Word: darte
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Prometheus roamed the savannas during the early Ice Age a million or so years ago, and anthropologists believe he may have been one of the first "protomen." His most ardent biographer is Anatomist Raymond Arthur Dart of Johannesburg, who has constructed a vivid picture of his ways from the man-ape fragments thus far dug up. In a report released by the Smithsonian Institution, Dr. Dart adds a few more imaginative strokes to his Promethean portrait...
...fact that his spinal cord entered his skull from below, says Dr. Dart, suggests that prometheus "strode and raced across the veld" on two legs. Most of the remains so far uncovered have been those of a pygmy-sized creature (about 4 ft. high, 100 lbs.), with a brain twice the size of a chimpanzee...
Efficient Killer. Prometheus, Dart concludes, must have been a prodigious hunter, because around his bones are scattered fragments of the antelope, giraffe, buffalo, rhinoceros and hippopotamus. He also fished the streams for water turtles and robbed the nest of the shrike. Giant rodent moles, wart hogs and porcupines were staples of his diet. No creature except modern man has ever been such an efficient killer, says Dr. Dart...
...victims: the jawbones of prehistoric buffalos, zebras and giraffes, the tusks of hyenas and saber-toothed tigers; stiletto-sharp shattered thighbones. For a small creature, he struck his victims with amazing force. One Makapansgat cave contains the skull of a young man-ape who was killed, Dr. Dart believes, with a bludgeon blow to the chin that shattered the jaw on both sides of the face and knocked out all front teeth...
...Europe, Rolls developed the famed Merlin piston engine for the R.A.F.'s scrappy Spitfire and Hurricane fighters, got out ahead in jets when it took over development of Sir Frank Whittle's first workable jet. The company was one of the first in turboprops with its Dart engine (1,780 h.p.), which is a main reason for Vickers' spectacular success (total sales: 353 planes) with its Viscount airliner (TIME, Jan. 3, 1955). As for Rolls's pure jet engines, its latest Avon turbojet is rated at better than 10,000 Ibs. of thrust, not only powers...