How the seal got its flippers

BRYAN SNYDER/REUTERS

THIS WEEK

Would McCain have won in wartime? Linda Geddes

THE mark of a good leader may be etched on their face but whether he or she gets elected might depend on the state of the nation. To see whether facial characteristics influence our choice of leader, Brian Spisak and Mark Van Vugt at the University of Kent, UK, manipulated computer images of male and female faces to make them appear more masculine or feminine. They asked 118 volunteers to choose one of them as a leader for different scenarios: during times of war; when peacekeeping between different groups was important; during periods of transition; to maintain stability after a natural disaster; and when there was a risk of civil war. The researchers also altered the male and female faces to look older or younger, and then asked

145 volunteers to pick a leader given the same scenarios. During times of war, the volunteers preferred masculine or older faces, while they picked feminine faces when inter-group peacekeeping was the priority. Interestingly, gender was irrelevant – with masculinelooking women picked over feminine-looking males during times of war, and vice versa. “This suggests that traditional classifications of male and female are not as relevant a cue as we might think,” says Spisak, who spoke at a meeting of the European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association in St Andrews, UK, earlier this month. Previous studies have hinted that voters prefer masculinelooking leaders during wartime, as these types of faces are associated with dominant and decisive traits, says Alexander

–If the face fits the times–

Todorov of Princeton University. “The novelty here is that masculinity or femininity, which is naturally correlated with gender, still influences decisions even when unconfounded by gender.” Spisak and Van Vugt also found that youthful faces were preferred during times of transition and stability – with young females the leaders of choice. Spisak believes that facial

characteristics may have played a role in the recent US presidential elections, although other factors were also clearly involved. “Obama was an easier sell,” he says. “He was the relatively younger candidate, and he stuck with this message of change and transition. If McCain had had a stronger and more consistent message on the war, perhaps he would have stood a better chance of winning.” ■

Fossil seal had the feet of an otter

Devon Island in the Canadian high Arctic. Puijila’s teeth and skull indicate that it is a primitive pinniped – but instead of flippers, the animal seems to have had long, webbed feet much like the modern giant river otter of South America (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature07985). Puijila lived about 21 to 24 million years ago, when Arctic regions were much warmer than today. Lakes would probably still have frozen in winter, though, so the animal might have wandered onto land in search of food as otters do today, says Rybczynski. In fact, the need for food may have encouraged them to venture into the oceans, too, which would have remained ice-free for more of the year, driving the evolution of modern-day pinnipeds in the Arctic. Bob Holmes ■

CRAIG MACKIE

A FOSSIL of a small, otter-like animal from the Canadian Arctic provides clues to how seals got their flippers. We know that seals and sea lions, aka pinnipeds, evolved from land animals and are closely related to bears and weasels. But until now few intermediate fossils bridged the gap between these terrestrial ancestors and the sleek, flippered pinnipeds. The new fossil, uncovered by Natalia Rybczynski of the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa and her team does just that. Rybczynski’s team found the fossil, dubbed Puijila darwini, in freshwater sediments on

10 | NewScientist | 25 April 2009