By Hazel L. Richards, PhD candidate, Monash University
Imagine going through life with your arms permanently bent and locked at the elbows. Awkward, right?
Until recently we thought the mega-marsupial
Palorchestes azael lived exactly like this. This rare, distant relative of the wombat became extinct (along with much of Australia’s megafauna) about 40,000 years ago.
Palorchestes could in fact move its elbows but only a very tiny amount compared to other mammals.
Thus, we think this enigmatic creature would have had a highly unusual gait, which may provide a clue to why it went extinct. Read more:
A strange setup
Although the incidence of polio acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) has decreased in India, the nonpolio AFP (NPAFP) rate has increased. Nationwide, the NPAFP rate is 11.82 per 100 000 population, whereas the expected rate is 1 to 2 per 100 000 population.
Andre 5.1.1
A few questions:
Assuming for the sake of argument that the apparent increase in non-polio acute flaccid paralysis is in fact due to the version of polio vaccine being used in India being the cheaper of vaccines available (this assumption is by no means a clear conclusion from the available evidence), do you think this outcome is worse than the outcome would have been from not vaccinating and letting polio run rampant?