Near the end of an era called the carboniferous, earth started to cool.

在石炭纪时代末期，地球开始降温。

The long-ago seas of the Carboniferous and Devonian swarmed with tiny plankton that wrapped themselves inside tiny protective shells.

泥盆纪和石炭纪的古代海洋里生活着大批微小的浮游生物。它们躲在小小的保护性壳里。

And even further, there hasn't been any glacial activity here since the carboniferous ended nearly 300 million years ago.

此外，自近 3 亿年前石炭纪结束以来，这里就没有出现过任何冰川活动。

New research is providing a deeper understanding of Whatcheeria, which lived around 330 million years ago during a time known as the Carboniferous period.

新的研究让人们对瓦切螈有了更深入的了解，它生活在大约3。3亿年前被称为石炭纪的时期。

It lived in the Inland Seas of North America 300 million years ago at the very end of the carboniferous period.

生活在3亿年前石炭纪末期的北美洲内海。

In addition to really putting the carbon in the Carboniferous, this storage of CO2 also created a sort of reverse-greenhouse effect.

除了真正将碳放入石炭纪之外，这种二氧化碳储存还产生了一种逆向温室效应。

And although the first amniotes evolved in the Carboniferous, it was during the Permian that they started taking over the world's land environments.

尽管第一批羊膜动物是在石炭纪进化而来的，但它们是在二叠纪才开始占据世界的陆地环境。

The whole history of the carboniferous period was written upon these gloomy walls, and a geologist might with ease trace all its diverse phases.

石炭纪的整个历史都写在这些阴暗的墙壁上，地质学家可以轻松地追踪其所有不同的阶段。

And eventually, some hairless ape dug it up and burned it, releasing the energy that the scale trees absorbed from the Carboniferous sun over 300 million years ago.

最终， 一些无毛猿将其挖出并焚烧，释放出鳞片树在 3 亿多年前从石炭纪太阳吸收的能量。

And back in the Carboniferous, many of the decomposing microbes that could break down the hardy lignin -- and release CO2 as a result -- had yet to evolve.

回到石炭纪，许多可以分解坚硬木质素并因此释放二氧化碳的分解微生物尚未进化。

During the Carboniferous, much of the Earth was covered in lush forests and swamps, and this is where the scale trees flourished, sometimes growing as tall as a 15-story building.

在石炭纪， 地球的大部分地区都被茂密的森林和沼泽所覆盖，这里正是鳞茎繁茂的地方，有时甚至可以长到 15 层楼那么高。

For roughly 65 million years, basically the second half of the Devonian Period and the first half of the Carboniferous, insects existed and continued to evolve, but for some reason, they weren't preserved very often in the fossil record.

在大约 6500 万年的时间里， 基本上是泥盆纪后半期和石炭纪上半期，昆虫存在并继续进化，但由于某种原因， 它们在化石记录中的保存并不频繁。