听力课堂TED音频栏目主要包括TED演讲的音频MP3及中英双语文稿，供各位英语爱好者学习使用。本文主要内容为演讲MP3+双语文稿:城市中的动植物是如何进化的，希望你会喜欢！

【演讲者及介绍】Menno Schilthuizen

Menno Schilthuizen研究城市中的动物和植物，以及它们如何适应新的城市栖息地。

【演讲主题】城市中的动植物是如何进化的

How animals and plants are evolving in cities

【中英文字幕】

翻译者Lilian Chiu 校对者Helen Chang

A small village near the city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. This is where I grew up. In the 1970s and 1980s, when I was a teenager, this area was still a quiet place. It was full of farms and fields and swampland, and I spent my free time there, enjoying myself, painting oil paintings like this one, collecting wildflowers, bird-watching and also collecting insects.

鹿特丹市附近的小村子， 位在荷兰。这是我长大的地方。 七零和八零年代，我还是青少年时， 这个区域还十分安静。 满满都是农场、田野、沼泽地， 我有空就会去那里， 自己玩得很愉快， 画像这样的油画、 采集野花、赏鸟、 还捕集昆虫。

And this was one of my prized finds. This is a very special beetle, an amazing beetle called an ant beetle. And this is a kind of beetle that lives its entire life inside an ant's nest. It has evolved to speak ant. It's using the same chemical signals, the same smells as the ants do, for communicating, and right now, this beetle is telling this worker ant, "Hey, I'm also a worker ant, I'm hungry, please feed me." And the ant complies, because the beetle is using the same chemicals. Over these millions of years, this beetle has evolved a way to live inside an ant society.

这是我最有价值的发现之一。 这是一只非常特别的甲虫， 这种不可思议的甲虫叫做蚂蚁甲虫。 这种甲虫一生 都住在蚂蚁的巢穴中。 牠演化成会说蚂蚁语。 牠会使用和蚂蚁同样的化学讯号 及味道来沟通， 此时，这只甲虫在告诉这只工蚁： 「嘿，我也是工蚁， 我饿了，请给我食物。」 蚂蚁也照做了， 因为这只甲虫使用同样的化学物质。 在这数百万年间， 这种甲虫演化出一种 能住在蚂蚁社会中的方式。

Over the years, when I was living in that village, I collected 20,000 different beetles, and I built a collection of pinned beetles. And this got me interested, at a very early age, in evolution. How do all those different forms, how does all this diversity come about?

我住在那个村子里的那些年， 我捕集了两万种不同的甲虫， 我把甲虫钉起来，做成一系列收藏。 这让我在非常小的时候 就对演化感到兴趣。 各种形式，这么惊人的 多样性是怎么来的？

So I became an evolutionary biologist, like Charles Darwin. And like Charles Darwin, I also soon became frustrated by the fact that evolution is something that happened mostly in the past. We study the patterns that we see today, trying to understand the evolution that took place in the past, but we can never actually see it taking place in real time. We cannot observe it. As Darwin himself already said, "We see nothing of these slow changes in progress, until the hand of time has marked the lapse of ages." Or do we?

所以我成为了演化生物学家， 和查尔斯·达尔文一样。 也和查尔斯·达尔文一样， 我很快就感到挫折， 因为演化大部分发生在过去。 我们研究现今所见的模式， 试图了解过去所发生的演化， 但我们永远无法看到 实时的演化发生。 我们无法观察演化。 达尔文自己已经说过： 「我们看不见这些缓慢的变化过程， 直到非常长的时间过后。｣ 或者其实我们看得见

Over the past few decades, evolutionary biologists have come to realize that sometimes, evolution proceeds much faster and it can actually be observed, especially when the environment changes drastically and the need to adapt is great. And of course, these days, great environmental changes are usually caused by us. We mow, we irrigate, we plow, we build, we pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere that change the climate. We release exotic plants and animals in places where they didn't live before, and we harvest fish and trees and game for our food and other needs.

在过去数十年间， 演化生物学家渐渐了解到，有时， 演化进行的速度快到 可以被观察到， 特别是当环境剧烈改变时， 有很大的适应需求。 当然，如今， 很大的环境改变通常是人类造成的。 我们刈草、灌溉、犁地、建造、 我们将温室气体排放到大气中， 改变了气候。 我们将外来植物和动物放到 它们以前没有待过的地方， 我们为了饱食以及其他需求 去捕鱼、去砍树、去狩猎。

And all these environmental changes reach their epicenter in cities. Cities form a completely new habitat that we have created. And we clothe it in brick and concrete and glass and steel, which are impervious surfaces that plants can only root in with the greatest difficulty.

在城市中的环境改变最显著。 城市形成了全新的栖息地， 都是由我们所创造。 我们用砖块、混凝土、玻璃、 钢铁将它们覆盖起来， 这些都是无法渗透的表面， 植物极难扎根。

Also in cities, we find the greatest concentrations of chemical pollution, of artificial light and noise. And we find wild mixtures of plants and animals from all over the world that live in the city, because they have escaped from the gardening and aquarium and pet trade.

此外，城市里有 最高浓度的化学物质污染、 最严重的人工光害以及噪音。 我们发现来自世界各地的 植物及动物在城市里狂野混杂， 因为它们逃离了花园、 水族馆、宠物贸易。

And what does a species do when it lives in a completely changed environment? Well, many, of course, go, sadly, extinct. But the ones that don't go extinct, they adapt in spectacular ways. Biologists these days are beginning to realize that cities are today's pressure cookers of evolution. These are places where wild animals and plants are evolving under our eyes very rapidly to suit these new, urban conditions. Exactly like the ant beetle did millions of years ago, when it moved inside an ant colony. We now find animals and plants that have moved inside the human colony and are adapting to our cities. And in doing so, we're also beginning to realize that evolution can actually proceed very fast. It does not always take the long lapse of ages; it can happen under our very eyes.

当某个物种生活的环境 完全改变了，会如何？ 当然，不幸的是， 许多物种会因此绝种。 但没有绝种的那些物种 会以很惊人的方式适应。 现今的生物学家开始了解到 城市是现代的演化高压锅。 在这些地方，野生动物和植物 会在我们眼前以非常快的速度演化， 以配合新的都市条件。 这就和数百万年前 蚂蚁甲虫所做的一样， 搬入到蚂蚁聚居地去。 现在，我们发现动物和植物 搬入了人类聚居地， 且开始适应我们的城市。 从这当中，我们也开始了解， 演化其实可以进行得非常快速。 不见得要经过很久的时间； 有可能就在我们眼前发生。

This, for example, is the white-footed mouse. This is a native mammal from the area around New York, and more than 400 years ago, before the city was built, this mouse lived everywhere. But these days, they are stuck in little islands of green, the city's parks, surrounded by a sea of tarmac and traffic. A bit like a modern-day version of Darwin's finches on the Galapagos.

比如，这是白脚老鼠。 是来自纽约地区的原生哺乳类动物， 在四百多年前，尚未建造城市时， 这种老鼠无所不在。 但现今，牠们被困在 小小的绿色岛屿上， 也就是城市里的公园， 被大片的柏油与街道所环绕。 有点像是在加拉巴哥各个邻近的小岛上 分别演化的达尔文雀的现代版。

And like Darwin's finches, the mice in each separate park have started evolving, have started to become different from each other. And this is my colleague, Jason Munshi-South, from Fordham University, who is studying this process. He is studying the DNA of the white-footed mice in New York City's parks, and trying to understand how they are beginning to evolve in that archipelago of islands. And he's using a kind of DNA fingerprinting, and he says, "If somebody gives me a mouse, doesn't tell me where it's from, just by looking at its DNA, I can tell exactly from which park it comes." That's how different they have become.

也像达尔文雀， 在每个独立公园中的老鼠 都已经开始分别演化， 开始变得和彼此不同。 这是我在福坦莫大学的同事 杰森·蒙西少斯， 他在研究这个过程。 他研究纽约市各个公园中的 白脚老鼠的 DNA， 并试图了解牠们如何 在那些像群岛的公园中分开演化。 他使用某种 DNA 指纹分析， 他说：「如果给我一只老鼠， 不要告诉我牠来自何处， 光是去看牠的 DNA， 我就能准确辨识出 牠来自哪一个公园。」 牠们的差异现在就有这么大。

And Jason has also discovered that those changes, these evolutionary changes, are not random, they mean something. For example, in Central Park, we find that the mice have evolved genes that allow them to deal with very fatty food. Human food. Twenty-five million people visit Central Park each year. It's the most heavily visited park in North America. And those people leave behind snack food and peanuts and junk food, and the mice have started feeding on that, and it's a completely different diet than what they're used to, and over the years, they have evolved to suit this very fatty, very human diet.

杰森也发现， 那些改变，那些演化改变， 并不是随机的，是有意义的。 比如，在中央公园， 我们发现老鼠演化出一种基因， 让牠们可以消化非常油腻的食物。 人类的食物。 每年有两千五百万人造访中央公园。 是北美最多人参观的公园。 那些人会留下零嘴、 花生、垃圾食物， 老鼠就开始吃那些东西， 和牠们过去习惯的饮食截然不同， 这些年来，牠们已经演化到能适应 非常油腻、非常人类的饮食。

And this is another city slicker animal. This is the European garden snail. A very common snail, it comes in all kinds of color variations, ranging from pale yellow to dark brown. And those colors are completely determined by the snail's DNA. And those colors also determine the heat management of the snail that lives inside that shell. For example, a snail that sits in the sunlight, in the bright sun, if it has a pale yellow shell, it doesn't heat up as much as a snail that sits inside a dark brown shell. Just like when you're sitting in a white car, you stay cooler than when you're sitting inside a black car.

这是另一种时髦的城市动物。 这是欧洲庭园蜗牛， 非常常见的蜗牛， 有各种颜色变化， 从淡黄色到深褐色都有。 那些颜色完全是由 蜗牛的 DNA 来决定。 那些颜色也决定了 住在壳内的蜗牛对高温的调节方式。 比如，当蜗牛处在非常强的日光下， 如果牠的壳是淡黄色，就不会 像深褐色壳中的蜗牛增温那么多。 就像你坐在白色汽车中 会比较坐在黑色汽车中更凉爽。

Now there is a phenomenon called the urban heat islands, which means that in the center of a big city, the temperature can be several degrees higher than outside of the big city. That has to do with the fact that you have these concentrations of millions of people, and all their activities and their machineries, they generate heat. Also, the wind is blocked by the tall buildings, and all the steel and brick and concrete absorb the solar heat and they radiate it out at night. So you get this bubble of hot air in the center of a big city, and my students and I figured that maybe those garden snails, with their variable shells, are adapting to the urban heat islands. Maybe in the center of a city, we find that the shell color is evolving in a direction to reduce overheating of the snails.

有一种现象叫做都市热岛， 意思就是，在大城市的中心， 温度可能会比大城市外 还要高上几度。 原因是因为有数百万人 集中在城市里， 还有他们的各种活动 和他们的机器，都会产生热。 此外，风也会被高耸的建筑阻挡， 各种钢铁、磗块、 混凝土都会吸收太阳热， 在晚上时释放出来。 所以一大团热空气 会包在大城市的中心。 我学生和我认为 也许那些有各种不同背壳的庭园蜗牛 是在适应都市热岛。 也许，在城市中心， 我们会发现蜗牛壳颜色朝着 避免让蜗牛过度受热的方向演化。

And to study this, we started a citizen-science project. We built a free smartphone app, which allowed people all over the Netherlands to take pictures of snails in their garden, in their street, also in the countryside, and upload them to a citizen science web platform. And over a year, we got 10,000 pictures of snails that had been photographed in the Netherlands, and when we started analyzing the results, we found that indeed, our suspicions were confirmed. In the center of the urban heat islands, we find that the snails have evolved more yellow, more lighter-colored shells.

为了研究这个现象， 我们展开了一个公民科学计划。 我们开发了一个免费的手机程序， 让荷兰各地的使用者 可以拍摄他们花园里、 街上，以及乡间的蜗牛， 再将这些照片上传到 一个公民科学网平台上。 一年多来，我们得到了一万张 在荷兰拍摄的蜗牛照片， 当我们开始分析这些结果， 我们发现，的确， 我们的假设得到了确认。 在都市热岛的中心， 我们发现蜗牛演化出 比较黄、比较淡色的壳。

Now the city snail and the Manhattan mouse are just two examples of a growing list of animals and plants that have evolved to suit this new habitat, this city habitat that we have created. And in a book that I've written about this subject, the subject of urban evolution, I give many more examples. For example, weeds that have evolved seeds that are better at germinating on the pavement. Grasshoppers that have evolved a song that has a higher pitch when they live close to noisy traffic. Mosquitoes that have evolved to feed on the blood of human commuters inside metro stations. And even the common city pigeon that has evolved ways to detox themselves from heavy-metal pollution by putting it in their feathers.

城市蜗牛和曼哈顿老鼠 只是两个例子， 还有越来越多的动物和植物 演化以适应新的栖息地， 我们创造出的城市栖息地。 我针对都市演化 这个主题写了一本书， 书中有更多例子。 比如，野草已经演化出 更能在人行道上发芽的种子。 住在接近吵闹交通地区的蚱蜢 也已经演化出音调更高的鸣叫。 蚊子演化成在地铁站内 以人类通勤者的血液为食。 就连常见的城市鸽子， 也演化出重金属污染的解毒方式， 将之导入羽毛中。

Biologists like myself, all over the world, are becoming interested in this fascinating process of urban evolution. We are realizing that we're really at a unique event in the history of life on earth. A completely new ecosystem that is evolving and adapting to a habitat that we have created.

全世界像我这样的生物学家 开始对于都市演化 这个迷人过程感到兴趣。 我们了解到，我们目前身处于 地球生命历史上 一个独一无二的事件中。 一个全新的生态系统， 演化并适应了我们 创造出来的栖息地。

And not just academics -- we're also beginning to enlist the millions of pairs of hands and ears and eyes that are present in the city. Citizen scientists, schoolchildren -- together with them, we are building a global observation network which allows us to watch this process of urban evolution taking place in real time. And at the same time, this also makes it clear to people that evolution is not just some abstract thing that you need to travel to the Galapagos to study, or that you need to be a paleontologist to understand what it is. It's a very ordinary biological process that's taking place all the time, everywhere. In your backyard, in the street where you live, right outside of this theater.

不只是学术圈—— 我们也开始招募城市中的 数百万双手、耳朵、眼睛。 公民科学家、学童—— 我们携手合作建造全球的观察网络， 让我们可以实时观看 这个都市演化的过程发生。 同时，这也能让大家清楚知道， 演化不是要跑到加拉巴哥群岛 才能研究的抽象主题， 你也不需要成为古生物学者 才能了解演化。 它是个非常平凡的生物过程， 时时刻刻在各处发生。 在你的后院，在你住的那条街上， 就在这间剧院外面。

But there is, of course, a flip side to my enthusiasm. When I go back to the village where I grew up, I no longer find those fields and swamps that I knew from my youth. The village has now been absorbed by the growing conglomeration of Rotterdam, and instead, I find shopping malls and I find suburbs and bus lanes. And many of the animals and plants that I was so accustomed to have disappeared, including perhaps that ant beetle.

但，当然，我的热情也有另一面。 当我回到我长大的村子时， 我找不到我年轻时 认识的那些田野和沼泽了。 这个村子现在被鹿特丹 不断成长的企业集团给吸收， 我找到的是购物中心、 郊区和公交车专用道。 我以前熟知的动物和植物消失了， 可能也包括蚂蚁甲虫。

But I take comfort in the fact that the children growing up in that village today may no longer be experiencing that traditional nature that I grew up with, but they're surrounded by a new type of nature, a new type of ecosystem, that, to them, might be just as exciting as the old type was to me. They are living in a new, modern-day Galapagos. And by teaming up with citizen scientists and with evolutionary biologists like myself, they might become the Darwins of the 21st century, studying urban evolution.

但让我欣慰的是， 现今在那个村子里长大的孩子 可能无法体验到 陪我长大的传统大自然， 但他们的周围全是新型的大自然， 新型的生态系统， 他们可能也会感到兴奋， 正如我为当年的大自然兴奋那样。 如今他们住在现代的加拉巴哥群岛。 透过和公民科学家 以及我这样的演化生物学家合作， 他们有可能会变成 二十一世纪的达尔文， 研究都市演化。

Thank you.

谢谢。