Described as the 'least shark-like shark', it is thought to have risen from within a group of fish known as acanthodians or spiny sharks. The earliest shark-like teeth we have come from an Early Devonian (410-million-year-old) fossil belonging to an ancient fish called Doliodus problematicus. It was also around this time that the first plants invaded the land. As there are no fossils of these animals from this period of time, this is based solely on the DNA and molecular evidence of modern sharks and chimaeras. Scientists are still debating if these were true sharks or shark-like animals.'Īnalysis of living sharks, rays and chimaeras suggests that by around 420 million years ago, the chimaeras had already split from the rest of the group. If these were from sharks it would suggest that the earliest forms could have been toothless. The earliest fossil evidence for sharks or their ancestors are a few scales dating to 450 million years ago, during the Late Ordovician Period.Įmma Bernard, a curator of fossil fish at the Museum, says, 'Shark-like scales from the Late Ordovician have been found, but no teeth.
While often referred to as living fossils, sharks have evolved many different guises over the hundreds of millions of years that they have been swimming the oceans. The group includes the more famous animals such as whale sharks and great whites, but also all rays, skates and the little-known chimaeras (also known as ratfish, rabbit fish or ghost sharks). The only part of their skeleton not made from this soft, flexible tissue is their teeth. The worst is yet to come.Sharks belong to a group of creatures known as cartilaginous fishes, because most of their skeleton is made from cartilage rather than bone. Her strong will and faith allow Elli to manage and adjust, but what she doesn’t know is that this is only the beginning. Then she and her family are forced to leave their house behind to move into a crowded ghetto, where privacy becomes a luxury of the past and food becomes a scarcity. First Elli can no longer attend school, have possessions, or talk to her neighbors. A life in which Elli could lie and daydream for hours that she was a beautiful and elegant celebrated poet.īut these adolescent daydreams quickly darken in March 1944, when the Nazis invade Hungary. It wasn’t long ago that Elli led a normal life that included family, friends, school, and thoughts about boys.
A remarkable memoir, I Have Lived a Thousand Years is a story of cruelty and suffering, but at the same time a story of hope, faith, perseverance, and love.
So wonders thirteen-year-old Elli Friedmann as she fights for her life in a Nazi concentration camp. What is death all about? What is life all about?
0 kommentar(er)
