Balto
Balto was a Siberian husky and sled dog who led his team on the final leg of the 1925 serum run to Nome, in which diphtheria antitoxin was transported from Anchorage, Alaska, to Nenana, Alaska, by train and to Nome by dog sled to combat an outbreak of the disease. Balto was named after the Sami explorer Samuel Balto. Balto rested at the Cleveland Zoo until his death on March 14, 1933, at the age of 14. After he died, his body was stuffed and kept in the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, where it remains today. In January 1925 doctors realized that a deadly diphtheria epidemic was poised to sweep through Nome's young people; the only serum that could stop the outbreak was in Alaska. The engine of the only aircraft that could deliver the medicine was frozen and would not start. After considering all of the alternatives, officials decided to move the medicine via multiple dog sled teams; the serum was transported by train from Anchorage to Nenana, where the first musher embarked as part of a relay aimed at delivering the serum to Nome.
More than 20 mushers took part, facing a blizzard with strong winds. News coverage of the event was worldwide. On February 2, 1925, the Norwegian Gunnar Kaasen drove his team, led by Balto, into Nome; the longest and most hazardous stretch of the run was covered by another Norwegian, Leonhard Seppala, his dog team, led by Togo. They picked up the serum from musher Henry Ivanoff; the serum was passed to Kaasen. Balto proved himself on the Iditarod trail. Balto was able to stay on the trail in near whiteout conditions. Balto's team did their leg of the run entirely in the dark; the final team and its sledder were asleep when Balto and Kaasen made it to the final stop, so Kaasen decided to continue on. At Nome, everybody wanted to thank Kaasen at first. Togo was the star dog for Leonhard Seppala before the great 1925 Serum Run. Instead of celebrating the triumph together as one huge team, many became jealous of the publicity Balto received from President Calvin Coolidge and the press. Seppala favored Togo, but the general public loved the story behind Balto, so they would take a far different path after the celebrations were over.
Balto was not welcomed at the ceremony in New York in which Seppala and Togo received awards from the explorer Roald Amundsen. After the mission's success and Kaasen became celebrities. A statue of Balto, sculpted by Frederick Roth, was erected in New York City's Central Park on December 17, 1925, just 10 months after Balto's arrival in Nome. Balto himself was present for the monument's unveiling; the statue is located on the main path leading north from the Tisch Children's Zoo. In front of the statue a low-relief slate plaque depicts Balto's sled team, bears the following inscription: Balto was not destined to be a star in the breeding shed since he was neutered at a young age, hence he was relegated to being neglected on the vaudeville circuit with his team; when Kaasen wished to return home to Alaska, his dogs were sold to the highest bidder by the company who sponsored his tour. The dogs ended up chained in a small area in a novelty freak show in Los Angeles. While visiting Los Angeles, George Kimble, a former prize fighter turned businessman from Cleveland, was shocked to discover the dogs were unhealthy and badly treated.
Mr. Kimble worked together with the newspaper The Plain Dealer to bring Balto and his team to Cleveland, Ohio. On March 19, 1927, Balto and six companions were brought to Cleveland and given a hero's welcome in a triumphant parade; the dogs were taken to the Brookside Zoo. After Balto died in 1933, his remains were mounted by a taxidermist, donated to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. In 1965 Carl Barks introduced a hero dog named "Barko" as a character in an Uncle Scrooge comic book, North of the Yukon, as an homage to Balto. In 1998 the Alaska Legislature passed HJR 62-'Bring Back Balto' resolution; the Cleveland Museum of Natural History declined to return Balto. Balto was part of another exhibit at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art in 2017; the 1995 animated film of the same name was made, loosely depicting Balto's famous journey. This film is voiced by Kevin Bacon. Iditarod Trail Togo The Call of the Wild White Fang Northern Stone Fox Challenge of the Yukon Sergeant Preston of the Yukon Balto at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History Balto on IMDb
Cyrus S. Eaton
Cyrus Stephen Eaton, Sr. was a Canadian-American investment banker and philanthropist, with a career that spanned seventy years. For decades Eaton was one of the most powerful financiers in the American Midwest, he was a colourful and often-controversial figure, he was chiefly known for his longevity in business, for his opposition to the dominance of eastern financiers in the America of his day, for his ruthless financial manipulations, for his passion for world peace and for his outspoken criticism of United States Cold War policy. He funded and helped organize the first Pugwash Conferences on World Peace, in 1957, he wrote numerous articles and essays on political and economic subjects—"Investment Banking", "Competition or Decadence", "Rationalism Versus Rockefeller", "A Capitalist Looks at Labour" being some of the best known. Eaton was born on December 27, 1883 on a farm near the village of Pugwash in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, Canada. Besides farming, his father, Joseph Howe Eaton, ran a small general store and the district post office.
Cyrus' uncle was Charles Aubrey Eaton. Eaton left Nova Scotia in 1899 to attend Woodstock College, a Baptist-affiliated prep school in Woodstock, Ontario, he enrolled at McMaster University, a Baptist university located in Toronto, where he studied philosophy and finance, intending to enter the Baptist ministry. He earned his bachelor of arts degree in 1905 with a major in philosophy. After graduating from McMaster he went to work for the East Ohio Gas Company; this was one of many businesses associated with John D. Rockefeller. After working with East Ohio Gas and Rockefeller for two years, he established his own business in 1907, developing gas utilities which at the time were underdeveloped and unconsolidated in Canada, he managed to secure natural-gas franchises in Manitoba, Canada representing a group of New York investors. The syndicate folded. However, the Manitoba government was sufficiently impressed to allow Eaton to retain the franchises. Eaton formed a new holding company, the Canada Gas & Electric Corp consolidated into the Continental Gas & Electric Corp. in 1913.
After spending several years traveling, Eaton settled in Cleveland in 1913 and became active in many businesses. Eaton joined the Otis & Co. banking firm in 1916. In 1926 he set up an investment vehicle organized as Inc. a closed end trust. In 1927 he formed Republic Steel, the 3rd-largest U. S. steel company. His business had a complex structure which some felt to be too leveraged, his 1929 wealth was an estimated $100 million, most of, lost in the Great Depression. Eaton rebuilt his fortune in the 1940s and 1950s, becoming a director board chairman, of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, he died on May 9, 1979 at his home, Acadia Farm, in Northfield, OH. In 1920, Eaton founded the Cleveland Museum of Natural History; the Russell–Einstein Manifesto was issued in London on July 9, 1955 by Bertrand Russell in the midst of the Cold War. It highlighted the dangers posed by nuclear weapons and called for world leaders to seek peaceful resolutions to international conflict; the signatories included eleven preeminent intellectuals and scientists, including Albert Einstein, who signed it just days before his death on April 18, 1955.
A few days after the release, philanthropist Eaton offered to sponsor a conference—called for in the manifesto—in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, Eaton's birthplace. This conference was to be the first of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, held in July 1957. Besides financial support for the Pugwash Conferences, Eaton gave money to support education in Nova Scotia in Pugwash and to Acadia University, he supported the establishment of a game sanctuary in Nova Scotia on the Aspotogan Peninsula (his summer home was in Blandford, Nova Scotia where he had his ashes buried. He donated money for the doors of St. Bartholmus Church in Blandford and 12 acres of land in Northfield, for the Lee Eaton Elementary School, named in memory of his daughter, he was a financial supporter of McMaster University, the YWCA, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and Case Western Reserve University. At his death in 1979, his Blandford estate was purchased by a group of businessmen from Germany, his summer home was destroyed in a fire 2015.
Eaton's 1950s efforts at rapprochement with the Soviet Union won him the 1960 Lenin Peace Prize. He was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1958, was the recipient of an honorary degree from Bowling Green State University in 1969; the Pugwash Conferences and their chairman, Joseph Rotblat, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995. Eaton married twice, he had seven children: Margaret Grace, Mary Adelle, Elizabeth Ann, Anna Bishop, Cyrus S. Jr. Augusta Farlee, MacPherson, he had his ashes buried in Blandford, Nova Scotia. Cyrus Eaton Elementary School, Nova Scotia Cyrus Eaton Elementary School, Nova Scotia Lee Eaton Elementary School, Northfield Village, Ohio "Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter E". American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 7 April 2011 Cyrus Eaton interviewed by Mike Wallace on The Mike Wallace Interview Gleiser, The World of Cyrus Eaton Kent State University Press, 2010. Gibson, M. Allen, Beautiful Upon the Moun
Moon rock
Moon rock or lunar rock is rock, found on the Earth's moon including lunar material collected during the course of human exploration of the Moon, or rock, ejected from the Moon's surface. Moon rocks on Earth come from three sources: those collected by the United States Apollo program manned lunar landings from 1969 to 1972; the Apollo missions collected 2,200 samples weighing 382 kilograms. Three Luna spacecraft returned with 301 grams of samples. More than 300 lunar meteorites have been collected on Earth, representing more than 30 different meteorite finds, with a total mass of over 190 kilograms; some were discovered by scientific teams searching for meteorites in Antarctica, with most of the remainder discovered by collectors in the desert regions of northern Africa and Oman. The Soviet Union attempted, but failed to make manned lunar landings in the 1970s, but they succeeded in landing three robotic Luna spacecraft with the capability to collect and return small samples to Earth. A combined total of less than half a kilogram of material was returned.
In 1993, three small fragments from Luna 16, weighing 200 mg, were sold for US$442,500. Rocks from the Moon have been measured by radiometric dating techniques, they range in age from about 3.16 billion years old for the basaltic samples derived from the lunar maria, up to about 4.44 billion years old for rocks derived from the highlands. Based on the age-dating technique of "crater counting," the youngest basaltic eruptions are believed to have occurred about 1.2 billion years ago, but scientists do not possess samples of these lavas. In contrast, the oldest ages of rocks from the Earth are between 4.28 billion years old. Moon rocks fall into two main categories: those found in the lunar highlands, those in the maria; the terrae consist dominantly of mafic plutonic rocks. Regolith breccias with similar protoliths are common. Mare basalts come in three distinct series in direct relation to their titanium content: high-Ti basalts, low-Ti basalts, Very Low-Ti basalts. All lunar rocks are depleted in volatiles and are lacking in hydrated minerals common in Earth rocks.
In some regards, lunar rocks are related to Earth's rocks in their isotopic composition of the element oxygen. The Apollo moon rocks were collected using a variety of tools, including hammers, scoops and core tubes. Most were photographed prior to collection to record the condition, they were placed inside sample bags and a Special Environmental Sample Container for return to the Earth to protect them from contamination. In contrast to the Earth, large portions of the lunar crust appear to be composed of rocks with high concentrations of the mineral anorthite; the mare basalts have high iron values. Furthermore, some of the mare basalts have high levels of titanium. Primary igneous rocks in the lunar highlands compose three distinct groups: the ferroan anorthosite suite, the magnesian suite, the alkali suite. Lunar breccias, formed by the immense basin-forming impacts, are dominantly composed of highland lithologies because most mare basalts post-date basin formation; the ferroan anorthosite suite consists exclusively of the rock anorthosite with less common anorthositic gabbro.
The ferroan anorthosite suite is the most common group in the highlands, is inferred to represent plagioclase flotation cumulates of the lunar magma ocean, with interstitial mafic phases formed from trapped interstitial melt or rafted upwards with the more abundant plagioclase framework. The plagioclase is calcic by terrestrial standards, with molar anorthite contents of 94-96%; this reflects the extreme depletion of the bulk moon in alkalis as well as water and other volatile elements. In contrast, the mafic minerals in this suite have low Mg/Fe ratios that are inconsistent with calcic plagioclase compositions. Ferroan anorthosites have been dated using the internal isochron method at "circa" 4.4 Ga. The magnesian suite consists of dunites and gabbros with high Mg/Fe ratios in the mafic minerals and a range of plagioclase compositions that are still calcic; these rocks represent intrusions into the highlands crust at round 4.3-4.1 Ga. An interesting aspect of this suite is that analysis of the trace element content of plagioclase and pyroxene require equilibrium with a KREEP-rich magma, despite the refractory major element contents.
The alkali suite is so-called because of its high alkali content—for moon rocks. The alkali suite consists of alkali anorthosites with sodic plagioclase and gabbronorites with similar plagioclase compositions and mafic minerals more iron-rich than the magnesian suite; the trace element contents of these minerals indicates a KREEP-rich parent magma. The alkali suite spans an age range similar to the magnesian suite. Lunar granites are rare rocks that include diorites and granophyres, they consist of quartz, orthoclase or alkali feldspar, rare mafics, rare zircon. The alkali feldspar may have unusual compositions unlike any terrestrial felds
Australopithecus afarensis
Australopithecus afarensis is an extinct hominin that lived between 3.9 and 2.9 million years ago in Africa. A. afarensis was slenderly built, like the younger Australopithecus africanus. A. afarensis is thought to be more related to the genus Homo, whether as a direct ancestor or a close relative of an unknown ancestor, than any other known primate from the same time. Some researchers include A. afarensis in the genus Praeanthropus. The most famous fossil is the partial skeleton named Lucy found by Donald Johanson and colleagues, who, in celebration of their find played the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". Australopithecus afarensis. Despite Laetoli being the type locality for A. afarensis, the most extensive remains assigned to the species are found in Hadar, Afar Region of Ethiopia, including the above-mentioned "Lucy" partial skeleton and the "First Family" found at the AL 333 locality. Other localities bearing A. afarensis remains include Omo, Maka and Belohdelie in Ethiopia, Koobi Fora and Lothagam in Kenya.
Compared to the modern and extinct great apes, A. afarensis has reduced canines and molars, although they are still larger than in modern humans. A. afarensis has a small brain size and a prognathic face. Considerable debate surrounds the locomotor behaviour of A. afarensis. Some studies suggest that A. afarensis was exclusively bipedal, while others propose that the creatures were arboreal. The anatomy of the hands and shoulder joints in many ways favour the latter interpretation. In particular, the morphology of the scapula appears to be ape-like and different from modern humans; the curvature of the finger and toe bones approaches that of modern-day apes, is suggestive of their ability to efficiently grasp branches and climb. Alternatively, the loss of an abductable great toe and therefore the ability to grasp with the foot suggests A. afarensis was no longer adapted to climbing. A number of traits in the A. afarensis skeleton reflect bipedalism, to the extent some researchers have suggested bipedality evolved long before A. afarensis.
In overall anatomy, the pelvis is far more human-like than ape-like. The iliac blades are short and wide, the sacrum is wide and positioned directly behind the hip joint, evidence of a strong attachment for the knee extensors is clear. While the pelvis is not wholly human-like, these features point to a structure that can be considered radically remodeled to accommodate a significant degree of bipedalism in the animals' locomotor repertoire; the femur angles in toward the knee from the hip. This trait would have allowed the foot to have fallen closer to the midline of the body, is a strong indication of habitual bipedal locomotion; the feet feature adducted big toes, making it difficult if not impossible to grasp branches with the hindlimbs. The loss of a grasping hindlimb increases the risk of an infant being dropped or falling, as primates hold onto their mothers while the mother goes about her daily business. Without the second set of grasping limbs, the infant cannot maintain as strong a grip, had to be held with help from the mother.
The problem of holding the infant would be multiplied if the mother had to climb trees. Bones of the foot indicate bipedality. Computer simulations using dynamic modeling of the skeleton's inertial properties and kinematics suggest A. afarensis was able to walk in the same way modern humans walk, with a normal erect gait or with bent hips and knees, but could not walk in the same way as chimpanzees. The upright gait would have been much more efficient than the bent knee and hip walking, which would have taken twice as much energy. A. Afarensis was quite an efficient bipedal walker over short distances, the spacing of the footprints at Laetoli indicates they were walking at 1.0 m/s or above, which matches human small-town walking speeds. Yet, this can be questioned, as finds of Australopithecus foot bones indicate the Laetoli footprints may not have been made by Australopithecus. Many scientists doubt the suggestion of bipedalism, argue that if Australopithecus did walk on two legs, it did not walk in the same way as humans.
The presence of a wrist-locking mechanism, might suggest they engaged in knuckle-walking.. The shoulder joint is oriented much more cranially than that in modern humans, but similar to that in the present-day apes. Combined with the long arms Au. afarensis is thought to have had, this is thought by many to be reflective of a heightened ability to use the arm above the head in climbing behaviour. Furthermore, scans of the skulls reveal a canal and bony labyrinth morphology, not supportive to proper bipedal locomotion. Upright bipedal walking is thought to have evolved from knuckle-walking with bent legs, in the manner used by chimpanzees and gorillas to move around on the ground, but fossils such as Orrorin tugenensis indicate bipedalism around 5 to 8 million years ago, in the same general period when genetic studies suggest the lineage of chimpanzees and humans diverged. Modern apes and their fossil ancestors show skeletal adaptations to an upright posture used in tree-climbing, upright
Jeptha Wade
Jeptha Homer Wade was an American industrialist and one of the founding members of Western Union Telegraph. Wade was born in the youngest of nine children of Jeptha and Sarah Wade, he made the first Daguerreotypes west of New York, was a portrait painter, moved to Adrian, Michigan in 1840 before developing an interest in the telegraph. In 1847, he was subcontractor for J. J. Speed and constructed a telegraph line from Detroit to Jackson, where Wade and his son operated the telegraph office, he connected Detroit, Michigan to Buffalo, New York Cleveland to Cincinnati, others. Wade moved to Cleveland, Ohio in 1856 with Randall P. Wade. Randall would supervise the construction of two adjoining mansions with a shared driveway on Cleveland's Euclid Avenue, called Millionaires' Row, his grandson, Jeptha H. Wade II commissioned the Cleveland firm of Hubbell & Benes to design several residences and public buildings. In 1856 Jeptha helped Hiram Sibley consolidate most of the telegraph industry by forming Western Union through a series of acquisitions and mergers.
In 1861, Jeptha Wade joined forces with Benjamin Franklin Ficklin and Hiram Sibley to form the Pacific Telegraph Company. The company's formation completed the linkage between the east and west coast of the United States by telegraph. Wade became president of Western Union in 1866. A year he resigned because of ill-health and sold his interests to Jay Gould, William Orton succeeded to the presidency of Western Union. Jeptha was nominated by the Democratic Party for Representative of Ohio's 18th congressional district in 1864, but lost, he was an incorporator of the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company and the Citizens Savings and Loan Association, became president of National Bank of Commerce, served on the board of directors of eight railroads. Wade used his vast wealth to benefit the city of Cleveland. In 1882, he donated 63 acres of land east of the city for the purpose of creating Wade Park, named in his honor. Wade Park is Cleveland's cultural center surrounded by the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, the Western Reserve Historical Society and the Cleveland Botanical Garden.
Wade was involved with the establishment of Hathaway Brown School, a private academy for young girls and women. He co-founded the Case School of Applied Technology, which became part of Case Western Reserve University. In addition, Wade served as the first President of the Board of Trustees for Lake View Cemetery on Cleveland’s east side. Wade married Rebecca Louiza Facer in 1832, who bore his first son, Randall Palmer Wade that year. Rebecca Wade died November 30, 1836 at the age of 24, he remarried in 1837 with whom he adopted 4 more children. All are buried in Cleveland. Wade's grandchildren included Jeptha Homer Wade II, son of Randall Palmer Wade and Anna Rebecca McGaw Wade, he worked in the banking industry, railway business, mining industry, manufacturing after graduating from Mt. Pleasant Military Academy in Ossining, New York and Western Reserve University, he owned the USS Wadena. He established the family's Mill Pond Plantation in Thomasville, Georgia in 1906, he bequeathed to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History a large gem collection, now part of the Jeptha Homer Wade II Gallery of Gems and Jewels.
A grandchild of Jeptha Homer Wade II was Jeptha Homer Wade III, son of George Garretson and Irene Love Wade, a prominent Boston attorney assisting in the formation of the federal Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, served in the American Field Service beginning in 1944. He graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1946 and Harvard Law School in 1950, he volunteered as an assistant to retired Secretary of the Army John McCloy in the formation of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency under the Kennedy Administration before returning to Choate, Hall & Stewart in 1961. He was an advocate for nuclear arms control, president of the Lawyers Alliance for Nuclear Arms Control, he married Emily Vanderbilt, daughter of William Henry Vanderbilt III, who in 2015 added to the family's land holdings in Thomasville, Georgia, by purchasing 4,000 acres of the Greenwood Plantation for $22 million. The large tract of old-growth forest will be conserved for research on the ecology of longleaf yellow pine forests.
Jeptha Wade has many living descendants, among them Ellen Hetfield. THE JEPTHA HOMER WADE FAMILY PAPERS 1771-1957 Robert Luther Thompson, Wiring A Continent: The History of the Telegraph Industry in the United States, 1832-1866, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1947. Jan Cigliano, Showplace of America: Cleveland's Euclid Avenue, 1850-1910, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1991. Dictionary of American Biography, 1928. Who Was Who in American Art, 1985, Who's Who in America, 46th edition, 1990
Placodermi
Placodermi is a class of armoured prehistoric fish, known from fossils, which lived from the Silurian to the end of the Devonian period. Their head and thorax were covered by articulated armoured plates and the rest of the body was scaled or naked, depending on the species. Placoderms were among the first jawed fish. Placoderms are paraphyletic, consist of several distinct outgroups or sister taxa to all living jawed vertebrates, which originated among their ranks; this is illustrated by a 419-million-year-old fossil, from China, the only known placoderm with a type of bony jaw like that found in modern bony fishes. This includes a dentary bone, found in humans and other tetrapods. A recent analysis shows placodermi to be monophyletic; the jaws in other placoderms were consisted of a single bone. Placoderms were the first fish to develop pelvic fins, the precursor to hindlimbs in tetrapods, as well as true teeth. Paraphyletic groupings are problematic, as one can not talk about their phylogenic relationships, their characteristic traits and literal extinction.
380-million-year-old fossils of three other genera, Incisoscutum and Austroptyctodus, represent the oldest known examples of live birth. The first identifiable placoderms appear in the fossil record during the late Llandovery epoch of the early Silurian; the various groups of placoderms were diverse and abundant during the Devonian, but became extinct at the end-Devonian Hangenberg event 358.9 million years ago Many placoderms the Rhenanida, Petalichthyida and Antiarchi, were bottom-dwellers. In particular, the antiarchs, with their modified, jointed bony pectoral fins, were successful inhabitants of Middle-Late Devonian freshwater and shallow marine habitats, with the Middle to Late Devonian genus, known from over 100 valid species; the vast majority of placoderms were predators, many of which lived near the substrate. Many the Arthrodira, were active, nektonic predators that dwelled in the middle to upper portions of the water column. A study of the arthrodire Compagopiscis published in 2012 concluded that placoderms possessed true teeth contrary to some early studies.
The teeth were made of both bone and dentine. However, the tooth and jaw development were not as integrated as in modern gnathostomes; these teeth were homologous to the teeth of other gnathostomes. One of the largest known arthrodires, Dunkleosteus terrelli, was 6 m long, is presumed to have had a large distribution, as its remains have been found in Europe, North America and Morocco; some paleontologists regard it as the world's first vertebrate "superpredator", preying upon other predators. Other, smaller arthrodires, such as Fallacosteus and Rolfosteus, both of the Gogo Formation of Western Australia, had streamlined, bullet-shaped head armor supporting the idea that many, if not most, arthrodires were active swimmers, rather than passive ambush-hunters whose armor anchored them to the sea floor; some placoderms were herbivorous, such as the Middle to Late Devonian arthrodire Holonema, some were planktivores, such as the gigantic, 8 m long arthrodire, Titanichthys. Extraordinary evidence of internal fertilization in a placoderm was afforded by the discovery in the Gogo Formation, near Fitzroy Crossing, Western Australia, of a small female placoderm, about 25 cm in length, which died in the process of giving birth to a 6 cm offspring and was fossilized with the umbilical cord intact.
The fossil, named Materpiscis attenboroughi, had eggs which were fertilized internally, the mother providing nourishment to the embryo and giving birth to live young. With this discovery, the placoderm became the oldest vertebrate known to have given birth to live young, pushing the date of first viviparity back some 200 million years earlier than had been known. Specimens of the arthrodire Incisoscutum ritchei from the Gogo Formation, have been found with embryos inside them indicating this group had live bearing ability; the males reproduced by inserting a long clasper into the female. Elongated basipterygia are found on the phyllolepid placoderms, such as Austrophyllolepis and Cowralepis, both from the Middle Devonian of Australia, suggesting that the basiptergia were used in copulation; the placoderm claspers are not homologous with the claspers in cartilaginous fishes. The similarities between the structures has been revealed to be an example of convergent evolution. While the claspers in cartilaginous fishes are specialized parts of their paired pelvic fins that have been modified for copulation due to changes in the hox genes hoxd13, the origin of the mating organs in placoderms most relied on different sets of hox genes and were structures that developed further down the body as an extra and independent pair of appendages, but which during development turned into body parts used for reproduction only.
Because they were not attached to the pelvic fins, as are the claspers in fish like sharks, they were much more flexible and could be rotated forward. It was thought for a time that placoderms became extinct due to competition from the first bony fish and early sharks, given a combination of the supposed inherent superiority of bony fish and the presumed sluggishness of placoderms. With more accurate summaries of prehistoric organisms, it is now thought that they systematically died out as marine and freshwater ecologi
