Nature

Why Earth's Largest Ape Went Extinct g

The biggest primate that ever walked the Earth may have died out because of its giant size and limited diet, new research suggests.

Little is known about the mysterious Gigantopithecus blacki, a distant relative to orangutans that stood up to 10 feet (3 meters) tall and weighed up to 595 lbs. (270 kilograms).

However, a new analysis of its diet suggests it lived and ate exclusively in the forest. When its forest habitats shrank about 100,000 years ago, the enormous ape may not have been able to snag enough food to survive and reproduce, and went extinct as a result, said study co-author Herve Bocherens, a paleontologist at the University of Tubingen in Germany.


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5 facts about dinosaurs that jurassic world probably got completely wrong

Following the release of Jurassic World on DVD and Blu-ray, we spoke to dinosaur expert Dr Jakob Vinther about the film's biggest dinosaur disasters that question the 'science' in 'science fiction'...

Dinosaurs were covered in feathers, not scales

After years of debate, scientists now know that dinosaurs were the ancestors of birds, not reptiles. Dr Jakob, along with scores of other palaeontologists, have confirmed that dinosaurs as large as T. rex were covered in feathers rather than scales.

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Elephant Social Networks Remain Strong In The Face of Poaching

Each year, approximately 30,000 African elephants are killed illegally for their ivory. Between 2010 and 2012, a staggering 100,000 elephants were slaughtered. Driven by an insatiable demand for ivory in China and Southeast Asia to make trinkets for burgeoning middle classes, the price of ivory has skyrocketed. A single carved tusk in China can fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Unfortunately, this means no there is no respite in sight for the African elephant, and this has placed lots of pressure on elephant family groups, which are highly developed and complex social networks. However, despite near constant disruption and turnover within elephant families, the integrity of their social groups has remained surprisingly intact, revealing a hopeful bit of resiliency in an otherwise dismal situation.

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Great White Sharks Can Sense Emotions?

Great White Sharks are some of the most remarkable animals on planet earth. Next, our journey continues as we propel ourselves beyond the economics of fear toward more fascinating discoveries as it relates to the shark's advanced biological senses.

The most well-known shark species, such as the great white shark, tiger shark, blue shark, mako shark, and the hammerhead shark, are considered to be apex predators at the top of their underwater food chain.

As apex predators, sharks play a vital role in our ocean's food chain and yet humanity in recent times has brutally obstructed their ability to play this role. Why? First, let's take a look at scientific discoveries on sharks and Great White Sharks in particular.

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How are minerals involved in creating liquid crystalline water?

Water does not naturally exist without minerals (salts/electrolytes). Even rain that has been purified by the process of evaporation immediately begins gathering minerals when it comes in contact with the Earth. Healthy water always contains minerals, just like the healthy internal fluids in our bodies. BUT the form these mineral take and the way they are held in the water is very important.

Minerals in water can either be biologically available or not. In other words, they can be easily recognized or they must undergo changes before they can perform their functions. Any changes require "work" so the easier it is for minerals to be used the better. Most biologically unavailable minerals are excreted or stored in the body as deposits that can cause plaque and joint problems.

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Structured Water: Embracing Expansive Knowledge

Structured water is one of natures most important substance and we cannot live without it. While ancient cultures recorded great accounts of their philosophies, it was clear they placed genuine focus on both the nature of things and how to view the world in a broad sense. In recent centuries, however, we have attempted to subject the phenomenon of nature to specialization. And while contributions from specialization are critical to the development of exquisite technologies, a false narrative is often created and the great unknown is left forgotten.

It's no coincidence that imaginative geniuses of the past often embraced expansive knowledge in their search for scientific breakthroughs. This gave them the ability to solve larger problems; a path we sometimes lose because of our narrow, self-minded focus of today.

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