If you are one among the many who have watched the movie Rio and have fallen in love with the adorable lead named Blu, then I have some terrible news for you! As of this date, the Spix’s Macaw has been declared “extinct as in wild”.
Category Archives: Evolution
There are more microbial species on Earth than stars in the galaxy
For centuries, humans have endeavoured to discover and describe the sum of Earth’s biological diversity. Scientists and naturalists have catalogued species from all continents and oceans, from the depths of Earth’s crust to the highest mountains, and from the most remote jungles to our most populated cities. This grand effort sheds light on the forms …
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What a fossil revolution reveals about the history of ‘big data’
In 1981, when I was nine years old, my father took me to see Raiders of the Lost Ark. Although I had to squint my eyes during some of the scary scenes, I loved it – in particular because I was fairly sure that Harrison Ford’s character was based on my dad. My father was …
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Here’s What did Ancient Earth Look Like
I stumbled upon an amazing web page showing what did ancient Earth look like. On the “Dinosaur Pictures and Facts” web page (dinosaurpictures.org), there’s also an interactive animation. On this page, you can either select the years (i.e. 600 million years ago) or jump to a particular event (i.e. first multicellular life) and see how ancient …
20 amazing lion facts about the most iconic big cat in the world
The Lion (Panthera leo) is the second-largest cat in the world, after the tiger. The lion and tiger are closely related and they share a very similar body type. As its scientific name suggests, Lion is one of the five members of the Panthera genus (see notes 1). Here are 20 amazing lion facts.
The oldest fossils suggest that life should be common in the Universe
Are we alone in the Universe? Or do any other life forms exist out there? A new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS, see notes 1) suggests that life emerged so early on Earth, so it should be widespread. In other words, the …
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Dinosaur-killer asteroid hit the “worst possible place” 66 million years ago, say Scientists
According to the scientists who drilled into the Chicxulub crater buried underneath the Yucatán Peninsula and the Gulf of Mexico, the dinosaur-killer asteroid hit the “worst possible place” (for the dinosaurs, of course). They summarized their findings so far in a BBC Two documentary titled “The Day The Dinosaurs Died”. The documentary was presented by …
10 largest fish in the world
Here are the top 10 largest fish species in the world’s oceans by body length. You can also see the prehistoric giants’ sizes (including megalodon, the largest shark ever lived, and Leedsichthys, the largest fish ever swam in the Earth’s oceans) at the bottom of this post.
Top 10 Common Misconceptions about Earth
People believe many things which are actually not true. Here are the top ten misconceptions about Earth.
The 6th Major Extinction Event
In the past, there were five major extinction events (a widespread and rapid decrease in the biodiversity on Earth), and a lot of minor ones. Now, we are in the middle of the sixth one, called the “Holocene extinction event”. And the cause is… guess what? Humans. According to the WWF’s (World Wildlife Fund) new …
