News Mash-up: Ancient Animals

Category: Science/Environment

Listening

Unlocking Word Meanings

Read the following words/expressions found in today’s article.

  1. incarnation / ˌɪn kɑrˈneɪ ʃən / (n.) – a form or version of something
    Example:

    Previous incarnations of Barbie dolls look very different from the latest ones.


  2. amble around / ˈæm bəl əˈraʊnd / (phrasal v.) – to walk in a slow or relaxed way somewhere
    Example:

    I ambled around the mall while waiting for my boyfriend.


  3. ligament / ˈlɪg ə mənt / (n.) – a strong piece of tissue in the body that connects bones or holds organs in place
    Example:

    Lee tore his knee ligament when he fell off his bike.


  4. mantra / ˈmæn trə / (n.) – a word or phrase that expresses one’s belief and is repeatedly said or used
    Example:

    Jack loves preparing his own meals. His mantra is “Eat well, live well.”


  5. be around for (time) / bi əˈraʊnd fɔr / (idiom) – to exist for a specific length of time
    Example:

    The statue in the middle of town has been around for more than 50 years.


Article

Read the text below.

Keeping up with T. rex was easy: researchers


Unlike its popular movie incarnations, Tyrannosaurus rex — the giant meat-eating dinosaur from the Cretaceous period — walked slower than previously thought, most likely ambling around at human walking speed, new Dutch research has found.


Working with a three-dimensional computer model of “Trix,” a female T. rex skeleton at the Dutch Naturalis museum, researcher Pasha van Bijlert added computer reconstructions of muscles and ligaments to find that it’s likely that the dinosaur’s preferred speed was 4.61 km an hour, close to the walking pace of humans and horses.


The study was published April 21 in the Royal Society Open Science journal. (Reuters)


‘Living fossil’ lives 100 years, pregnant for 5


The coelacanth — a weird giant fish still around from dinosaur times — can live for 100 years, a new study found.


These slow-moving, people-sized fish of the deep, nicknamed “living fossils,” follow the opposite of the “live fast, die young” mantra. The nocturnal fish grow at an achingly slow pace.


Females don’t hit sexual maturity until their late 50s, the study said, while male coelacanths are sexually mature at 40 to 69 years. Researchers figure pregnancy in the fish lasts about five years.


Coelacanths, which have been around for 400 million years, were thought extinct until they were found alive in 1938 off South Africa. (AP)


These articles were provided by The Japan Times Alpha.


Viewpoint Discussion

Enjoy a discussion with your tutor.

Discussion A

  • The iconic scene from the 1993 film Jurassic Park, in which a T. rex chases a group of park visitors driving away, is very different from the image of the T. rex presented in this article. Do you think future dinosaur films should change how they depict T. rexes and other dinosaurs from now on? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • Do you think scientists could ever accurately recreate what ancient animals were really like? Why or why not? Discuss.

Discussion B

  • Scientists think that coelacanths may live for 100 years and be pregnant for 5 years, but they’re not sure. Why do you think it’s so hard for them to study coelacanths? What other animals do we know very little about? Why? Discuss.
  • Do you think there are more ancient animals that still exist without us knowing? What would you do if you saw a living animal that was supposedly extinct? Why? Discuss.