Discoveries of the (Dinosaur) Incisivosaurus Gauthier, and (Hominid) Sahelanthropus Tchadensis
In the year 2002 a bizarre looking theropod dinosaur fossil was found in China (Xu). It challenges the way researchers have been thinking of theropods and other dinosaurs for a long time. In the Sahara desert, the oldest hominid skull in the world was found that same year. These are just two of many discoveries that have challenged the way we perceive the ancient world.
Incisivosaurus Gauthier was what is believed to be a primitive Oviraptorosaurian that was recently discovered in China. The Theropod and its highly specialized skull is described as a bizarre creature that lived 128 million years ago (Gee). The characteristic that “sticks out” the most are it’s rodent-like teeth. Harry Gee has described the dinosaur as “a [cross between] Roadrunner [and] Bugs Bunny” (Ibid.) and Hillary Mayell calls it a “’Weird’ Bucktoothed Dino.” (Mayell)
Oviraptorosaurians are known for their specialized skulls and for being egg thieves, which is where they get their name. It was later discovered that they were more than likely near the nests not to eat the eggs but hatch them. In Mongolia there was a discovery of a fossil of a female Oviraptor shielding her nest from a sandstorm (Mayell). They are thought to have evolved in the early Cretaceous (Xu). The Cretaceous period, is the interval of time that came just after the most well known of periods in the earth’s history, the Jurassic. Xing Xu, the man who with his team found Incisivosaurus, works for Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, China. Xu and his team believe that this find proves that not all theropods ate meat (Ibid). In an article for the National Geographic, Phillip Currie of the Royal Tyrell Museum of Paleontology in Canada says, "These teeth are totally inappropriate for eating meat. Even with the beak, we had always assumed that oviraptorosuars were still carnivorous—hawks and eagles do it quite well.
But these teeth are teeth you expect to see in an herbivore” (Mayell).
Researchers believe that Incisivosaurus shows a link between typical theropods and the more rare or at least bizarre Oviraptorosaurians which are more birdlike (Gee). Xu also believes that this may show a link between the Oviraptorosaurians and an herbivorous group of dinosaurs, the Therizinosaurs. Which shows that not all of them were carnivores (Mayell).
Ceratopsians and Pachycephalosaurs Around 144 million years ago, began the emergence of the Ornithischian dinosaurs during the Cretaceous period and diversified into North America and Asia. Ornithischians were classified as having a hip structure similar to that of birds, although they are not the descendants of birds. Marginocephalians, meaning "fringed heads" are a group of Ornithischians that have a distinctive skull structure, consisting of a slight shelf or bony frill on the back of the skull, a unique palate, and a short hip structure. These herbivores include two major groups: the Ceratopsians and the Pachcephalosaurians. These plant-eaters include the Ceratopsians, horned dinosaurs such as the Triceratops, Styrachosaurus, Pentaceratops, and the Protoceratops.
There was a chief new discovery of fossil bones and teeth belonging to the earliest human ancestors ever discovered. The fossil bones predate the oldest formerly discovered human ancestor by more than a million years. The discovery was of fossil remains of a hominid that lived in present day Ethiopia between 5.2 and 9.8 million years ago. (Hominids include all species following the split as of the chimpanzees on the “human” side of the evolutionary tree.)
I was very intrigued by the findings of the Australopithecines. The idea that Lucy, the skeleton found in Hadar, Africa, was closely related to the human species was amazing.
In July of 2001, a group of archeologists discovered the skull and jaw bone of the oldest member of the human family. The skull is a new discovery and was found in the Djurab Desert of Northern Chad by a group of archeologists lead by Michel Brunet, and is thought to be six to seven million years old (Walton). The age of the skull and jaw bone were approximated through the association of the fauna that were found with the fossils (Brunet). The skull is a major find for archeologists because they now have a new piece of the puzzle that shows the evolution of humans from apes and it provides information to a period that scientists had very little knowledge about because of the lack of evidence (Whitfield).
After reading Irving Kristol’s essay called Pornography, Obscenity, and the Case for Censorship, we found positive and negative examples concluding his research. Kristol makes major claims throughout the course of his essay. A few examples of these major claims are in paragraphs [7-9] when he uses a story about an old man in a hospital ward, dying an agonizing death. The old man loses control of his bowels, and they empty themselves on him. Kristol states that this is a private moment that should be kept private. Kristol asks the reader to think about this sad scenario and what it would be like to see this on television. Kristol relates the claim to sex, saying that it is a private moment and shouldn’t be viewed by the public. He says viewers wouldn’t want to watch the old man losing his bodily fluids on himself because it’s a personal matter and it just needs to stay private and unseen by the public. In paragraph [8], Kristol again rebuts his major claim when he relates humans to animals. He claims sex is like death, it is found both within humans and animals. As Kristol (1971) says, “When sex is a public spectacle, a human relationship has been debased into a mere animal connection.”
Susan Jacoby, in her essay entitled “A First Amendment Junkie,” attacks those who believe that the first amendment should not be cause for the continuation of public obscenity. Jacoby, adamant defender of the first amendment, questions those who wish for the freedom of expression to be denied in the case of pornography, yet seem complacent about the racism and sexism that comes from freedom of speech as well. Additionally, Jacoby argues that it is too difficult to distinguish pornography from beauty and art from obscenity. One person may see David as a wonder to behold, and yet another may look at it as degrading towards men. Jacoby believes that rather than censorship-supporters controlling what their family watches, they want the government
Perhaps the most frightening aspect of Offred's world is not even its proximity, but its occasional attractiveness. The idea that women need strict protection from harm is not one espoused solely by the likes of Rush Limbaugh or Pat Buchanan, but also by women like Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon. This protectionist variety of feminism is incorporated in the character of Offred's mother, and to a certain degree in Aunt Lydia. Offred's mother is just as harsh in her censorship of pornography as any James Dobson. By burning the works which offend her, she too is contributing to the notion that women's safety is contingent on squelching the Bill of Rights. The restriction of sexually explicit pictures places the blame for sex crimes on women, again -- the women in the photographs who supposedly drive men to rape. Where have we heard this before? Who else refuses to hold rapists responsible for their own actions, choosing instead to restrict the behavior of those they consider the catalysts?
The area where the bones were found is called Egypt’s Bahariya Oasis. The last time this site was explored was when a German, named Ernst Stromer, found four smaller dinosaur species. Stromer believed that the fossils he found came from a period in the Upper Cretaceous around ninety three to ninety nine million years ago. Included in stromer’s findings were fish, turtles, plesiosaurs, squamates, crocodyliforms, and four dinosaurs: the theropods Spinosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, and Bahariasaurus, and the sauropod Aegyptosaurus (Dodson, Lacovara, Lamanna, and Smith).
Until recently, scientists believed the chances of finding a fossilized dinosaur heart were extremely slim. The heart belonged to a 66 million year old dinosaur found in Harding County in Northwestern South Dakota. The dinosaur, found in 1993, weighed over 650 pounds and was 13 feet long. The dinosaur was in fairly good condition with the exception of the left side of the skeleton. The small, plant-eating Thescelosaurus, nicknamed ‘Willo’ has been acquired by the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Thescelosaurus was an ornithischian, or "bird-hipped," dinosaur that lived in the latter stage of the Cretaceous period. This was approximately 1 million years before the end of the dinosaur era. Native to North America, its range extended from the northern United States up into Canada. Since using the 3-D software to reveal Willo's heart, scientists have also used it to create 3-D images of the fossil's skull, and of remains from other dinosaurs in the museum's collection. (Fisher, Paul)
Susan Brownmiller’s essay Let’s Put Pornography Back in the Closet is the argument as to whether or not pornography should be protected by the first amendment. Her essay also brings up points regarding pornography that is degrading to women and how some consider educational material to be pornographic.
In “Let’s Put Pornography Back in the Closet,” Brownmiller discusses her views on the First Amendment and pornography. She explains that pornography has become a disturbingly common sight and there should be some type of restrictions put forth to protect the people who are subject to seeing such obscene materials. Brownmiller uses her feminist views to convince the reader that these restrictions are needed, but only in cases dealing with pornographic material. She uses examples of court cases dealing with banned materials to show when the First Amendment was being used correctly to protect obscene works of art.
The name says it all. This group of huge carnivores ruled the land during the Cretaceous period. Short but deep jaws, long hind limbs (legs), beady eyes, a long muscular tail, and tiny forelimbs (arms) make up a tyrannosaur. The Tyrannosauridae included such similar animals as Albertosaurus, Gorgosaurus, Daspletosaurus, Tarbosaurus, and of course Tyrannosaurus Rex. A tremendous skeleton of Rex now stands guard in the Valley Life Sciences Building in Washington. Tyrannosaurs belong to the Saurischia, or "reptile-hipped" dinosaurs. Within the Saurischia, tyrannosaurs belong to the group of carnivorous dinosaurs known as theropods. Traditionally, the tyrannosaurs have been included within the Carnosauria. In this classification scheme, carnosaurs represent the largest carnivorous animals to ever walk the land.
His reasoning for this belief is as follows: Most of the schools associate the gods with divinity, in the sense that they have omnipotent control over humans and the world we live in. They believe that the gods watch over humans, and that if they are not properly pious and grateful to the gods for allowing their continued existence, that the gods will come down and smite them. Therefore, most schools conclude that in order to live a blessed life they must follow the will of the gods. Epicureanism, however, does not believe in this definition of a blessed life. Velleius explains that Epicureans believe the world is derived from atoms, rather than caused by gods. Epicureans do believe in gods, however instead of the common opinion that gods created our world and carefully watch over us as we interact in it, Epicureans believe that the gods have simply reached the most blessed form that we are unable to take. In the Epicurean
Mackinnon has three points to which she argues that porn should be censored. Firstly, she believes that porn greatly harms women and violates their civil rights. Second, it degrades and subordinates woman through sexually explicit portrayal and simultaneously it endorses that demeaning view. Porn is not speech so it should not be protected as freedom of speech. Finally, it makes women look inferior and therefore, conditions the people who are watching porn to treat women the same way as being shown. The male-dominated porn has suppressed women’s viewpoints on the issue.
As a child begins to enter adolescence, there appears to be a rise in conflict between the adolescent and parents. The amount of conflict differs from family to family and is dependent on many factors. It is mainly due to the changing characteristics and growing of the adolescent and the way in which the rest of the family adjusts to these changes.