Living Legends
Do mythical creatures
like Bigfoot ever turn out to be real?
By Brian Palmer
Scientists at Oxford University and Switzerland's Lausanne
Museum of Zoology plan to use DNA evidence to determine once and for all
whether Bigfoot is real, Reuters reported Tuesday. The museum has a collection
of alleged sasquatch remains and will ask other institutions to send their own
materials for analysis. When's the last time a mythical creature was proven
real?Nine years ago. Hunters in Tanzania had for years spoken of a monkey they
called the kipunji. Conservation biologists were skeptical, because the
traditional tales of the Wanyakyusa people who populate the mountainous region
include both real and mythical creatures. In 2003, however, biologists found
the 3-foot-tall arboreal primate with brown body hair and a black face. The
animal’s loud, low-pitched “honk bark” helped to distinguish it as a species.
Researchers now believe there are between 1,000 and 2,000 kipunjis in the area.The
kipunji is the most recent so-called cryptid to turn up in the wild, but it’s
far from the first. Several well-known species began as rumors or legends.
Throughout the 19th century, explorers of Africa reported glimpses of a
zebra-like creature in the Ituri Forest of the Congo. Europeans began to refer
to the creature as the “African unicorn.” In 1890, Henry Morton Stanley—of
“Doctor Livingstone, I presume” fame—confirmed that the Wambutti pygmies who
lived in the area spoke of a sacred animal that fit the description. (The
Wambutti called the animal the O’api, but Stanley reported it as “atti.”) A
decade later, explorers obtained hide and bones [PDF] from the animal, proving
it was more closely related to the giraffe than the zebra. Today, the okapi is
the mascot for the field of cryptozoology.
Ancient walking
mystery deepens
By Helen Briggs BBC News
One of the first creatures to step on land could not have
walked on four legs, 3D computer models show.Textbook pictures of the
360-million-year-old animal moving like a salamander are incorrect, say
scientists.Instead, it would have hauled itself from the water using its front
limbs as crutches, research in Nature suggests.The move from living in water to
life on land - a pivotal moment in evolution - must have been a gradual one.Ichthyostega
is something of an icon in the fossil world. Living during the Upper
Devonian period, it was dubbed a "fishapod", with its mixture of
fish-like and amphibious features.Although it probably spent much of its time
under water, at times it was thought to have crawled halfway up onto land on
limb-like flippers. Exactly how it moved on land has been a matter of much
debate, however.
Read rest here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18177493
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