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Afarensis

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afarcomp3.jpg Afarensis is a 3.5-2.8 million year old hominin from the Kada Hadar member of the Hadar formation in the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. He is approximately 41 inches tall, weighs approximately 60 pounds and has a cranial capacity of a whopping 410 cc (approximately). Afarensis is currently considered to be transitional between apes and humans and displays some traits of both. Since he spends a lot of time on the couch watching monster movies, some observers question whether he is an obligate biped (although no one has observed him climbing a tree). He also has a blog called Transitions:The Evolution of Life His previous blog can be found here.
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« The Juvenile Australopithecus afarensis | Main | Torturing the Humanitarians »

Speaking of Fossils

Category: Paleontology
Posted on: September 24, 2006 6:44 PM, by afarensis, FCD

Science Daily has two interesting articles on fossils.

The first concerns a new species of ichthyosaur. The find is important because it contained embryos.

Ichthy.jpg

According to Science Daily

Over the course of ichthyosaur evolution, the limbs were modified as paddles while the pelvis and hind limbs were reduced in size. These changes over time make it improbable that these aquatic animals could have crawled out onto land to lay eggs. The finding of these pregnant ichthyosaur fossils makes it "very clear they gave life birth and didn't lay eggs," says Caldwell.

Ichthyosaurs, like most reptiles, continuously replace their teeth throughout their lives. So while pregnant, most female ichthyosaurs are also completely toothless, giving up the calcium for their own teeth and bones to their developing embryo. "And considering an ichthyosaur could be carrying 12 embryos at one time, that is a lot of calcium needed."

The second concerns Archaeopteryx and "ground up" vs. "tree down". According to Science Daily:

Although scientists immediately noticed feather-like structures on the hind limbs, they were dismissed as insulating body feathers that didn't play a role in the animal's flight. It wasn't until several four-winged dinosaurs in China were described in 2002 that researchers began to re-examine Archaeopteryx's legs.

"The idea of a multi-winged Archaeopteryx has been around for more than a century, but it hasn't received much attention," Longrich said. "I believe one reason for this is that people tend to see what they want or expect to see. Everybody knows that birds don't have four wings, so we overlooked them even when they were right under our noses."

Under the supervision of professor Anthony Russell, Longrich examined Archaeopteryx fossils and determined that the dinosaur's leg feathers have an aerodynamic structure that imply its rear limbs likely acted as lift-generating "winglets" that played a significant role in flight.

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