2019 2020新教材高中英语Unit5Intothewild课件外研版必修第一册.ppt

Unit 5 Into the wild 对于动物的灭绝， 很多人猜测是气候的原因， 其实， 有时候 人类才是动物生存最大的威胁。 我们要保护动植物， 与它们和谐 相处。 Climate change, not human hunting, may have wiped out the thylacine ( 袋狼 ), according to a new study based on DNA from thylacines' bones. The meat- eating marsupials ( 有袋动物 ) died out on mainla nd Australia a few thousand years ago, but survived in Tasma nia, an island of southeast Australia separated from the mainla nd, until the 1930s. Until then, scientists had believed the caus e of this mainland extinction ( 灭绝 ) was increased activity fro m native Australians and dingoes (Australian wild dogs) ． Scientists behind the University of Adelaide study, which was published in the Journal of Biogeography on Thursday, co llected 51 new thylacine DNA samples from fossil bones and museum skins — the largest data set of thylacine DNA to dat e. The paper concluded that climate change starting about 4,00 0 years ago — in particular drier seasons caused by the weath er systems known as El Ni? o — Southern Oscillation ( 南方涛动 ) — was likely the main cause of the mainland extinction. The ancient DNA showed that the mainland extinction of thylacines was rapid, and not the result of loss of genetic dive rsity. There was also evidence of a population crash in thylaci nes in Tasmania at the same period of time, reducing their nu mbers and genetic diversity. Associate Professor Jeremy Austin said Tasmania would ha ve been protected from mainland Australia's warmer, drier clim ate due to its higher rainfall. He argued that climate change w as “ the only thing that could have caused, or at least started, an extinction on the mainland and caused a population crash i n Tasmania. ” “ They both happened at about the same ti