Word: specimens
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Dates: during 1970-1970
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Poking through the fossil collection of The Netherlands' Teyler Museum in September, Yale Paleontologist John H. Ostrom spotted one musty specimen that looked odd to his trained eye. It was labeled pterosaur, a flying reptile that inhabited the earth from 65 to 200 million years ago. But when Ostrom held the fossil to the light, he saw the distinctly unreptilian impression of a feather. "My heartbeat began going up fast," recalls Ostrom, who quickly recognized that the specimen was not a pterosaur at all. It was, in fact, a far rarer prehistoric aviator: an Archaeopteryx (literally "ancient wing...
When he examined the specimen under a microscope, Ostrom noticed a feature on "Archy" that had not been preserved on the three other known Archaeopteryx fossils. It was the faint imprint of a horny sheath-or fingernail-like covering-on the three claws protruding from each of the wings of these ancient birds. Resembling the talons of a contemporary eagle, these razor-sharp, miniature scythes were obviously better suited for catching and slicing up prey than for scampering up the trunks of trees. Thus, Ostrom suggests, Archaeopteryx's lizard-like forebears probably launched themselves into the air from...
Whenever Kataoka spots a fine specimen, he not only takes pictures but gives a pep talk as well. "Let's build more scarecrows," he tells bemused farmers. "Yours is great, but you could improve next year by adding a little more color here and a little more shape there...
...remarkable. It lay in a countryside of desert valleys in central Utah that 150 million years ago was a lush tropical shore along an inland sea, inhabited by huge flesh-eating dinosaurs. The area has thus yielded a rich supply of plant and animal fossils. Examining a specimen of the fossil under a microscope, Paleobotanist William D. Tidwell of Brigham Young University recognized the unmistakable cellular structure of the palm...
...case of users, the test turns up traces of barbiturates, amphetamines and morphine, which the body metabolizes out of heroin. The tests have led to a burgeoning business for private laboratories; some do several hundred urinalyses a day, at $4.50 each. Even these tests are not foolproof. If a specimen shows a hint of quinine, which is often used to cut heroin, the applicant can be refused -but he could have picked it up simply by drinking a gin and tonic, which also contains quinine. Another drawback is that the tests cannot detect heavy users of marijuana because it leaves...