Irresistible contest entry

We've been getting some pretty spectacular entries to our Evolution & Art Contest. Kids imagine an animal in a new environment and draw us a picture of how that animal might evolve. Grab a kid and enter! You could win some great prizes.

Now, we can't show you any of the kids' entries before the end of the contest (December), but this one is just too magnificent to keep under wraps.

One Natalie Ross of Eastham Massachusetts, 78 years old, officially petitioned the Charlie's Playhouse Complaint Department that our activities exclude older people. Maybe some grownups would like to imagine new animals and make a nice drawing, did we ever think of that!?

So the Complaint Dept. issued her special permission to make a nice drawing. Here it is for all to see, along with her masterful explanation of how the strange creature she chose might evolve to fit a new environment:

Charlie, a species of Homo Erectus, finds himself on a desert island where there is only strange (but nourishing) food high up in tall trees, and the only predators are dangerous stinging ants, very poisonous. After a million years Charlie evolved a long neck in order to reach the fruit, and very short legs to make it easy to swat away the ants.

Bravo, Natalie, thank you! You definitely win the 78-year-old age category.