a museum Das ist Mairin. Sie ist Wissenschaftlerin hier bei den La Brea Tar Pits, zu denen auch ein Museum gehört. Esa es Mairin. Es una científica aquí en La Brea Tar Pits, que incluye un museo... それがメイリンだ。彼女はここラ・ブレアタールピットの科学者で、博物館も併設されている。

and a research site that's active in lots  of different ways. This is the best place と、さまざまに活躍する研究サイト。ここがベスト

on earth for understanding the  ice age extinction. This thing auf der Erde, um das Aussterben der Eiszeit zu verstehen. Diese Sache 氷河期の絶滅を理解するために、地球上で。これは

is absolutely incredible. We are looking  down into a giant pit. It's bubbling. ist absolut unglaublich. Wir schauen hinunter in eine riesige Grube. Es brodelt. 本当に信じられない。私たちは巨大な穴を見下ろしている。泡が立っている。 is absoluut ongelooflijk. We kijken naar beneden in een gigantische kuil. Het borrelt. совершенно невероятно. Мы смотрим вниз, в гигантскую яму. Это пузырится.

There are odors. It's exciting. There's  pollen. I don't know what's happening. 匂いがある。刺激的だ。花粉がある。何が起こっているのか分からない。 Есть запахи. Это увлекательно. Есть пыльца. Я не знаю, что происходит.

There are also sounds as the gases bubble up to  the surface, make this [inaudible 00:03:46] sound. また、ガスが表面に湧き上がる音もあり、この[聞き取れない 00:03:46]音を立てる。

Yeah. Yeah. そうだね。そうだ。

It's clearly still a really dynamic  place. How did all of this come to be? Está claro que sigue siendo un lugar muy dinámico. ¿Cómo surgió todo esto? 今でも本当にダイナミックな場所であることは明らかだ。なぜこのようなことになったのですか?

These tar pits were here since before the city  of Los Angeles was established and they've このタール坑は、ロサンゼルス市が設立される以前からここにあった。 Deze teerputten waren hier al voordat de stad Los Angeles werd gesticht en ze hebben... Эти смоляные ямы были здесь еще до того, как был основан город Лос-Анджелес, и они

actually been here over the  last, at least, 55,000 years. 少なくとも過去5万5千年間は、実際にここにいた。

Back then, the tar pits, or more accurately,  asphalt seeps oozing up and out of the ground, Por aquel entonces, los pozos de alquitrán, o más exactamente, las filtraciones de asfalto que rezumaban del suelo, 当時はタールピット、正確にはアスファルトの染み出しが地面から滲み出ていた、 Тогда просачиваются смоляные ямы, а точнее асфальт, просачивающийся из-под земли, Тоді гудрони, або, точніше, асфальт, просочувався з-під землі і витікав назовні,

were concealed under water or leaves  and anything unlucky enough to go se ocultaban bajo el agua o las hojas y todo lo que tuviera la mala suerte de ir 水や木の葉の下に隠れていた。 были скрыты под водой или листьями и всем, кому не повезло уйти

in was also unlikely to get out. So wait, it's like quicksand? The también era poco probable que saliera. Espera, ¿son como arenas movedizas? El にも出られそうになかった。では、流砂のようなものなのか?その in также вряд ли выберется. Так подождите, это как зыбучие пески?

tar just gets them, sucks them in, and preserves  their remains like a giant vat of sticky pickles? tar holt sie sich einfach, saugt sie ein und konserviert ihre Überreste wie einen riesigen Bottich mit klebrigen Gurken? ¿alquitrán sólo los atrapa, los succiona y conserva sus restos como una cuba gigante de pepinillos pegajosos? TARは彼らを捕まえて吸い込み、その残骸を巨大なピクルス桶のように保存するのか? смола просто достает их, всасывает и сохраняет их остатки, как гигантский чан с липкими огурцами?

Yeah, pretty much. The green flag over there marks a ああ、ほとんどね。あそこの緑の旗は Да, в значительной степени. Зеленый флаг вон там знаменует собой

saber-toothed cat shoulder blade. What? omóplato de gato dientes de sable. ¿Qué? サーベル・トゥース・キャットの肩甲骨。何? лопатка саблезубого кота. Какие? шаблезуба котяча лопатка. Що?

Yeah. And the blue flag marks a giant  ground sloth pelvis or hip bone. Sí. Y la bandera azul marca la pelvis o el hueso de la cadera de un perezoso terrestre gigante. Ага. А синий флаг отмечает гигантский наземный таз или тазовую кость ленивца.

Can you imagine giant ground sloths being  here in Los Angeles today? That in itself ¿Se imagina que los perezosos terrestres gigantes estuvieran hoy aquí en Los Ángeles? Eso en sí mismo 巨大なナマケモノが今日、ロサンゼルスにいることを想像できるだろうか?それ自体が Можете ли вы представить себе гигантских наземных ленивцев, живущих сегодня в Лос-Анджелесе? Это само по себе

is mind blowing to me. [crosstalk 00:04:45]. 私には衝撃的だ。[クロストーク 00:04:45]。 valt me tegen. [overspraak 00:04:45]. сногсшибательно для меня. [перекрестные помехи 00:04:45].

And then saber cats. I'm sorry. It's like you have  a whole party here of all these different animal. そしてサーベルキャット。ごめんなさい.まるでパーティーのようだ。 А потом саблезубы. Мне жаль. Как будто у вас здесь целая вечеринка из всех этих разных животных.

Paleontologists love it when fossils are stacked  like a sandwich. They're easier to understand and 古生物学者は、化石がサンドイッチのように積み重なっているのが大好きだ。その方が理解しやすいし

place in time. But because of this seeping, moving  asphalt and the fact that California is still a lugar en el tiempo. Pero debido a este asfalto que se filtra y se mueve y al hecho de que California sigue siendo un の場所にある。しかし、この浸透し、移動するアスファルトと、カリフォルニアがいまだに место во времени. Но из-за этого просачивающегося движущегося асфальта и того факта, что Калифорния все еще

really tectonically active place, over thousands  of years the fossils in this soup pot get all lugar tectónicamente activo, durante miles de años los fósiles en esta olla de sopa se ponen todos 地殻変動が活発な場所では、何千年もかけて、このスープポットの中の化石が действительно тектонически активное место, за тысячи лет окаменелости в этом суповом котле достались все

jumbled and mingle-mangled. This sticky trap is  still sticking today. Just like it was when all revueltos y mezclados. Esta trampa pegajosa se sigue pegando hoy en día. Igual que cuando todos ごちゃまぜ、ごちゃまぜ。この粘着性のトラップは今日も粘着している。かつて door elkaar gehusseld en door elkaar gehusseld. Deze kleverige val plakt vandaag nog steeds. Net zoals het was toen alles перемешались и перепутались. Эта липкая ловушка держится до сих пор. Так же, как это было, когда все переплутані та переплутані. Ця липка пастка не знята й досі. Так само, як це було, коли всі

these other cool animals were walking around. I love me a good fossil sandwich with a side of estos otros animales cool estaban caminando alrededor. Me encanta un buen sándwich fósil con un lado de 他にもかっこいい動物たちが歩き回っていた。私は化石サンドイッチが大好きだ。

oozy tar soup. Yum. Even 2000 years in the future, I think they would sopa de alquitrán oozy. Qué rico. Incluso 2000 años en el futuro, creo que lo harían うっすいタールスープ。うまい。2000年後の未来でも、彼らはそうすると思う。 жидкий дегтярный суп. Ням. Даже через 2000 лет, я думаю, они бы

find a really interesting record of life today. Wow. Maybe plastic or trash even. 今日の生活の実に興味深い記録を見つける。すごい。プラスチックかゴミかもしれない。 найти действительно интересную запись жизни сегодня. Ух ты. Может быть, пластик или даже мусор.

To remove the fossils from the sticky  resting place, staff and volunteers Um die Fossilien von ihrem klebrigen Ruheplatz zu entfernen, haben Mitarbeiter und Freiwillige 粘着性のある休息場所から化石を取り出すために、スタッフとボランティアが次のような作業を行った。 Чтобы удалить окаменелости из липкого места отдыха, сотрудники и волонтеры

have to use airplane degreaser. And afterwards,  they're sorted and placed in these collections tienen que usar desengrasante para aviones. Y después, se clasifican y se colocan en estas colecciones

where researchers can look at them firsthand. That seems like a mammoth effort. donde los investigadores puedan observarlos de primera mano. Parece un esfuerzo colosal. 研究者が直接見ることができる場所で。それは途方もない努力のように思える。 где исследователи могут увидеть их воочию. Это кажется гигантским усилием.

That was a megafauna mega funny folks. Yeah. This is like putting together a puzzle. Das war ein Megafauna mega lustig Leute. Ja, ja. Das ist, wie wenn man ein Puzzle zusammensetzt. Eso fue una megafauna mega graciosa amigos. Sí. Esto es como armar un rompecabezas. あれはメガファウナのメガ・ファニーだ。そうだね。これはパズルを組み立てるようなものだ。 Это была мегафауна мега забавных людей. Ага. Это как собирать пазл.

One that is a million pieces and it's all  stuck, covered in like GAC and sticky stuff. Eine, die aus einer Million Teilen besteht, und alles ist verklebt, bedeckt mit GAC und klebrigem Zeug. Uno que es un millón de piezas y está todo pegado, cubierto de como GAC y cosas pegajosas. 100万個の破片があり、GACや粘着性物質で覆われ、すべて固着している。 Eentje van een miljoen stukjes en het zit allemaal vast, bedekt met GAC en plakkerig spul.

GAC. GAC. GACGAC。

GAC. On the left we have our giant grand sloths and GAC. A la izquierda tenemos nuestros grandes perezosos gigantes y GAC。左側には巨大なナマケモノがいる。

on the right here, we have other large herbivores.  For example, right now we're passing by bison. aquí a la derecha, tenemos otros grandes herbívoros. Por ejemplo, ahora mismo estamos pasando por bisontes. この右側には他の大型草食動物がいる。例えば、今私たちはバイソンとすれ違っている。

We are talking shelf after shelf of ancient  ice age bison, ground slots, mastodons, tapirs, Estamos hablando de plataforma tras plataforma de antiguos bisontes de la edad de hielo, ranas de tierra, mastodontes, tapires, 古代氷河期のバイソン、グランドスロット、マストドン、バクなどの棚が次から次へと現れるのだ、 We hebben het plank na plank van oude bizons uit de ijstijd, grondgroeven, mastodonten, tapirs,

hundreds of thousands of fossils grouped  by species and anatomical element. 何十万もの化石が種や解剖学的要素ごとに分類されている。

Whole shelf Of baculum. That's penis bone. Estante entero de baculum. Eso es hueso del pene. ペニスの骨。それはペニスの骨です Hele plank van baculum. Dat is penisbot. Целая полка Baculum. Это кость пениса. Ціла полиця бакулюма. Це кістка пеніса.

So these aren't all from one individual. These  represent dozens if not hundreds of different Así que no son todas de un solo individuo. Representan docenas, si no cientos, de diferentes つまり、これらはすべて一個人のものではないのだ。これらは、何十、何百もの異なる個人によるものである。

individuals. Exactly. 個人。その通りだ。

That's this bone here. [inaudible 00:06:36] right over here. この骨だ。[ここです。

That's huge. And this is from a camel? From a camel who lived in North America. でかいな。これはラクダから?北アメリカに住んでいたラクダから。

So that's the big question, they were  here and then they weren't. What happened? それが大きな疑問で、彼らはここにいたのに、いなくなった。何が起こったのか?

What happened? Maybe the secret is here 何が起きたのか?秘密はここにある

in this very drawer. Maybe this bone right here. This bone right here. この引き出しの中だ。たぶん、この骨。この骨。 в цій самій шухляді. Може, ось ця кістка. Ось ця кістка.

Could hold the secret of why  we don't have camels anymore. Das könnte das Geheimnis sein, warum wir keine Kamele mehr haben. なぜラクダを飼わなくなったのか、その秘密がわかるかもしれない。

Narrator, unfortunately,  it didn't hold the secret. Erzählerin, leider hat sie das Geheimnis nicht bewahrt. ナレーター 残念ながら、その秘密は隠されていなかった。

I want to get back to the big, important  question here. Why don't we today have ここで大きな、重要な疑問に戻りたい。なぜ今日、我々は

camels and all these other cool animals anymore?  How do all these bones pulled from this tar pit ラクダや他のクールな動物はもういないのか?このタールの穴から引き出された骨はどうやって

tell us why megafauna disappeared? Yeah. Let's back up and take a look なぜメガファウナは姿を消したのか?そうだ。話を戻して、見てみよう

at the competing ideas as to why  these absolute units went extinct. このような絶対的な単位が絶滅した理由については、競合する考え方がある。 на конкурирующие идеи относительно того, почему эти абсолютные единицы вымерли.

Scientists studying the decline of megafauna at  the end of the Pleistocene first focused their 更新世の終わりにおける巨大動物の減少を研究している科学者たちは、まず、その研究に焦点を当てた。

attention on North America. Partly because of  large troves of fossils like those at La Brea but 北米に注目が集まっている。ラ・ブレアのような化石の大群のせいもあるが、それ以上に、北米の化石が注目されているのだ。 внимание на Северной Америке. Отчасти из-за больших кладов окаменелостей, таких как в Ла-Бреа, но

partly because that's just where the scientists  were from. The sudden arrival of humans in North 科学者たちの出身地がそこだったという理由もある。人類が突然北にやってきたのは

America and this sudden disappearance of large  mammals seemed too closely timed to be a mere Amerika, und dieses plötzliche Verschwinden großer Säugetiere schien zu zeitnah zu sein, als dass es sich um eine bloße América y esta repentina desaparición de grandes mamíferos parecía demasiado sincronizada para ser una mera アメリカ大陸で大型哺乳類が突然姿を消したのは、あまりにもタイミングが良すぎる。 Amerika en deze plotselinge verdwijning van grote zoogdieren leken te nauw getimed om slechts een...

coincidence. Likewise, megafauna extinctions  in Australia and on Pacific islands were also Zufall. Auch das Aussterben der Megafauna in Australien und auf den Pazifikinseln war 一致する。同様に、オーストラリアや太平洋の島々で起きた巨大動物の絶滅もまた、偶然の産物であった。

timed closely with early human settlement.  Scientists, like Paul Martin, concluded that 初期の人類の入植と密接な関係がある。ポール・マーティンのような科学者は、次のように結論づけた。 приурочено к раннему заселению человека. Такие ученые, как Пол Мартин, пришли к выводу, что

humans armed with a new stone weapon technology  known as Clovis points swept through the Americas Menschen, die mit einer neuen Steinwaffentechnologie, den Clovis-Spitzen, bewaffnet waren, fegten durch Amerika humanos armados con una nueva tecnología de armas de piedra conocida como puntas Clovis arrasaron América クロヴィス・ポイントと呼ばれる新しい石器技術で武装した人類がアメリカ大陸を席巻した。 люди, вооруженные новой технологией каменного оружия, известной как очки Хлодвига, пронеслись по Америке.

decimating the large mammal population. It became  known as the Blitzkrieg or Overkill hypothesis. diezmando la población de grandes mamíferos. Se conoció como la hipótesis de la Blitzkrieg o del Overkill. 大型哺乳類の個体群を壊滅させるこの仮説は、電撃戦仮説あるいはオーバーキル仮説として知られるようになった。

The problem was we now know there were humans in  most parts of North America for thousands of years 問題は、何千年もの間、北アメリカのほとんどの地域に人類がいたことがわかっていることだ。 Проблема была в том, что теперь мы знаем, что люди жили в большинстве частей Северной Америки тысячи лет.

before Clovis point technology showed up  and we just haven't found any of the large クロヴィス・ポイントの技術が登場する以前は、大規模なものは見つかっていなかった。 до того, как появилась технология Clovis Point, и мы просто не нашли ни одного крупного до того, як з'явилася технологія Clovis point, і ми просто не знайшли жодного великого

collections of remains that suggest early  Americans were hunting on this scale. So 初期のアメリカ人がこの規模で狩猟を行っていたことを示唆する遺跡のコレクション。だから коллекции останков, которые предполагают, что ранние американцы охотились в таких масштабах. Так

Overkill has become more of a no overkill idea. There was a second idea which also blames our Overkill ist eher zu einer No-Overkill-Idee geworden. Es gab noch eine zweite Idee, die ebenfalls die Schuld auf unsere やり過ぎは、やり過ぎないという考え方の方が強くなった。第二のアイデアもあった。 Overkill стал скорее идеей без излишеств. Была и вторая идея, которая также обвиняет нашу

species. A slower, drawn out extinction only  partially due to hunting combined with early Arten. Ein langsameres, langwieriges Aussterben, das nur zum Teil auf die Jagd in Verbindung mit frühen especies. Una extinción más lenta y prolongada, debida sólo en parte a la caza combinada con la temprana 種である。狩猟と早期の絶滅が組み合わさったために、部分的には、よりゆっくりとした、より長期的な絶滅が起こっている。 вид. Повільне, затягнуте вимирання, лише частково зумовлене полюванням у поєднанні з раннім

humans changing the environment through  setting fires, deforestation, habitat loss,

and negative effects from the critters we brought  with us, like cats and rats and dogs and things. 猫やネズミ、犬など、私たちが連れてきた生き物による悪影響もある。

This may explain the extinctions of giant  island dwelling birds, like dodos and moas, Esto puede explicar las extinciones de aves gigantes que habitan en islas, como los dodos y los moas, これは、ドードーやモアのような巨大な島に住む鳥の絶滅を説明できるかもしれない、 Dit zou het uitsterven van op grote eilanden levende vogels, zoals dodo's en moa's, kunnen verklaren.

but again, there's little evidence that the first  humans in the Americas changed the environment to しかし繰り返すが、アメリカ大陸で最初の人類が環境を変えたという証拠はほとんどない。

this degree. The fossils at La Brea are helping  paint a different picture of the extinction of este grado. Los fósiles de La Brea están ayudando a pintar un cuadro diferente de la extinción de この程度ラ・ブレアで発掘された化石は、このような絶滅の歴史について、これまでとは違った絵を描くのに役立っている。

Pleistocene giants. So are they only 更新世の巨人では、彼らは

pulling out giant extinct species? No, that's the cool thing. They're ¿Sacando especies gigantes extinguidas? No, eso es lo genial. Son 巨大な絶滅種を引きずり出す?いや、それがクールなんだ。彼らは

not. They've recovered coyotes, bobcats, foxes,  skunks, and badgers. Species we still have today. 違う。彼らはコヨーテ、ボブキャット、キツネ、スカンク、アナグマを回復させた。現在も生息している種である。 niet. Ze hebben coyotes, bobcats, vossen, stinkdieren en dassen teruggevonden. Soorten die we nu nog hebben.

So here we have our typical coyote skull, for  example. It's the same species of coyote that 例えば、ここに典型的なコヨーテの頭蓋骨がある。コヨーテと同じ種類である。

we have today, Canis latrans, but found in  deposits that could be 55,000 years old. 現在のCanis latransは55,000年前の堆積物から発見された。 we hebben vandaag, Canis latrans, maar gevonden in afzettingen die 55.000 jaar oud kunnen zijn. сьогодні, Canis latrans, але знайдений у відкладеннях, яким може бути 55 000 років.

Okay. So wait, let's put the giants aside for a  minute and instead of looking at why megafauna では、巨人のことはちょっと脇に置いておいて、メガファウナの理由を考えてみよう。

disappeared, I think it's interesting to think  about what survived, all the medium things. What 何が生き残ったのかを考えるのは面白いと思う。何が

happened to let these regular fauna persist? Think about it, compared to a giant cave bear このような普通の動物相を存続させるために、何が起こったのだろうか?巨大なホラアナグマと比較して考えてみよう。

or American lion, if you're a raccoon or  a skunk, you eat less, probably reproduce アライグマやスカンクであれば、食べる量も少ないし、おそらく繁殖もする。

faster and likely have more available habitat.  A badger takes up way less space than a mammoth. más rápido y probablemente tengan más hábitat disponible. Un tejón ocupa mucho menos espacio que un mamut. より速く、より多くの生息地を利用できる可能性が高い。アナグマはマンモスよりはるかに小さいスペースしか必要としない。

It seems like the fossils should be able to  tell us was this some big extinction tidal Parece que los fósiles deberían poder decirnos si fue una gran marea de extinción... 化石を見れば、この大絶滅が潮の満ち引きによるものなのかどうかがわかるはずだ。

wave that affected all of the species or were  the big stuff already just about to kick the すべての種族に影響を与えた波なのか、それとも大物がすでにその波を蹴散らそうとしていたのか......。

bucket and something pushed them over the edge? So the clues that can lead us to those answers, バケツと何かが彼らを突き落としたのか?その答えを導き出す手がかりは?

aren't the fossils we've been talking about.  In fact, they're not animal fossils at all. それは、私たちがこれまで話してきたような化石ではない。実際、これは動物の化石ではない。

Well, here we are. This is the Wait. さて、着いた。これが "待ち "だ。

Paleobotany collection. These four cabinets?

Well, there's some more but Okay. まあ、他にもあるけど、オーケー。

this is part of it. Here's some  of the wood that's preserved. これがその一部だ。これが保存されている木材の一部だ。

Oh my gosh. Yeah. It's a beautiful ああ、美しい。

brown texture because of the asphalt that stains  it. This is from juniper and that's probably braune Textur wegen des Asphalts, der es befleckt. Dies ist von Wacholder und das ist wahrscheinlich 茶色いテクスチャーはアスファルトで汚れているから。これはジュニパー産で、おそらく bruine textuur vanwege het asfalt dat het bevlekt. Dit is van jeneverbes en dat is waarschijnlijk

the most common wood fossil that we have here. They find plants at La Brea too. And what's so ここにある最も一般的な木の化石だ。ラ・ブレアでも植物を発見しています。で、何がそんなに

cool about all the plants they find here, they  have modern relatives, meaning they still exist. ここで発見された植物はすべて、現代の近縁種、つまりまだ存在している。

Look at these. So these are oak leaves and  they're just perfectly preserved, right? これを見てください。これはオークの葉っぱで、完璧に保存されているでしょ?

They look exactly just like the leaf litter. Okay, you can hold this one. 落ち葉とそっくりだ。よし、これを持っていてくれ。

Oh my gosh. They look just like something  you would find on the sidewalk on a fall day. あらまあ。秋の日に歩道で見かけるようなものね。

Exactly. You'll notice these fossils are quite  a bit smaller. They're all in their own vials. その通りだ。この化石はかなり小さいことにお気づきでしょう。すべて小瓶に入っています。

They're tiny. I'm seeing this  one. It's in a pill capsule. 小さいよ。これがそうだ。錠剤のカプセルに入っている。

Yeah, exactly. It's so tiny. Every time

I see stuff stored in pill capsules I have  the like the innate urge to just swallow it. Wenn ich etwas in Tablettenkapseln sehe, habe ich den angeborenen Drang, es einfach zu schlucken. 錠剤のカプセルに入っているものを見ると、飲み込んでしまいたくなる衝動に駆られるんだ。 Коли я бачу щось, що зберігається в капсулах, у мене виникає вроджене бажання просто проковтнути це.

These are from Pit 91. They're from  the top of Pit 91. So this is probably ピット91のもの。ピット91の頂上から。これはおそらく

right around the time of the extinction. So this is a pretty significant specimen. ちょうど絶滅の時期だ。つまり、これはかなり重要な標本なのだ。

It is. It actually is. Yeah. Wow. I could be ingesting the そうだ。実際にそうなんだ。そうなんだ。すごい。私は

You could. mysteries of the universe. 宇宙の神秘。

These plant microfossils, from bits  of leaves to seeds and pollen grains,

stuff so small you need a microscope  to see them. These micro plant parts 顕微鏡が必要なほど小さなものだ。これらの微細な植物の部分

paint an even more detailed picture of  what was happening than even those large

mammal fossils do. But finding these itsy bitsy,  teeny weeny bits of leafy greeny, isn't easy. 哺乳類の化石はそうだ。しかし、これらの小さな小さな葉っぱのような緑色のかけらを見つけるのは簡単ではない。 zoogdierfossielen wel. Maar het is niet eenvoudig om deze kleine, piepkleine stukjes bladgroen te vinden.

It's like Looking for a literal  pine needle in a tar pit. タールの穴に文字通り松葉を探すようなものだ。

Yeah, but what's so cool is that those  really small bits can be big clues. ああ、でもとてもクールなのは、その本当に小さな断片が大きな手がかりになり得るということなんだ。

How did these fossil plants and their  remnants fit into this bigger story?

In order to understand the ecosystem at all,  you have to start with the primary producers. Um das Ökosystem überhaupt verstehen zu können, muss man bei den Primärproduzenten beginnen.

How does changing climate affect animals?  It affects them through the plants that they 気候の変化は動物にどのような影響を与えるのか?それは、動物が生育する植物を通じて影響を受ける。

eat, that they live in, their habitats. Really  understanding the plants and what happens

because of the climate to the plants is key to  understanding the response to the animals later.

So let's say you find pollen  from ragweed, junipers pines, Dus laten we zeggen dat je stuifmeel vindt van ambrosia, jeneverbessen,

daisies, and sunflowers that would indicate this  region had a dry arid climate, not unlike today.

Okay, but how do you go from pollen  to the extinction of gigantic mammals? でも、花粉からどうやって巨大哺乳類の絶滅に至るんだ?

Maybe they sneezed to death. No Trace, but you can compare these microscopic

plant fingerprints over time to see how the plant  species change. And that's a really good indicator

of the overall climate. What scientists at La  Brea have noticed is that the plant species did

in fact start to change about this same time  these megafauna disappeared from the tar pits,

right around 12,000 years ago. Which  was also just a few thousand years after

humans show up in North America. Now that is quite a coinkydink. 人間が北米に現れる。これは驚くべきことだ。 mensen verschijnen in Noord-Amerika. Nou dat is nogal een coinkydink.

I know, but it's more than that. The plants tell  us at the end of the Pleistocene, Earth's climate

was changing drastically likely affecting what  giant animals could eat, where they could live,

and how they could move from one place to another. Okay. So that makes sense. The effects of a そして、ある場所から別の場所に移動することもできる。なるほど、それは理にかなっている。その効果は

changing climate is likely a big reason  why Earth's megafauna went extinct. So

does that mean that it wasn't humans fault? Not necessarily. Humans still probably had それは人間の責任ではないということですか?必ずしもそうではない。人間にはまだ

an impact here. For example, we've got evidence  at the tar pits of more fires, but why? Because ここにも影響がある。例えば、タールピットで火災が多発している証拠がある。それは

it's getting hotter and drier or because  people were setting them or something else? 暑さと乾燥が厳しくなっているのか、それとも、人々がセットしたからなのか、それとも別の理由なのか?

Obviously alien space lasers and  very large magnifying glasses. I 明らかにエイリアンの宇宙レーザーと非常に大きな拡大鏡だ。I

know it's not either of those things. This is what I mean when I say that そのどちらでもないことは分かっている。というのはこういうことだ。

extinction is a messy business. Right? Nature  is pretty resilient, short of like an asteroid 絶滅は厄介なビジネスだ。そうだろう?小惑星のようなものでない限り、自然はかなり回復力がある

or something. Extinctions are usually just not  caused by one thing. I think with these complex それとも何か。絶滅は通常、ひとつのことが原因で起こるものではない。このような複雑な

systems you have to change a few things in huge  ways or a lot of things in pretty big ways between このシステムでは、いくつかのことを大きく変えるか、多くのことをかなり大きく変える必要がある。

people and plants and animals and the climate. Our current best understanding of what happened in

North America is also kind of messy. It probably  wasn't just one thing but many disruptions 北米もなんだかゴチャゴチャしている。おそらく1つのことだけでなく、多くの混乱があったのだろう

of a complex web of interactions. Decreasing  habitats, human impacts, global climate change, 複雑な相互作用の網の目生息地の減少、人間による影響、地球規模の気候変動、

these trends are really familiar to us today. This past that we've been talking about was really これらのトレンドは、今日の私たちにとって本当に身近なものだ。私たちが話してきたこの過去は、本当にそうだった。

not so long ago in the scale of life on Earth, at  least. Understanding how things played out then 少なくとも地球上の生命の規模からすれば、それほど昔のことではない。当時の状況を理解する

can inform our future and there's. That  combination of factors that wiped out so many

prehistoric megafauna species; climate change and  humans killing them and changing their habitat.

These are the same challenges facing Africa's  giants today. Only all those factors are taking これらは今日、アフリカの巨人たちが直面している課題と同じである。ただ、これらすべての要因が

place at scales and speeds that just dwarf the  changes of the past. Our impacts reach every 過去の変化を凌駕するスケールとスピードで。私たちのインパクトは、あらゆる分野に及んでいる。 plaats op schalen en snelheden die de veranderingen uit het verleden gewoon in de schaduw stellen. Onze impact bereikt iedereen

corner of the planet today and it's playing out  faster than at any time since our species evolved. そしてそれは、私たちの種が進化して以来、かつてない速さで進行している。

We need to understand that while our impact  may be larger than other species on Earth, 私たちの影響は地球上の他の種よりも大きいかもしれないが、私たちはそれを理解する必要がある、

we aren't the only species on Earth. Right? To find a place that's still so full of 地球上の種は我々だけではない。そうだろう?このような場所にはまだ

it's rich megafauna, is so rare nowadays. It's  very much something that hooks you in place in その豊かなメガファウナは、今ではとても珍しい。それは非常に、あなたをその場にフックするものだ。

the world. To see the sense of scale, just how  large the savanna is and all the megafauna and 世界。サバンナのスケールの大きさ、メガファウナ(巨大動物)たち、そしてその生態系を見ることができる。

these incredible vistas. I don't know. There's  something very humbling about that. Putting 信じられないような景色だ。どうだろう。何かとても謙虚な気持ちになる。パッティング

it in a grander sense of scale, this is where  humanity developed. This is the cradle of mankind. ここは人類が発展した場所である。ここは人類発祥の地なのだ。 het in een grotere betekenis van schaal, dit is waar de mensheid zich ontwikkelde. Dit is de bakermat van de mensheid.

Think about that. The earliest human ancestors  descended from their Australopithecine 考えてみてほしい。最古の人類の祖先は、アウストラロピテクス(アウストラルピテクスの一種)の子孫である。 Denk daar eens over na. De vroegste menselijke voorouders stammen af van hun Australopithecine

predecessors right here in the rift valley  of east Africa, nearly 3 million years ago. 約300万年前、ここ東アフリカの地溝帯で、その前身が誕生した。

That is an incredible sense of connection. This is kind of where we evolved. Isn't that cool? Das ist ein unglaubliches Gefühl der Verbundenheit. Hier haben wir uns irgendwie entwickelt. Ist das nicht cool? それは信じられないようなつながりの感覚だ。私たちはここで進化したようなもの。クールだと思わない?

And this gets at one possible reason  why African megafauna made it. For more Und das ist ein möglicher Grund, warum die afrikanische Megafauna es geschafft hat. Für mehr そしてこれは、アフリカのメガファウナが成功した理由のひとつになる。もっと詳しく

than a hundred thousand years, Africa's  giant species were co-evolving with us, 10万年以上も前から、アフリカの巨大種は我々と共進化していたのだ、

with homo sapiens. And they lived alongside  our specie's ancestors before that. mit dem Homo sapiens. Und sie lebten mit den Vorfahren unserer Spezies vor dieser Zeit. ホモ・サピエンスとともに。そして彼らは、それ以前から私たちの種族の祖先とともに生きてきた。

Early humans in Africa, they certainly hunted  these giants and modified the habitat in big アフリカにいた初期の人類は、確かにこれらの巨人を狩り、生息地を大きく変えた。

ways. But living alongside humans for so long  coevolving that could have given Africa's の方法だ。しかし、これほど長い間、人類と共存共栄してきたのであれば、アフリカがそのような生物になった可能性もある。

megafauna a resilience that the other giants  just didn't have. Outside of Africa, human's メガファウナは、他の巨人にはない回復力を持っていた。アフリカ以外では、人類は

sudden global expansion combined with rapid  climate change at the end of the Pleistocene 更新世末の急激な気候変動と急激な地球規模の拡大

might've meant that evolution couldn't keep up. There's a lesson in the past hidden in those hätte bedeuten können, dass die Evolution nicht mithalten kann. Eine Lektion aus der Vergangenheit ist in diesen 進化が追いつかなかったということかもしれない。そこには過去の教訓が隠されている。

tar pits. If the environment changes too  fast, things disappear on massive scales タールピット環境が急速に変化すれば、大規模な消滅が起こる。

And the story locked in those plant fossils  that ancient climate change happened over Und die Geschichte, die in diesen Pflanzenfossilien steckt, dass der Klimawandel in der Vergangenheit über そして、その植物の化石には、太古の気候変動が起こったという物語が閉じ込められている。

tens of thousands of years, the climate changes  we're seeing today, they're happening on the scale

of decades and they're even more severe.  That really puts into perspective how 何十年も経てば、さらに厳しくなる。このことは

quickly our climate is changing today. Megafauna aside, places like the tar pits wie schnell sich unser Klima heute verändert. Abgesehen von der Megafauna, sind Orte wie die Teergruben 今日の気候は急速に変化している。メガファウナはさておき、タール坑のような場所は

are offering more supportive evidence of how our  climate slowly shifted in the past in comparison 過去に我々の気候がどのようにゆっくりと変化してきたかを示す、より有力な証拠である。

to this rapid shift, we're seeing today. Big things disappeared more than once on この急激な変化に、私たちは今日遭遇している。大きな出来事が一度や二度ではない。

five different continents. We have to  understand that that can happen again.

There's really nowhere else on earth that you  find the scale of animals in number, but also, 動物の数だけでなく、そのスケールの大きさは地球上のどこにもない、

like I said, in size. It would be cool if there  was elephants walking around everywhere, but さっき言ったように、大きさがね。象がそこらじゅうを歩き回っていたらクールだろうけど、でも......。

we've changed the planet in ways that just  doesn't seem to be able to support what we 私たちは地球を変えてしまった。

see here. I think that's just what makes  it even more special. It's something to глянь сюда. Я думаю, именно это делает его еще более особенным. Это что-то

remind us of how much of the world used to be. To be able to study these ecosystems with the は、かつての世界の姿を思い出させてくれる。このような生態系を

megafauna intact gives us a much better  understanding of how environments change

and we could lose all of this. Think for a second about how we're trying to そして、このすべてを失うかもしれない。私たちがどうしようとしているのか、少し考えてみてほしい。

protect the surviving giants today. We're drawing  lines on maps, creating these protected places, 今日、生き残った巨人たちを守るために。私たちは地図に線を引き、保護された場所を作っている、

but that's not enough to protect these species  and these ecosystems. Because the challenges that しかし、それだけではこれらの種や生態系を保護するには不十分である。なぜなら

we're facing today, they don't pay attention to  those borders. And think about the risks of losing 私たちが今直面しているのは、国境に注意を払わないことだ。国境を失うリスクについて考えてみよう

these ancient migrations, these deep animal  cultures, these long lasting relationships,

highly developed skills and senses. The ways of  surviving in this place and all of these places, 高度に発達した技術と感覚。この場所、そしてこれらすべての場所で生き残るための方法、

it'll take tens of millions of years to restore  the biodiversity that has disappeared from Earth, 地球上から姿を消した生物多様性を回復するには、何千万年もかかるだろう、

just since the dawn of our species. These are things that are 私たちの種が誕生して以来。これらは

built into them with millions  of years of evolution 数百万年の進化によって組み込まれた

to do the things that they do in this  place. Changing that in a few human years この場所で彼らがしていることをするために。人間の数年でそれを変える

is asking a lot, maybe too much of these species.  So you may not be able to go to Africa yourself は、これらの種に多くを、もしかしたら多くを求めすぎているのかもしれない。だから、あなた自身がアフリカに行くことはできないかもしれない

or fix climate change on your own, or save every  species from extinction with your own hands,

but there has never been a better time  for individuals to make a positive impact. しかし、個人がポジティブな影響を与えるのにこれほど適した時期はない。

So true. Volunteers help protect that  Mission blue butterfly. And scientists その通り。ボランティアはあのミッション・ブルー・バタフライの保護に役立っている。そして科学者たちは

climb trees to understand how to save forests.  Passionate people listen to birds singing during 森を守る方法を理解するために木に登る。情熱的な人々は、森で鳥のさえずりに耳を傾ける。

a pandemic. All of these people do their part  and we don't know how big our impact might be.

But we have to try because the only way to  find the answers is to keep looking for them. しかし、答えを見つける唯一の方法は探し続けることなのだから、努力しなければならない。

When I was at La Brea, I saw just how much there  is to still learn about our place in all of this. ラ・ブレアにいたとき、このすべてにおける私たちの居場所について、まだまだ学ぶべきことがたくさんあることを目の当たりにした。

It kind of blows my mind. A hundred years ago, the  people who were initially excavating these pits Das verblüfft mich irgendwie. Vor hundert Jahren haben die Leute, die diese Gruben ursprünglich ausgehoben haben. ちょっと驚かされるよ。100年前、最初にこれらの穴を発掘していた人たちは

could probably not have any  idea that you'd be able to ができるようになるとは、おそらく考えもしなかっただろう。

look at this on literally such a granular scale. Yeah. I'm the only other person that's ever looked 文字通り、このような細かいスケールで見ている。そうです。

at this. So you're the second person in the world. What? これで世界で2番目の人間なんだね。え? на это. Значит, ты второй человек в мире. Какие?

In the history, in the whole record  of time to see these specimens. 歴史の中で、時間の記録の中で、これらの標本を見ることができる。 В истории, во всей истории, когда-либо приходилось видеть эти экземпляры.

That's pretty amazing. I can discover  a new species today. Here on camera. すごいことだよ。私は今日、新種を発見することができる。カメラの前で

You probably already did  and you just didn't know it. おそらく、すでにそうなっていて、ただ知らなかっただけだろう。