NEW YORK–STYLE TIME MACHINE
纽约式时间机器
NEW YORK-STYLE TIME MACHINE Q. I assume when you travel back in time you end up at the same spot on the Earth 8217;s surface. At least, that 8217;s how it worked in the Back to the Future movies. If so, what would it be like if you traveled back in time, starting in Times Square, New York, 1000 years? 10,000 years? 100,000 years? 1,000,000 years? 1,000,000,000 years? What about forward in time 1,000,000 years?
Q．我总认为当你回到过去时，你会到达和穿越前同一位置的地方，至少在电影《回到未来》中是这样的。如果真是如此，那么站在纽约的时代广场向前穿越1千年会怎样？1万年呢？10万年呢？100万年呢？10亿年呢？如果是向未来穿越100万年呢？ ——马克.德特兰
1000 years back
1千年前
Manhattan has been continuously inhabited for the past 3000 years, and was first settled by humans perhaps 9000 years ago.
在过去3千年间，曼哈顿地区就一直有人居住。最早来此定居的人大约是在9千年前。
In the 1600s, when Europeans arrived, the area was inhabited by the Lenape people.1 The Lenape were a loose confederation of tribes who lived in what is now Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware.
欧洲人于17世纪来到这里，那时居住在此的还是勒纳佩人。1勒纳佩人是一个由众多部落组成的松散联盟，住在如今的康涅狄格、纽约、新泽西以及特拉华地区。
A thousand years ago, the area was probably inhabited by a similar collection of tribes, but those inhabitants lived half a millennium before European contact. They were as far removed from the Lenape of the 1600s as the Lenape of the 1600s are from the modern day.
1千年前，这个地区很有可能还居住着一群相似的部落联合体，但是此时距离欧洲人初次抵达还有500年。他们和17世纪勒纳佩人的距离，就像勒纳佩人和现代人的距离一样远。
To see what Times Square looked like before a city was there, we turn to a remarkable project called Welikia, which grew out of a smaller project called Mannahatta. The Welikia project has produced a detailed ecological map of the landscape in New York City at the time of the arrival of Europeans.
要想知道1千年前连城市都没有的时代广场看上去是什么样，我们就要借助一个伟大的项目：威利极亚（Welikia）2。它是由一个更小的项目——曼纳哈塔（Mannahatta）发展而来的。威利极亚计划已经绘制出了欧洲人第一次到达纽约城时那里的详细生态地貌图。
The interactive map, available online at welikia , is a fantastic snapshot of a different New York. In 1609, the island of Manhattan was part of a landscape of rolling hills, marshes, woodlands, lakes, and rivers.
在welikia 上，我们可以看到互动式的地图，一窥纽约以前的美景。1609年，曼哈顿岛还是由起伏的山脉、沼泽、林地、湖泊和河流形成的地景的一部分。
The Times Square of 1000 years ago may have looked ecologically similar to the Times Square described by Welikia. Superficially, it probably resembled the old-growth forests that are still found in a few locations in the northeastern US. However, there would be some notable differences.
1千年前的时代广场的样子应该和威利极亚中描述的差不多。表面上看，可能会觉得它有点像如今生长在美国东北部的那些古老森林，但两者还是有一些显著差异。
There would be more large animals 1000 years ago. Today 8217;s disconnected patchwork of northeastern old-growth forests is nearly free of large predators; we have some bears, few wolves and coyotes, and virtually no mountain lions. (Our deer populations, on the other hand, have exploded, thanks in part to the removal of large predators.)
1千年前的时代广场有更多大型动物。如今在美国东北地区零碎分布的小片古老森林里，已经几乎见不到大型食肉动物了。那里还有一些熊、少量的狼和郊狼，几乎没有山狮。（不过鹿群的数量暴增，部分原因是大型食肉动物都消失了。）
The forests of New York 1000 years ago would be full of chestnut trees. Before a blight passed through in the early twentieth century, the hardwood forests of eastern North America were about 25 percent chestnut. Now, only their stumps survive.
1千年前的纽约森林本应满是栗树。20世纪初期的枯萎病发生之前，北美东部的硬木林曾有四分之一是栗树，但现在活下来的只有树桩了。
You can still come across these stumps in New England forests today. They periodically sprout new shoots, only to see them wither as the blight takes hold. Someday, before too long, the last of the stumps will die.
现在在新英格兰的森林，你还能看到那些树桩。它们会间歇性地生出新芽来，但不久就会因枯萎病而死去。用不了多久，最后的栗树树桩也会死去。
Wolves would be common in the forests, especially as you moved inland. You might also encounter mountain lions2,3,4,5,6 and 7passenger pigeons.
在森林中狼很常见，随着你往内陆行进还会越来越多。你可能还会在内陆地区的森林里遇上山狮3，4，5，6，7和旅鸽。
There 8217;s one thing you would not see: earthworms. There were no earthworms in New England when the European colonists arrived. To see the reason for the worms 8217; absence, let 8217;s take our next step into the past.
但有一种生物你不会看到：蚯蚓。当欧洲殖民者第一次来到新英格兰地区时，那里还没有蚯蚓。要想知道其中的原因，我们将视线移到更早的时期。
10,000 years back
1万年前
The Earth of 10,000 years ago was just emerging from a deep cold period.
一万年前的地球刚从冰河期里走出来。
The great ice sheets that covered New England had departed. As of 22,000 years ago, the southern edge of the ice was near Staten Island, but by 18,000 years ago it had retreated north past Yonkers.8 By the time of our arrival, 10,000 years ago, the ice had largely withdrawn across the present-day Canadian border.
此前覆盖新英格兰的大冰盖刚刚消退。2.2万年前，冰盖的南端在斯塔顿岛附近，但在1.8万年前，冰盖向北退到了杨克斯以北。9到了1万年前，大部分冰盖已经后退到如今的加拿大边境以北了。
The ice sheets scoured the landscape down to bedrock. Over the next 10,000 years, life crept slowly back northward. Some species moved north faster than others; when Europeans arrived in New England, earthworms had not yet returned.
冰盖的消退抹去了基岩以上的所有东西。在之后的1万年里，生命开始渐渐转移回来。一些物种向北移动的速度比其他物种快，当欧洲人到达新英格兰时，蚯蚓还没回到那里呢。
As the ice sheets withdrew, large chunks of ice broke off and were left behind.
随着冰盖的消退，一部分大冰块从整体上脱落下来，就这样遗留在地面上。
When these chunks melted, they left behind water-filled depressions in the ground called kettlehole ponds. Oakland Lake, near the north end of Springfield Boulevard in Queens, is one of these kettlehole ponds. The ice sheets also dropped boulders they 8217;d picked up on their journey; some of these rocks, called glacial erratics, can be found in Central Park today.
当这些冰块融化后，产生的水填满了地面上的低洼处，形成了所谓的锅穴湖。位于昆士兰的斯普林菲尔德大道北部尽头处的奥克兰湖就是一个锅穴湖。撤退的冰盖还会留下形成期间夹杂的卵石，这些石头被称为冰川漂砾，如今在中央公园还能看到。
Below the ice, rivers of meltwater flowed at high pressure, depositing sand and gravel as they went. These deposits, which remain as ridges called eskers, crisscross the landscape in the woods outside my home in Boston. They are responsible for a variety of odd landforms, including the world 8217;s only vertical U-shaped riverbeds.
在冰川下，融水形成的河流在高压下流动，在所经之处堆积起大量沙石。这些沉积物形成了所谓的“冰河沙堆”（eskers）的脊，在现今我位于波士顿的家旁边的树林处纵横交错。很多奇奇怪怪的地形都是由这种现象造成的，包括世界上仅存的垂直U形谷河床。
100,000 years back
10万年前
The world of 100,000 years ago might have looked a lot like our own.9 We live in an era of rapid, pulsating glaciations, but for 10,000 years our climate has been stable10 and warm.
10万年前的世界看起来可能和现在的世界更加相像。10a我们生活的时代里充满了快速交替的冰期，但在过去的1万年里，我们的气候一直保持稳定11和温暖。
A hundred thousand years ago, Earth was near the end of a similar period of climate stability. It was called the Sangamon interglacial, and it probably supported a developed ecology that would look familiar to us.
10万年前，地球正处在一个相似的气候稳定期末端，这个时期被称为桑加蒙间冰期。那时可能也有一个像我们现在这样高度发达的生态系统。
The coastal geography would be totally different; Staten Island, Long Island, Nantucket, and Martha 8217;s Vineyard were all berms pushed up by the most recent bulldozer-like advance of the ice. A hundred millennia ago, different islands dotted the coast.
不过那时的海岸地质和现在完全不同，斯塔顿岛、长岛、楠塔基特岛和马萨葡萄园岛都是被最近一次的冰川像推土机一样推挤而成的坡台。在10万年前，海岸附近是另一批岛屿。
Many of today 8217;s animals would be found in those woods-birds, squirrels, deer, wolves, black bears-but there would be a few dramatic additions. To learn about those, we turn to the mystery of the pronghorn.
那时的丛林里可以找到许多现在的动物——比如鸟类、松鼠、鹿、狼、黑熊，除此以外还有一些很神奇的物种。要想了解这些生物，我们首先来看看谜一般的叉角羚。
The modern pronghorn (American antelope) presents a puzzle. It 8217;s a fast runner-in fact, it 8217;s much faster than it needs to be. It can run at 55 mph, and sustain that speed over long distances. Yet its fastest predators, wolves and coyotes, barely break 35 mph in a sprint. Why did the pronghorn evolve such speed?
现代的叉角羚（美洲羚羊）仍然是一个谜。它们能跑得飞快，速度远比生存所需的最高速度更快。它们能以每小时88千米的速度飞奔，并且能在很长一段距离内保持这个速度。而它们跑得最快的捕食者狼和郊狼在极速时也只能勉强突破每小时56千米。那么叉角羚为什么会进化出这么快的速度呢？
The answer is that the world in which the pronghorn evolved was a much more dangerous place than ours. A hundred thousand years ago, North American woods were home to Canis dirus (the dire wolf), Arctodus (the short-faced bear), and Smilodon fatalis (sabre-toothed cat), each of which may have been faster and deadlier than modern predators. All died out in the Quaternary extinction event, which occured shortly after the first humans colonized the continent.
答案在于叉角羚进化时所处的环境远比现在的环境更加危险。10万年前，北美丛林是恐狼、短面熊和剑齿虎的家园，它们之中的任何一种都可能比现代捕食者跑得更快，也更加致命。不过它们都在第四纪灭绝事件（即冰河时期灭绝事件）中灭亡了，在此之前刚有人类来到美洲。
If we go back a little further, we will meet another frightening predator.
如果我们把视线再往前移，就会看到更可怕的捕食者。