Digging in the Kenyan desert scientists found what they believe are the oldest, humanlike footprints – footprints that were embedded in mud 1.5 million years ago. The footprints are approximately a men’s shoe size 9, providing a height of about 5 feet 9 inches – most likely Homo erectus. The prints give compelling evidence of a long stride, an arch giving spring to the step and toes in alignment to absorb weight as the foot rolled forward. According to anthropologists, the evolution of the foot was crucial to becoming human. It allowed people to run for food – and then for office.
Paleontologists in Peru found the cranium of a bird that lived 10 million years ago. This species had a wingspan of 19.7 feet and fed mostly on fish from the Pacific Ocean. Because of the inefficiency of its wings, the bird had trouble taking off from the ground and needed an elevated site. However, teeth at the front of its beak enabled the bird to chew in flight. Bad design didn’t cause this bird’s extinction 2.5 million years ago. According to the paleontologists, it couldn’t survive the climate change. It seems the danger from climate change isn’t an idea that’s for the birds.
Canadian researchers claim to have discovered the smallest North American dinosaur. “Hesperonychus elizabethae” was a 4.4 pound carnivore that roamed 75 million years ago. Standing 1.6 feet tall, the creature ran on two legs, had dagger-like teeth and an enlarged sickle-shaped claw on its second toe. Its prey were insects, small mammals and perhaps baby dinosaurs. The Hesperonychus’ bones were found in storage at the Royal Tyrrel Museum. According to one of the researchers, searching through museum storage is very productive. “People collect stuff much more quickly than they can process” – which sounds like many attics and basements.
Paleontologists in Kansas discovered a fossilized brain inside a 300-million-year-old iniopterygian fish, an extinct relative of modern ratfish or ghost sharks. Fossilized brains are rare and this is the oldest. Although it provides a detailed look at prehistoric brain structure, the brain shows little connection to the shape of the braincase. Thus researchers may have to rethink earlier assumptions about the shape and structure of the missing brains in previous specimens. With limited information about early vertebrate brains, researchers believe “the evolution of the brain lies at the core of vertebrate history” - and that doesn’t sound fishy to them.
Knight Pierce Hirst has written for television, newspapers and greeting cards. Now she writes a 400-word blog three times a week. KNIGHT WATCH, a second look at what makes life interesting, takes only seconds to read at http://knightwatch.typepad.com
