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 
The FOXP2 gene has been been implicated in evolution of human language and now, according to Science Daily, the gene has a role in echolocation as well. The research is being published in PLOS One (I haven't had a chance to read it yet so I am relying on Science Daily). According to Science Daily:
A new study, undertaken by a joint of team of British and Chinese scientists, has found that this gene shows unparalleled variation in echolocating bats. The results, appearing in a study published in the online, open-access journal PLoS ONE on September 19, report that FOXP2 sequence differences among bat lineages correspond well to contrasting forms of echolocation.
I'll probably have more to say after I have read the paper...
Comments
Link? (sorry, in a lose sense of the word I get paid to do this LOL).
Posted by: Coturnix | September 19, 2007 10:47 PM
Li G, Wang J, Rossiter SJ, Jones G, Zhang S (2007) Accelerated FoxP2 Evolution in Echolocating Bats. PLoS ONE 2(9): e900. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000900
Posted by: Chris Surridge | September 20, 2007 4:48 AM
Velociraptor had feathers?
Posted by: Tegumai Bopsulai, FCD | September 20, 2007 5:21 PM