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The Cambrian explosion 寒武纪大爆发 Kingdom come 动物王国出现 Chinese palaeontologists hope to explain the riseof the animals 中国古生物学家希望解释动物的起源 AMONG the mysteries of evolution, one of the most profound is what exactly happened atthe beginning of the Cambrian period. 在众多进化之谜中，其中意义最深远的就是在寒武纪开始时期到底发生了什么。 Before that period, which started 541m years ago and ran on for 56m years, life was amodest thing. 在寒武纪之前，从5.41亿年前开始持续5600万年的时代里，生命是适度存在的。 Bacteria had been around for about 3 billion years, but for most of this time they had had theEarth to themselves. 细菌已经存在了大约30亿年，但是在多数时间里，它们主宰着地球。 Seaweeds, jellyfish-like creatures,sponges and the odd worm do start to put in an appearance a few million years before theCambrian begins. 海藻、类似水母的生物、海绵生物和奇怪的虫子确实在寒武纪开始的前几百万年已经出现。 But red in tooth and claw the Precambrian was notfor neither teeth nor claws existed. | 
