Word: uprightly
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...called sleeping Buddha--may yet exist in Bamiyan, buried just feet from where the other Buddhas once stood. A 7th century Chinese traveler left notes describing the sculpture as measuring up to 650 ft. in length and reclining in a state of Nirvana. (The taller of the two upright Buddhas was just 180 ft.) The statue is believed to be entombed, either buried intentionally before the first Islamic invaders arrived in the 9th century or covered by debris from an earthquake or the natural erosion of nearby cliffs. Archaeologists are debating whether to dig for the Buddha in an area...
...searching for food, accompanied by small bands of its fellows, most likely, and keeping a sharp eye out for pythons, crocodiles and saber-toothed cats. This animal probably shared the forest with apes and monkeys and, like them, spent some time up in the trees. It may have walked upright, which apes rarely do for very long at a stretch. But at a casual glance, it would have seemed to our eyes like just another chimp...
...next seven months, the team found pieces of what it believes are at least five individuals of the same species, including two lower-jaw fragments and three isolated teeth. Without a telltale foot, leg or other skeletal feature, the team could not be positive that the animal walked upright, but its skull is similar in important ways to those of hominids that...
...however, it will raise all sorts of questions. For example, if Sahelanthropus had descendant species that gave rise to H. habilis, asks Harvard's Lieberman, where are they? Nobody knows, moreover, what triggered the emergence of the earliest hominids in the first place. Virtually everyone now agrees that walking upright was the key physical adaptation that set the hominid line in motion. But that adaptation had to have some evolutionary advantage for it to persist. What, exactly, was so great about walking on two legs...
...habitat in the next forest over. With its free hands, the ape could carry extra food--very useful when crossing expanses where fruit might not be available for the plucking. Free hands might also be useful for sex, although not in the way you might think. The best male upright walkers could bring back food for the females of their species, increasing their chances of winning a mate and passing on their genes--or so suggests C. Owen Lovejoy of Ohio's Kent State University, the leading proponent of this theory...