There are a lot of cool birds associated with New Zealand, including the Moa (our version of the dodo), a large bird that was hunted to extinction once it was declared yummy! (Again, like the dodo.)
But there is a new find in a New Zealand lake bed that "stunned" scientists, and throws a new light on how mammals may have evolved, and on the history of animals in NZ.
This is, of course, amazing news for the picture of evolution, but... all that was found was "two jawbones and one thigh bone" of a primitive mouse that walked by waddling. How do these people infer to much from so little? Sometimes, you do have to wonder how much wild speculation is involved...
Wednesday, 13 December 2006
New Zealand, land of mice...
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The curvature and angling (sadly, we will never know if it used fishing rods! :) ), of the top of the the thigh bone can tell us how pitched the pelvis was, which can tell us how it walked.
Much like the dodo, until thigh and hip fossils we found, little was known about it's stride (although 1 skeletal foot helped, but was stolen from the Ashmoleon - luckily careful illustrations were made prior to this).
So, yeah, it probably waddled.
Although when someone comes out and says it was greyish brown with a mass hair styled into a purple mohawk, then you can be fairly sure of wild specualtion! :)
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