Saturday 1 June 2013

Are we related to bigfoot? And how the turtle got a shell.



Ape-like feet 'found in study of museum visitors'
By Melissa Hogenboom Science reporter, BBC News
Scientists have discovered that about one in thirteen people have flexible ape-like feet.A team studied the feet of 398 visitors to the Boston Museum of Science. The results show differences in foot bone structure similar to those seen in fossils of a member of the human lineage from two million years ago.
We may be more related to Big foot than we realise.

How the turtle got its unique hard shell
By Melissa Hogenboom Science reporter, BBC News
How the turtle shell evolved has puzzled scientists for years, but new research sheds light on how their hard shells were formed. Scientists say the ancient fossil skeleton of an extinct South African reptile has helped bridge a 30 to 55-million-year gap. This ancestor of the modern turtle, Eunotosaurus, is thought to be around 260 million years old. It had significant differences to a recently found fossil relative.Eunotosaurus was discovered over a century ago but new research in the journal Current Biology has only now analysed its differences to other turtle fossils.

No comments: