Star Tribune
Ancient footprints found in Kenya suggest human relatives ‘might have walked by one another’
In an undated image provided by Kevin G. Hatala, a footprint hypothesized to have been created by a Homo erectus individual. (KEVIN G. HATALA/The New York Times)
In 2021, Hatala was part of a team that reported footprints found in Tanzania were made by two distinct hominid species 3.6 million years ago. Now, he’s found a similar occurrence in Kenya.
The researchers uncovered three single footprints that seemed to come from the same type of hominid, and one long, continuous trail of prints that came from another.
It wasn’t immediately clear that the footprints were from distinct species. Because the fossil record is sparse, “you can’t do the Cinderella thing of fitting the foot skeleton into the footprint,” Hatala said.
Instead, the scientists relied on results from earlier experiments that used X-ray technology to understand how foot motion affects imprints left in the mud. Compared with the continuous trail of prints, the three isolated footprints all had higher arches, indicating that they arose from a gait more similar to that of humans today.
The scientists also found that the feet responsible for the trail of prints had a big toe with a position that changed from step to step. The toe was not as mobile as those on apes, but more varied than what is seen in modern humans.
“That, to me, is fascinating,” said William Harcourt-Smith, a paleoanthropologist at Lehman College and the American Museum of National History in New York, who wrote a perspective article that accompanied the study in Science. “Here we’ve got diversity in the way these creatures are moving around on the landscape, in each other’s backyards.”
“The trickiest thing is to manage the nerves, especially last season, performing for the Western Conference Finals. Every single seat was packed, and the energy was through the roof,” Riley said.
Among the challenges the 1st Avenue Breakers face when performing at the Minnesota Timberwolves games at Target Center are the flashing lights when spinning on their heads. (Minnesota Timberwolves)
The dancers also performed amid flashing lights, which made things more challenging. “You have to know where you’re at as you’re spinning on your head. It’s a lot to manage,” he said.
To help prepare the dancers, Riley said his group typically rehearses on the court before the show, flashing lights included.
“Part of my job is not just to choreograph, but to coach the new members in particular, to be ready for those timing cues,” he said. “Because if you miss a cue and you fall out of a move and we’re transitioning, it can have a bad snowball effect.”
Riley also owns House of Dance, an official dance studio partner of the Timberwolves and Lynx. The 1st Avenue Breakers rehearse in the space, and it’s the site for auditions, as well. “It’s been a good relationship because we’re so connected to the hip-hop dance community in general,” he said. “Our studio serves as a pipeline of talent for the Timberwolves.”
In a way, basketball is a kind of dance, with set moves and improvisational movement performed by the players. A soundtrack of recorded music and sound effects underlays the rhythm of the basketball hitting the floor, the shoes squeaking against the wood, and the ref’s whistle. Formal dance groups, mostly grounded in different forms of hip-hop vocabulary, supplement that basketball game with their own ebullient moves.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — An Alabama A&M football player who suffered a head injury during a game in October has died.
Medrick Burnett Jr., 20, was playing his first season as a linebacker with Alabama A&M University when he sustained a head injury during the annual Magic City Classic against in-state rivals Alabama State University on Oct. 26, the Jefferson County coroner said in a statement Friday. The coroner listed his official time of death as Wednesday evening.
The Alabama A&M athletic department announced Burnett’s death on Wednesday morning and then sent out a retraction later that day. The second statement said that the initial news of Burnett’s death came ”from an immediate family member on Tuesday evening.”
The redshirt freshman from Lakewood, California, joined Alabama A&M’s team over the summer after starting his college career at Grambling State, according to the athletics department.
A spokesperson for the department could not be reached by phone on Friday morning.
During the campaign, Donald Trump swore he had “nothing to do with” a right-wing policy blueprint known as Project 2025 that would overhaul the federal government, even though many of those involved in developing the plans were his allies.
Trump even described many of the policy goals as “absolutely ridiculous.” And during his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, he said he was “not going to read it.”
Now, as he plans his agenda for his return to the White House, the president-elect has recruited at least a half dozen architects and supporters of the plan to oversee key issues, including the federal budget, intelligence gathering and his promised plans for mass deportations.
The shift, his critics say, is not exactly a surprise. Trump disavowed the 900-page manifesto when polls showed it was extremely unpopular with voters. Now that he has won a second term, they say, he appears to be brushing those concerns aside.
“President-elect Trump has dropped all pretense and is charging ahead hand in hand with the right-wing industry players shaping an agenda he denied for the whole campaign,” said Tony Carrk, executive director of Accountable.US, a government watchdog agency that has been tracking Trump’s Cabinet picks with ties to the project.
Copies of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 at the group’s summit in National Harbor, Md., on April 21, 2023. (LEIGH VOGEL/The New York Times)
Trump’s Cabinet picks and other appointments have reaffirmed the fears of many Democrats and government watchdogs who say Trump will use Project 2025 as a road map to expand his executive power, replace civil servants with political loyalists and gut government agencies such as the Department of Education.
Trump has picked Russell Vought, an author of Project 2025, to lead the powerful Office of Management and Budget. In choosing Vought, Trump will have someone who views the position as far more expansive than just overseeing the budget.
Vought wrote in Project 2025 that the person picked for the job should view themselves as an “approximation of the president’s mind,” while establishing a reputation of the keeper of “commander’s intent.”
