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Looking for Clues Hunt and Lipo dug up a beach on Easter Island. T ey found tiny rat bones. T e two scientists also found ancient palm tree nuts. Many had marks made by rat teeth. T ese clues could help explain why Easter


Island lost its trees. Before the Rapanui came to the island, it had no rats. A few rats came with the settlers. T e rats quickly multiplied. Soon there were millions. T ese rats may have eaten so many nuts that new trees couldn’t grow. Hunt and Lipo knew that it was possible. Something similar had happened in Hawaii. Because of the rats, the Rapanui may not


have had a lot of wood to move the statues. Maybe they didn’t need it. Hunt and Lipo began to look for evidence to prove that. As they studied satellite maps of the island,


they saw something odd. Lots of lines led away from the volcano. T e lines looked like ancient roads. Scientists knew about some of the roads already, but not this many.


Boots on the Ground When Hunt and Lipo explored the roads, they found huge chunks of rock along them. T ey looked more closely. Suddenly, they saw noses, foreheads, and chins. T ese stones were really statues that never made it to the coast. Some statues were broken. Heads lay a meter


or more away from the statues’ bodies. Other statues lay face down. T at’s weird, the pair thought. To roll or drag


the statues, the Rapanui would have put the statues on their backs. If so, the broken parts should be closer together. Plus, the statues should have landed face up. T ese facts led Hunt and Lipo to a new


hypothesis. Maybe the islanders put the statues upright to move them. Maybe the statues did walk. T e pair set out to test their idea.


evidence: information that supports a conclusion


experiment: a test to prove a hypothesis


hypothesis: an idea that has not been proved


method: a step-by-step plan to try to prove a hypothesis


SEPTEMBER 2012 15


Put to the Test First, Hunt and Lipo made a copy of a statue out of concrete. It stood 3 meters (10 feet) tall and weighed 4.5 metric tons (5 tons). T en they tied ropes around the statue’s head. Two teams of people stood on either side of


the statue and grabbed the ropes. “Pull! Pull!” they yelled. T ey rocked the statue from side to side. It wobbled, but it didn’t move forward. T ey added a third team of people to steady


the statue from behind. “Heave, ho!” they all shouted. Suddenly, the statue rocked forward on its rounded base. T e groups got so excited that they tugged harder. T unk! T e statue fell flat on its face. T ey stood the statue up and tried again.


“Heave!” One side of the statue rocked forward. “Ho!” T e other side caught up. Tug aſt er tug, the statue waddled forward like a giant penguin. It moved 10 meters (30 feet). In a second experiment, the statue moved farther. Maybe the statues really did walk with the


help of people and ropes. It’s hard to know for sure. T ere are no written records, just tantalizing clues. Yet Hunt and Lipo showed that the legend of the walking statues might not be just a story. It might be true.


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