Tetrapods are four-limbed animals. Therefore the discovery of a “tetrapod-like” fish called Elpistostege is intriguing. The nearly complete fossil specimen says a lot about one of the most significant events in the history of life — the evolution of fishes into four-legged vertebrates. This transition has helped us better appreciate the anatomical transformations associated with breathing, hearing, and feeding, as the habitat changed from water to land. The skeleton of the fish’s pectoral fin revealed structures corresponding to the arm, forearm, wrist and digits (fingers or toes). It’s the first unequivocal discovery of fingers locked in a fin with fin-rays in any known fish. The articulating digits in the fin are like the finger bones found in the hands of most animals. The origin of digits points to fine-tuning the capability for the fish to support its weight in shallow water or for short trips out on land. The finding pushes back the origin of digits in vertebrates to the fish level. The patterning for the vertebrate hand was first developed deep in evolution, just before fishes left the water.
SNEAK PEEK
1. Like a spider web
Neanderthal DNA has been woven into the modern human genome, but it was not a single introgression. It was a spider web of interactions that happened over and over again, with different ancient hominins interacting with each other. Who got this picture clearly?
1. University of Buffalo biologist Omer Gokcumen
2. Non-singing syrinx
Birds are “living dinosaurs”. The oldest known vocal organ of a bird belonged to a species from the age of dinosaurs. It could not have been able to make noises similar to the bird calls we hear today. This could mean that dinosaurs didn’t sing! Who figured this out?
2. Julia Allison Clarke (UTA Jackson School of Geosciences)
3. Power needs fuel
Pushing needs power, and power needs fuel, be it food that powers the human body or gasoline that powers cars. The amount of fuel consumed by a nation is directly related to its economic growth. Who said “physics and economics are two sides of the same coin”?
3. Adrian Bejan (Duke University)
4. Tied to pollinators
Discussions on the importance of pollinators are often reduced to how to protect bees, and how to expand conservation reserves. Who proposed that the best way to protect pollinators is to support “people whose cultural, spiritual and economic lives are tied to them”?
4. Rosemary Hill, a human geographer at CSIRO
5. If it’s good for birds
Diversified farms can buffer the deadly impacts of climate change much more effectively than single-crop farms? We can use birds as natural guides to help us design diversified farms. Who pointed out that “farms that are good for birds are also good for other species?”
5. Jeffrey Smith (Stanford Center for Conservation Biology)
6. How to eat copper?
Our body needs copper. Bones and copper kitchen utensils from the Viking Age and the Medieval Times show high concentrations of copper. Copper pots were scraped by metal knives to get tiny particles or copper was dissolved with food. Who proposed this theory?
6. Kaare Lund Rasmussen (University of Southern Denmark)
7. Prosocial or not
The interactions between the amygdala (a rather primitive area of the brain) and the medial frontal cortex (an area housing more intentional thoughts) are highly synchronised when one is prosocial. This is stopped when you’re antisocial. Who found it at least in monkeys?
7. Yale University neuroscientist Steve Chang
8. Worry over politics
Children and adolescents, 4-to-17 years old, do express worry about political issues — the possibility of deportation (regardless of citizenship status), to friends being bullied or to being “kidnapped” by a political party and separated from family. Who evinced it clinically?
8. Psychologist Nicole Caporino (American University)
9. COVID-19 post-news
Knowledge and data always contain uncertainty. Disinformation often looks definitive and fake news plays on a sense of certainty. One way to help people cruise is by being honest about what we don’t know. Who said “our work suggests people can handle the truth”?
9. Psychologist Sander van der Linden (University of Cambridge)
[ANSWERS]
1. University of Buffalo biologist Omer Gokcumen
2. Julia Allison Clarke (UTA Jackson School of Geosciences)
3. Adrian Bejan (Duke University)
4. Rosemary Hill, a human geographer at CSIRO
5. Jeffrey Smith (Stanford Center for Conservation Biology)
6. Kaare Lund Rasmussen (University of Southern Denmark)
7. Yale University neuroscientist Steve Chang
8. Psychologist Nicole Caporino (American University)
9. Psychologist Sander van der Linden (University of Cambridge)
QUIZ No. 948
1. Who scientifically proved that COVID-19 is not a genetically engineered weapon?
– Dr. Gregory Marcus
– Sander L. van der Linden
– Kristian Andersen
1. Kristian Andersen
2. Who found that COVID-19 patients are not likely to shed virus through their tears?
– Dr Ivan Seah
– Dr Jonathan Luke Heeney
– Dr Kate Templeton
2. Dr Ivan Seah
3. Who saw medical students touching their face 23 times per hour during a lecture?
– Kwok YL and team
– Dr Kizzmekia S. Corbett
– Judith Anne O’Donnell
3. Kwok YL and team
4. Who is given credit for developing the widely used standardised test called SAT?
– Idit Harel Caperton
– Carl Campbell Brigham
– Patricia A. Alexander
4. Carl Campbell Brigham
5. Which automaker produces a kind of sausage that’s given an original part number?
– General Motors
– Fiat Chrysler Automobiles
– Volkswagen
5. Volkswagen