Word: shapely
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...that convinced Haile-Selassie that he had discovered a new human ancestor. Although apelike, the lower canines and upper premolars, in particular, display certain traits found only in the teeth of later hominids--the term scientists use to describe ourselves and our non-ape ancestors. They also differ in shape from the teeth of all known fossil and modern apes. Even the way in which the teeth had been worn down was telling. Explains Haile-Selassie's thesis adviser, Berkeley paleontologist Tim White: "Apes all sharpen their upper canines as they chew. Hominids don't." The new creature's back...
...bone makes that clear. Two-legged primates (modern humans included) propel themselves forward by leaving the front part of their foot on the ground and lifting the heel. This movement, referred to as toeing off, causes the bones in the middle of the foot to take on a distinctive shape--a shape that is readily apparent in the ancient toe bone. "If you compare a chimp's foot bones with its hand bones, they look the same because they're used for the same thing"--that is, for grasping--Haile-Selassie explains. "Hominid fingers and toes don't look alike...
...absorber. It's like wearing a good pair of running shoes." In order to create that arch, the chimp's opposable great toe became aligned with the others, and the toe's muscles and ligaments, which had been used for grasping and climbing, were repositioned under the foot. "The shape of the big toe is indicative of this. You can see it in Lucy's species," Lovejoy says, but not in the bone Haile-Selassie found, because it's from a different toe. "What we can see [in the new discovery's foot] is that the base of the bone...
...DAYS The embryo divides again and again and takes shape as a sphere called a blastocyst...
...happened without exception. Because of the shape of my life, many of the women I talked to that day were journalists. They were all a little quieter. She had been the most powerful woman in newspapers for so long—and she had started on that road by chance. But she became great in her role by dint of will and force of personality...