Moon monsters and a frozen ET
QUESTION
What was the first depiction of an alien on film? THE first aliens depicted on film were in the 1902 French sci-fi short Le Voyage Dans La Lune (A Trip To The Moon), directed by George Méliès.
Professor Barbenfouillis (Méliès) convinces his scientific colleagues to take a trip to the Moon. Their spaceship lands but as they explore they meet the hostile alien inhabitants, the Selenites. These aliens, named after the Greek Moon goddess, were played by acrobats from the Folies Bergère, whose costumes were among the most expensive parts of the production.
Among the first talkie movies that depicted an alien was Howard Hawks’s sci-fi classic The Thing From Another World (1951), which was based on the story Who Goes There? Hawks realised that this then-modernday horror story could serve as an effective allegorical vehicle for the growing Cold War paranoia and the Soviet nuclear threat.
Following a magnetic disturbance at the North Pole, an expedition consisting of soldiers and scientists is dispatched to study the source. There they find a great saucer-like object buried beneath the ice.
Inside they discover a frozen human-like survivor (the Thing), which they take back to their base. But as the ice melts, the deadly and hostile occupant goes on the rampage and the team must pool their knowledge and expertise to survive.
Bob Jones, Plymouth, Devon.
QUESTION
How common is bipedalism in the animal world? BIPEDALISM, or walking on two legs, is not common among animals as a whole. Among invertebrates, only the cockroach has been seen in high-speed photography briefly scurrying on hind legs, while octopuses have been known to propel themselves across the sea floor by the use of a couple of tentacles.
Several groups of dinosaurs were bipedal, especially the carnivorous theropods, which included the Velociraptor and Tyrannosaurus Rex. Birds, descendants of the therapods, are the one group today that are exclusively bipedal and, with more than 10,000 species, they are by far the most numerous one. Some fossil mammals, such as ground sloths, were bipedal.
There are no bipedal amphibians but of the reptiles, some lizards, including iguanas, can switch to bipedalism when running. The Basilisk lizard can run on its hind legs across water, giving it its common name of Jesus lizard.
Most mammals are quadrupeds (walk on four legs); humans are unique as obligatory bipedal mammals when running and walking. The closest to our mode of locomotion comes from gibbons, which usually brachiate, that is, swing hand over hand, in trees but change to hind-leg walking on the ground. Other primates have varying degrees of ability in bipedal walking.
Various rodents, such as the kangaroo mouse, jump and hop, as do marsupials such as kangaroos and wallabies.
Interestingly, the Tyrannosaurus rex was at first depicted in the kangaroo upright mode – with its tail on the ground – until fossil print tracks showed an absence of a tail track.
Other quadruped mammals have varying degrees of proficiency in adopting bipedalism in short bursts. Some dogs learn to walk on their hind legs, and bears can stand up and, cruelly, have been trained to ‘dance’. Browsers such as goats will stand to reach higher leaves. Other quadrupeds, such as squirrels, will sit up with their forepaws in the air. This can free up hands and give them a better view of their surroundings.
Why we became bipedal is not known. The much-parodied March of Progress picture is not right. It shows only a linear evolution from ape to human, but bipedalism evolved long before humans did.
Bipedalism has many disadvantages: giving birth is far more dangerous with a narrower pelvis, and even small mammals can outrun human athletes. It takes a greyhound to catch a hare. Freeing up the hands has probably played a big part in our survival, as all human species apart from ours have became extinct. And it almost happened to us, too, about 800,000-900,000 years ago, possibly because of extreme cooling of the climate.
Phil Alexander, Farnborough, Hampshire.
QUESTION
For which single battle were the most Victoria Crosses awarded?
FURTHER to the earlier answer, yes, Rorke’s Drift did result in 11 VCs being awarded – for a single action. However, the greatest number of Victoria Crosses for a single day was 24, during the Indian Mutiny on November 16, 1857. Twenty-three were for acts of outstanding courage – 18 of them for the assault on Sikandar Bagh – during the Second Relief of Lucknow.
Michael Hunt, Beckenham, Kent.