BBC Knowledge Asia Edition

PHOTO: STEVE BRUSATTE, JON HOAD/UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, CFA/MIT, GETTY

BIOLOGY

‘Dinosaur disco’ unearthed

in Scotland’s Isle of Skye

What’s that? A new dance

craze taking the clubs of

New York by storm?

Don’t be silly. It’s a drug currently used

to treat Type 2 diabetes that may help

humans live well into their 110s by

slowing down the ageing process.

Wow. Tell me more.

Don’t get too excited. So far the

drug has only been trialled on

worms and mice but in both cases it was

seen to successfully extend the creatures’

lifespans.

How does it work?

It’s believed that the drug alters

the metabolism in bacteria

that live in the animals’ guts, limiting the

nutrients that are available. Researchers

think the process maybe similar to the

life-extending effects of a low-calorie diet.

But does it work

in humans?

We don’t know yet. A

clinical trial named Targeting Aging with

Metformin, or TAME, is due to kick off in

the US next year.

Metformin

1 MINUTE EXPERT

A cast of one of the

sauropod footprints

found on Skye

If you were a gigantic

herbivorous dinosaur living

around 170 million years ago it

seems the Isle of Skye was the

place to be.

Researchers at the University

of Edinburgh have discovered

hundreds of footprints made by

plant-eating sauropods in the

Inner Hebrides. The discovery is

the biggest dinosaur site found in

Scotland to date.

The tracks were found

peppered among layers of rock

that would have been at the

bottom of a shallow, saltwater

lagoon at the time they were

made. By analysing the structure

of the footprints, the largest of

which measures 70cm across, the

team believe the dinosaurs were

early relatives of the Brontosaurus

and Diplodocus and grew to

at least 15 metres in length and

weighed more than 10 tonnes.

“The new track site from Skye

is one of the most remarkable

dinosaur discoveries ever made

in Scotland,” said lead author

Steve Brusatte. “There are so

many tracks crossing each other

that it looks like a dinosaur disco

preserved in stone. By following

the tracks you can walk with

these dinosaurs as they waded

through a lagoon 170 million

years ago, when Scotland was so

much warmer than today.”

It was previously thought that

large dinosaurs were purely land-

dwellers. The tracks reveal that

sauropods spent lots of time in

coastal areas and shallow water.

“This find clearly establishes

the Isle of Skye as an area of

major importance for research

into the mid-Jurassic period,” said

researcher Tom Challands.

“It’s exhilarating to make

such a discovery and be able to

study it in detail. But the best

thing of all is that this

is only the tip of the iceberg.

I’m certain the Isle of Skye will

continue to yield great sites and

specimens for years to come.”

Update

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