Anatomy 'wrong' in early animals

Posted on Tuesday, 15 January, 2013 | Comment icon

8 comments | News tip by: Still Waters

Image credit: CC 2.0 Davide Meloni

Scientists now believe that they may have got the backbones of some early animals back-to-front.

The remarkable revelation not only means that the textbooks will need to be rewritten but that there is clearly still much to learn about some of the earliest quadrupedal species. New 3D models of the first four-legged animals known as tetrapods have now corrected the inaccurate depictions by turning several of the vertebrae the opposite way around.

The resulting models could help researchers learn not only about these early species but about how the spine evolved over time. "Their vertebrae are actually structurally completely different from what everyone for the last 150 or so years has pictured," said Prof John Hutchinson of the Royal Veterinary College. "The textbook examples turn out to be wrong."

Textbooks might have to be re-written when it comes to some of the earliest creatures, a study suggests. Researchers have found that our understanding of the anatomy of the first four-legged animals is wrong.

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Source: BBC News

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Recent comments on this story

#1 Posted by ealdwita on 14 January, 2013, 17:06

Do I remember correctly that the British Natural History Museum originally got the tail of its famous Brontosaurus (now - Apatosaurus) skeletal display upside-down, or am I experiencing a race-memory of seeing an undernourished Bronto doing gymnastics?

#2 Posted by wolfknight on 15 January, 2013, 12:19

So correct the mistake and move on.

#3 Posted by pallidin on 15 January, 2013, 16:17

Huh... kind of gives new meaning to the term "you got your head up your ***

#4 Posted by danielost on 16 January, 2013, 5:25

No it was the head of bronto,twice.

#5 Posted by King Fluffs on 16 January, 2013, 8:11

I laugh in their general direction.

#6 Posted by Chooky88 on 16 January, 2013, 14:40

Well said Wolfknight

#7 Posted by shrooma on 24 February, 2013, 11:44

. no no no no no... BAD ealdwita, BAD! reject your apatosaurusiness! embrace your brontosaurusy past! it always was, and always will be, a BRONTOSAURUS!! pluto will always be a planet, snickers will always be marathon's, and a 50p piece will always be a ten-bob bit! the old ways are always the best ways..... :-)

#8 Posted by shrooma on 24 February, 2013, 11:50

. how could they tell?? Dinosaurs- thin at the front, fat in the middle, thin at the back! they kinda look the same whichever way round you look at 'em....

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