A NEW view of the familiar dinosaur Stegosaurus raised many eyebrows at the annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in Norman, Oklahoma, last month. A paper posted by T. R. Karbek of the Steveville Academy of Paleontological Studies in Patricia, Alberta, offered 鈥淭he case for Stegosaurus as an agile, cursorial, biped鈥�.
Cursorial means 鈥渁dapted for running鈥�, and the usual view is that with its armour plating, massive body and triangular plates along its back, the Stegosaurus was about as cursorial as a fridge-freezer.
Karbek鈥檚 poster hardly convinced otherwise. It merely showed a couple of photocopied drawings, tilted to show a stegosaur on two legs. The position of its centre of gravity made it look as if the beast might be running, if only because it was so badly off balance it would otherwise fall flat on its belly.
Advertisement
Bemused palaeontologists stared at the poster, saying they wanted to have a few words with the author. But no one at the meeting seemed to have seen the mysterious Karbek. Had he or she posted the paper early, then recognised its fatal flaw and fled the scene in shame?
A bit of detective work uncovered clues that something else was going on. A web search failed to find any trace of Karbek outside of the conference listings. Nor was there any trace of the Steveville Academy, which seemed to exist only as a post office box in Patricia, Alberta, a tiny town near the well-known Steveville fossil site.
Might someone be playing a hoax to see if the conference organisers were actually reading the abstracts submitted to them? Perhaps so. The society has recently taken flak for accepting virtually all submissions. This year only about five out of several hundred were bounced 鈥� because they were unintelligible, didn鈥檛 have the right format, or contained personal attacks on other scientists. Karbek鈥檚 paper had sailed over these rather low barriers. We suspect that next year the barriers might be a bit higher.
READER Peter Hambleton informs us that Catering Alliance, which manages the staff restaurant where he works, has been promoting a competition to win a trip to New England in its autumn glory. The competition information was presented on a tetrahedron placed on each table in the restaurant. On one triangular face was the instruction 鈥淪ee opposite for more details on how to win鈥�.
MEANWHILE, reader Kenneth Rice tells us his firm had a Macmillan Cancer Relief coffee morning recently. Part of it involved a quiz, which you could answer for a chance at winning a new car. Question 17 was: 鈥淢acmillan has funded how many Macmillan nurses?鈥�
The options were: 鈥渁) Over 1800; b) Over 2000.鈥� Rice comments that it鈥檚 a pity the rest weren鈥檛 as easy.
HAMSTERS, it seems, have an unusual way of telling what time of year it is. Forget how warm it is or how high the Sun is in the sky. According to Karen Wright, writing in a recent issue of Scientific American (September, p 46), 鈥淗amsters can tell the difference between a 12-hour day when their gonads don鈥檛 grow and a 12 hour and 15 minute day when their gonads do grow.鈥�
DON鈥橳 forget to send in your entry to the Feedback Christmas competition. This year鈥檚 theme is evolution. Readers are invited to pick a human behaviour or trait and provide their own explanation for why it exists.
For example: Why do men get hairier as they get older?
Answer: It鈥檚 all to do with hunting. Men, as we know, evolved to chase down woolly mammoths 鈥� that鈥檚 why they are athletic and good at throwing spears. But as they aged, their physical prowess waned and they needed other adaptations to keep up with the boys. That鈥檚 where increased hairiness comes in. A liberal covering of hair acted as rudimentary camouflage, allowing them to get close to their prey without arousing the suspicion of the short-sighted mammoths, who saw them as kin. The fact that men鈥檚 ears and noses also continue to grow into old age adds weight to the theory.
You may submit up to two entries per person by letter, fax or email. Thanks to the generosity of its makers, 10 lucky winners will each receive a bottle of Famous Grouse whisky (a Feedback favourite) and, thanks to Time Warner Books, they will also receive a copy of Steve Jones鈥檚 acclaimed new book Y: The Descent of Man (reviewed in New 杏吧原创 this week).
The winning entries will be chosen on the basis of their wit and originality. All entries must reach us by Monday 2 December. The winners will be announced in the 21/28 December issue. The Editor鈥檚 decision is final.
FINALLY, the default message on the new information screens at Manchester Piccadilly railway station states: 鈥淭he next train to arrive at this platform terminates here.鈥�
Reader Ken Hawkins tells us that this is just as well, as continuation would take the train through the concourse and off down the approach road.
For those who aren鈥檛 satisfied with paranoia about being persecuted by other people, a notice in Bar 38 in London鈥檚 Covent Garden warns: 鈥淏eware of your belongings鈥�