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One very massive, shell-less turtle
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The Leatherback Sea Turtle is the largest turtle in the world, weighing approximately 900 kg. Contrary to appearance, the leatherback doesn't actually have a shell. What looks like a shell is in fact a leathery skin supported by small bones. This gives it a flexibility that a solid shell would not provide, allowing it to dive to astonishing depths.
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8576 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
What's the world's longest word?
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Titin is the largest known naturally occurring protein and is composed of 34,350 amino acids. It is also known as connectin and is abundant in striated muscle. Though it is 189,819 letters long, its status as the longest word in the English language is debatable, given that it is a technical word not found in the dictionary. ...
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7806 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
World's largest moth
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The Atlas Moth, Attacus atlas, is one of the largest species of butterfly that can be kept by insect enthusiasts. The moth is beautiful and very large, but also the caterpillars look amazing. The caterpillars are green-whitish with strange soft spines on their backs. Their last feet have a bright red spot on them
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5708 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Breastfeeding guidelines for neanderthals
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Ancient baby's teeth have revealed that Neanderthals followed today's breastfeeding guidelines. Scientists analyzed a fossilized baby tooth from a Neanderthal child, and found the infant was breastfed exclusively for the first seven months of life and given supplementary foods and mother's milk for another seven months before being weaned. This fascinating discovery sheds light on the remarkable similarities between Neanderthal parenting practices and contemporary breastfeeding guidelines. By examining the composition of the fossilized baby tooth, scientists have uncovered valuable insights into the dietary patterns of our ancient relatives. The Neanderthal infant's exclusive breastfeeding for the first seven months of life mirrors the advice ...
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5617 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
A strange surrogate mother
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After the tsunami in 2004, an orphaned baby hippo was found stranded on a coral reef off the coast of Kenya. He was brought to a wildlife sanctuary, but couldn’t be put with the other hippos because the oldest male may have viewed him as a threat and killed him. The hippo, named Owen, was put in with a 130-year-old tortoise named Mzee. Owen was desperate for a mother figure and immediately took to Mzee. In the coming months, the two became inseparable. They snuggled together and even tried to communicate. While hippos are known for being social, the same is not true for tortoises. Workers at the sanctuary feared for Mzee’s safety as Owen continued to grow. They were separated in 2007 and a young female hippo named Cleo provided companions ...
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4918 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Hair thickness between the blondes and brunettes
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Did you know -- On the average there are over one hundred thousand strands of hair on a young adult. Blondes average about 140,000 strands, brunettes average 108,000 and redheads average 90,000.
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4718 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Self-sacrificing honeypot ants
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More than thirty species of ant have a caste known as 'honeypot ants'. These essentially act as living pantries for other ants in the colony. They consume large quantities of food until the abdomen is incredibly engorged. When worker ants lack other food sources, honeypot ants simply regurgitate out nutrients for them to eat. In some parts of the world, eating honeypot ants is viewed as a sweet delicacy.
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4594 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
Pirate ants
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This enigmatic ant with out-of-this-world pigmentation patterns was recently found in the Philippines. The females have a black stripe across the eyes that resembles a pirate eye patch; this distinctive trait inspired the scientists to choose the name Cardiocondyla pirate, or pirate ant, for the species.
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4540 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
A human confused as an alien
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This bizarre looking thing is "Ata the humanoid", a mummified corpse found in the Atacama Desert ten years ago. It's strange appearance led to many calling it an "alien", claiming it as proof that extraterrestrials have visited Earth. Well, it's finally been submitted to a battery of tests and the results show it to be fully human. DNA analysis has even managed to pinpoint the location and nationality of its mother. The results do suggest that it was once alive and human, not a hoax, and so asks more questions than they answer. The bone analysis suggests that this is not a fetus, but a child between the ages of 6-8. The specimen has just ten ribs (as opposed to 12), is just six inches long and has severe facial deformities. These symptoms do ...
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4520 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
Molecules in high resolution
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This image shows 26 carbon atoms and 14 hydrogen atoms rearranging bonds. There has never been an image of a single bond resolve at this level of detail so close to the reaction time before.
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4481 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Possibly the world's tiniest fly
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In the forests of Costa Rica, a tiny insect has been found. Tinkerbella nana is a fairyfly that is only 250 micrometers long. It is one of the smallest arthropods ever discovered. How could they even find such a tiny creature? The researchers admit that it was not easy given the biodiversity of the forest. “It is possibly equivalent to finding a solitary needle in 200 haystacks,” Dr John Noyes notes.
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4422 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
One colourful bird
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Meet the fruit dove. These colourful, frugivorous doves are found in forests and woodlands in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Males and females of many fruit dove species look very different. For example, the female Many-coloured Fruit Dove shares the male’s crimson crown and deep pink undertail feathers, but is otherwise green, whereas the male has a crimson on the upper back and has areas of yellow, olive, cinnamon, and grey.
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4376 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Plastic bags are such a waste
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At our home, we use the plastic bags we get from grocery shopping to store garbage. Technically, we are putting them to good use, but they are still a wasteful invention, and something needs to be done to prevent problems like this .
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4316 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
So good at camouflaging!
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The arctic fox population on Mednyi Island in the Bering Sea has declined to just 100 individuals over the past 40 years, and a new study has found out why. It's likely due to mercury pollution in seabirds and fish, not infectious disease, as previously thought. This is important, say the researchers, because we eat marine food too, so we should stop and think about how much pollution is going into our Arctic waters.
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4286 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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4203 |
duddy |
10 years ago |