Africa's Long-Necked Fern Mower
Each
tooth of the dinosaur’s was about the size of a toddler’s
incisor.
It had approximately 500 teeth, a “vacuum-shaped” mouth,
and skull and neck bones so light that it could barely hold its
head above its back. The fascinating species unveiled in 2007 at
National Geographic headquarters is a 110-million-year-old dinosaur
named Nigersaurus, originally found in 1997 by National Geographic
Explorer-in-Residence Paul Sereno and his team of scientists from the
University of Chicago.
Nearly 80 percent of Nigersaurus’s bones
were collected from the Sahara in the present-day nation of Niger.
The dinosaur’s
straight-edged muzzle included more than 50 columns of tiny teeth
lining the jaw, making its mouth similar to a foot-long (0.3-meter)
pair of scissors. A CT scan of the jawbones revealed up to nine “replacement” teeth
stacked behind each cutting tooth, so that when a tooth wore out,
another took its place.
“Among dinosaurs, Nigersaurus sets the Guinness Record for tooth
replacement,” said Sereno. The construction of its mouth enabled
Nigersaurus to work close to the ground, mowing down mouthfuls of greenery.
The discovery was featured in the December 2007 issue of National
Geographic magazine.
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Human Ancestry Questioned
In 2007 a pair of fossil discoveries challenged
the accepted story of human evolution. The mother-daughter team
of Meave and Louise Leakey, National Geographic Explorers-in-Residence,
led the team that uncovered the provocative fossils in Kenya’s
Lake Turkana Basin.
Traditional evolutionary theories posit a successive
progression from Homo habilis to Homo
erectus to Homo sapiens. The
new finds, however, suggest that H. habilis was not a direct ancestor
of modern humans and that H. erectus was less modern than previously
thought. The team discovered an H. habilis jawbone dating to 1.44
million years ago—making
it much younger than previously known fossils and a contemporary
of H. erectus.
Meanwhile, the small size of the second fossil, an
H. erectus skull, indicates that our ancestor was more primitive
than previously believed, with a social structure more similar to gorillas
than modern humans. Dated to 1.55 million years ago, it is the smallest
H. erectus skull found yet.
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Stonehenge Didn't Stand Alone
Archaeologists’ trenches
reveal clay floors of Late Stone Age houses at Durrington Walls, occupied
by the builders of Stonehenge.
A major discovery announced in January
2007 revealed that the legendary Stonehenge monument did not exist
in isolation. Excavations supported by National Geographic at Durrington
Walls in the Stonehenge World Heritage site exposed an enormous
ancient settlement that once housed hundreds of people. Archaeologists
believe the houses were constructed and occupied by the builders
of nearby Stonehenge.
The excavations revealed remains of eight wooden
buildings. Surveys of the landscape identified up to 30 more dwellings,
according to Mike Parker Pearson, leader of the Stonehenge Riverside
Project, a joint initiative run by six English universities and
partially funded by National Geographic.
The settlement was likely
an important ceremonial site in its own right, hosting great “feasts and parties.” The houses have been radiocarbon
dated to 2600-2500 B.C.—the same period Stonehenge dates back
to—and form the largest Neolithic village ever found in Britain.
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Montreal Signs on to NGS Geotourism Charter
A
partner in the community-based geotourism mapping process, Héritage
Montréal policy director Dinu Bumbaru describes attributes
of the historic Vieux Montréal waterfront area.
In October, Montreal became
the first urban locale to sign a Geotourism Charter, a key element
of National Geographic’s Center for
Sustainable Destinations (CSD). Montreal joins destinations ranging
from Guatemala and Norway to Rhode Island and Polynesia’s Cook
Islands in promoting place-based sustainable tourism. In signing
the Geotourism Charter, Montreal will provide more appealing experiences
for environmentally conscious visitors and increased support for
the city’s heritage sites, cultural centers, and green space
conservation.
The CSD seeks to protect the world’s distinctive
places through wisely managed tourism and enlightened destination stewardship.
The approach for achieving this is geotourism, defined as “tourism
that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place—its
environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage, and the well-being of
its residents.” The 13-principle Geotourism Charter provides
guidance for localities and governments seeking to promote more sustainable
tourism.
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Chimps Use Tools to Hunt
A young chimpanzee uses a stick to dig for food.
National Geographic Society grantee Jill Pruetz has
discovered evidence that chimps, under some conditions, can fashion
and use tools to hunt mammals. The study is a breakthrough in the understanding
of animal intelligence and the evolution of hunting behavior in early
humans. The findings were announced by National Geographic in February
2007 and Pruetz’s research was published in the journal Current
Biology.
It has been known for some time that chimps use tools
to uncover grubs and termites, but not that they use tools in mammal
hunting. No fewer than 22 times did researchers document wild chimpanzees
on an African savanna fashioning sticks into “spears” to
hunt small primates called lesser bush babies. Even more remarkable
is who the hunters are: often mature females and youngsters between
about two and ten years old. “We don’t think of chimpanzee
hunting in terms of the females and immatures,” said Pruetz.
The Society’s Committee for Research and Exploration partially funded the project, which took place in Senegal.
Read about National Geographic’s latest field projects at nationalgeographic.org/field.
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