Strange, vein-like shadows imprinted in ancient rocks are some of the most important clues yet in piecing together the timeline of photosynthesis.
在古代岩石上留下的奇怪的脈狀陰影是拼湊光合作用時間線的一些最重要的線索。
At 1 billion years old, the tiny fossils are the oldest example of green algae we've ever discovered.
這些微小的化石已經有10億年的歷史了，是我們所發現的最古老的綠藻例子。
Even from all those aeons ago, the fossils show evidence of characteristics in common with modern algae.
即使是在億萬年前，這些化石也顯示出與現代藻類共同特徵的證據。
They represent multicellular organisms with branching structures and even root systems.
它們代表具有分支結構甚至根系的多細胞生物。
Palaeontologists have named the newly discovered, ancient algae Proterocladus antiquus, and it beats the previous record-holder - the fragmentary Proterocladus, 800 million years old (it's possible they're both the same species).
古生物學家將這種新發現的古老藻類命名為Proterocladus antiquus，它擊敗了之前的記錄保持者-8億年前的殘缺Proterocladus(很可能它們都是同一物種)。
This discovery suggests seaweed were already thriving in the ocean, long before plants migrated to dry land.
這一發現表明，早在植物遷徙到陸地之前，海藻就已經在海洋中繁衍生息。
"The entire biosphere is largely dependent on plants and algae for food and oxygen, yet land plants did not evolve until about 450 million years ago," said palaeontologist Shuhai Xiao of Virginia Tech.
弗吉尼亞理工大學的古生物學家肖舒海說：“整個生物圈很大程度上依賴於植物和藻類作為食物和氧氣，然而陸地植物直到大約4.5億年前才進化。”
"Our study shows that green seaweeds evolved no later than 1 billion years ago, pushing back the record of green seaweeds by about 200 million years."
“我們的研究表明，綠色海藻的進化不遲於10億年前，將綠色海藻的記錄推遲了大約2億年。”
(Tang et al., Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2020)
(唐等，自然生態與進化，2020)
The fossils themselves are tiny, just a few millimetres long - flea-sized smears on sedimentary rock found in the Nanfen Formation in Liaoning Province, North China.
化石本身很小，在中國北方遼寧省南芬組發現的沉積岩上只有幾毫米長的跳蚤大小的塗抹。
But when studied under a microscope, their delicate, branching forms are crystal clear.
但當在顯微鏡下研究時，它們精緻的分枝形式是晶瑩剔透的。
Older algae fossils have been found - a red alga called Bangiomorpha pubescens, which was dated to around 1.047 billion years ago.
人們已經發現了更古老的藻類化石-一種名為“紅藻”的紅藻，其年代約為10.47億年前。
It's also an important find for our understanding of photosynthesis, but P. antiquus is different because it's green.
這對於我們理解光合作用也是一個重要的發現，但古猿是不同的，因為它是綠色的。
It's thought that green plants - Viridiplantae - emerged sometime between 2.5 billion and 635 million years ago.
人們認為綠色植物-Viridiplantae-在25億到6.35億年前的某個時候出現了。
Because ancient plant fossils are rare, narrowing that timeline down has been extremely difficult.
因為古代植物化石是稀有的，所以縮小時間線是極其困難的。
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