discovered many fossils of animals, including an extinct amphibian called a labyrinthodont, which also lived in Africa and Australia. By 1969, when extinct reptile fossils were found, it was clear that Antarctica had once been up in warmer seas, part of an ancient supercontinent. The Antarctic fossils are evidence for the idea that Earth's continents move around.Even now, in the dry valleys ...
way to my part of the planet, but right now there's a splendid display of fall foliage in Central Park, where South Africa's Willie Mtolo won this year's New York City Marathon. Sports reporters said the weather was "perfect," not too cold but cool enough for the runners, who in previous years have had to sweat through 26.2 miles in too mild weather.Is being cool preferable to being warm? That ...
to be so far, it will save everyone money and reduce noise pollution."Noise" is, again, how you defne it. A tourist in Africa may think elephants are noisy. They trumpet, shriek and have stomachs that constantly rumble. Unknown to the tourist - unless he feels the vibration - the elephant is also vocalizing at a frequency below human ear capacity. Nobody knows whether or not this is a form of ...
trawling off the coast of South Africa caught a strange creature in his net. He eventually showed it to a South African ichthyologist, J. L. B. smith, who identified it as a coelacanth.Since then, it has been found that coelacanths live in the Comoros and that fisherman bring up one now and then. The coelacanths live at depths of about 600 feet and altogether 170 specimens have been brought ...
of this silk route by the Turks was one of the causes that led eventually to the European circumnavigation of Africa and the discovery of America.) Now the Japanese dream of a modern highway running the width of Asia along the course of the old silk route.They dream also of using the copious water power in the Himalayan mountain range for the production of nonpolluting electrical power of ...
times the range of the ostrich was greater than it is now. Ostrich eggshells are found in widely diverse areas of Africa and even in China.The eggshells are found rather plentifully because they were useful in prehistoric times. One ostrich egg can supply the equivalent of two dozen hen's eggs in scrambled eggs, so it was a desirable food source.The shell of an ostrich egg is remarkably ...
he originated, we can't tell, but there is a strong suspicion that all human beings and their ancestors originated in Africa.We know of Neanderthals not only by their bones, but by the tools they left behind. Widespread over Europe is the "Mousterian culture" consisting of comparatively simple stone tools. It is so called because the first examples were found in the sands of Moustier in France ...
Pangaea that would have been subjected to the highest temperatures were in what is now eastern Brazil and west-central Africa. The places where the greatest temperature range between summer and winter took place were in what is now southern Africa.Fossil finds are few in those areas; the climate was probably so ferocious in central Pangaea that life simply could not stand it. This is ...
an interesting suggestion. Ascension Island is very close to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where, some 40 million years ago, Africa and South America nearly touched. In those days, green turtles would feed off Brazil Island and breed.However, the Atlantic Ocean was forming, because material was oozing up from the ridge and forcing the land masses apart ("sea-floor spreading"). Every year, the ...
was the use of fire, but we have never known exactly how long ago this discovery was made. But now, two South African archeologists have reported evidence that the discovery may have come about much longer ago than had been thought.Note that this is not a matter of the discovery of fire itself. Fire was a common event once forests came into existence about 400 million years ago. They did burn ...