Carnivorous mammals, for example, are well known for their long, dagger-like canines that enable them to catch, hold, and puncture the flesh of their prey. Teeth, jaws, and other skull features can provide important clues about what an animal ate, how it captured and consumed its meals, as well as its state of health when it died. More importantly, each eye’s similar, but slightly different, view allows the brain to more accurately perceive depth and distances, a huge advantage when pursuing prey at break-neck speed. What might sound like redundancy actually heightens the animal’s ability to pick up on fine visual details. While this limits their field of view, it allows the view that each eye sees to overlap with the other. In contrast, predators, such as lions and owls, tend to have forward-facing eyes. This provides a nearly 360-degree field of view at all times, a tremendous advantage when surveying the landscape for movement and possible threats. Prey animals, such as antelope and doves, tend to have eyes on opposite sides of their heads. The location of eye sockets in the skull is one of the best indicators of whether an animal plays the role of pursuer or pursued. In addition to what a skull might say about an animal’s place on the family tree, it can also tell us about that creature’s role in an ecosystem-including how it views the world. Skull characteristics have also played a key role in illustrating the complex map of human evolution, most recently by confirming that we are more closely related to an extinct human-like species, Australopithecus afarensis, than to our closest living relatives, chimpanzees and other great apes. For example, analysis of the teeth of a tiny, long-nosed mammal from northern Namibia, known as the round-eared elephant shrew ( Macroscelides micus), helped Academy scientists recognize it as a new species, distinct from a similar creature living nearby. Just as important as a skull’s age are its physical characteristics, which provide important clues about how the creature it came from is related to other animals. Over time, skulls changed from a primitive collection of bony plates to the highly reinforced, structural marvels most vertebrates carry around today. They know that prior to about 500 million years ago, no creature possessed a skull. It also makes sense that, just as humans have progressed in the last 300 years, Predator technology may not be as well-developed during the time frame of Prey as it is in the 1987 Predator and its sequels.Scientists have come to understand a great deal about the evolution of skulls by studying the fossil record. Trachtenberg stated in an interview that he wanted to make the Predator more of a "creature" and make the head more proportional to the body, while keeping the design intimidating. This may be to further complement the animal motif as well as better match the weapons and shield that the Predator uses in Prey. The skull-like mask of the Predator has also moved from a metallic surface in to a material that looks more like segmented bone. There has also been speculation that the Predator's new mask could be a trophy taken from a past victim. Part of the reason for the design may have been to emphasize how the movie uses the Comanche's history of hunting large animals. The trailer shows Midthunder's Naru first coming across the Predator while hunting a bear, and the two are explicitly compared during a line in the shortened TV trailer. This may have been to better emphasize the animalistic nature of the Predator. The tusk-like protrusions that come from the side of the Predator's mask are also emphasized more in this design. The Predator still has his iconic skull-like mask, but it also seems to have been redesigned to be less angular and blocky than the 1980s design.
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