Monday, June 12, 2006

Not so funny in real life

When I was growing up, my friend Amy had a Commodore 64. We played a game - I think it was called "Black Magic." It was a lot of fun. I remember, though, that your little man could get carried away by a falcon - which, depending on where you were in the level, could be good or bad. I remember yelling "NOOOOOOO!" plenty a time at the tiny monitor.
Recently, I found out that this has really happened at one time in history! New research suggests that a prehistoric eagle carried away and killed a Taung child, a human ancestor who lived two million years ago. Scientists originally thought a big cat killed the three and a half year old little hominid. However, claw and beak marks inside the skull suggest the bird plunged a talon into the child's brain through the eye and carried the poor little one to its nest. The fact that the skull was found among monkey and tortoise remains similar to that found today near nests of the African crowned eagle also supports this theory.
Can you imagine? That calls for quite a "NOOOOO!"

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