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Despite their extreme lifestyles, avians can live remarkably long lives for animals their size. Wisdom the Laysan Albatross celebrated a big birthday last year, turning a whopping 70 years old. Flying for months at a time over the open sea, albatrosses’ bodies are built to last, and as far as we know, she is the oldest wild bird in the world. However, the reason for Wisdom’s extraordinarily long life—even living longer than the biologist who first banded her—remains a mystery. While most birds don’t reach their eighth decade like Wisdom, they have earned a reputation for longevity that has puzzled scientists for centuries. In…

Despite their extreme lifestyles, avians can live remarkably long lives for animals their size. Wisdom the Laysan Albatross celebrated a big birthday last year, turning a whopping 70 years old. Flying for months at a time over the open sea, albatrosses’ bodies are built to last, and as far as we know, she is the oldest wild bird in the world. However, the reason for Wisdom’s extraordinarily long life—even living longer than the biologist who first banded her—remains a mystery. While most birds don’t reach their eighth decade like Wisdom, they have earned a reputation for longevity that has puzzled scientists for centuries. In…

Despite being fairly common, cardinals can be a bit elusive. Cardinals often come to feeders as the sun is setting, when their red feathers are muted under low light conditions. Here’s how to choose the best cardinal bird feeders and birdseed to attract these beloved redbirds. Best Cardinal Bird Feeders Triple Tube Feeder Begin with a tube feeder to welcome cardinals, finches, chickadees and titmice almost immediately. Those species seem to recognize the shape of the feeder, and their presence attracts other birds.  High on our list of the best tube bird feeders, this Perky-Pet Triple Tube bird feeder provides multiple birds a…

The region surrounding Sagittarius A*, the Milky Way’s own supermassive black hole. Eventually, black holes will be the last remaining matter in the universe. The cosmos may never end. But if you were immortal, you’d probably wish it would. Our cosmos’ final fate is a long and frigid affair that astronomers call the Big Freeze, or Big Chill. It’s a fitting description for the day when all heat and energy is evenly spread over incomprehensibly vast distances. At this point, the universe’s final temperature will hover just above absolute zero. The Big Bang’s accelerating expansion Some 13.8 billion years ago, our universe was…

Discover what life is like for some of the biggest birds to roam the planet Some of the biggest birds on Earth can stand taller than any NBA player and spread their wings wider than kings size bed. There are almost 10,000 species of birds on Earth and they come in all different shapes and sizes — from the tiny bee hummingbird to the massive ostrich. Here are 10 of the biggest birds to inhabit our planet, including the tallest, heaviest and those whose wings spread the furthest. HARPY EAGLE (HARPIA HARPYJA) Harpy eagles can be found in the tropical…

The Aztecs ritually sacrificed people to appease their gods. They displayed the heads of their dead on enormous, cylindrical racks called tzompantli, constructed using rows of skulls mortared together. The Aztecs used these towers to show off their empire’s might to enemies and invaders. Last week, Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) announced that researchers had discovered a section of one such tower under the ruins of Mexico City’s Templo Mayor. It contained 119 skulls from men, women, and children. Archaeologists first discovered this tower, called Huei Tzompantli, five years ago. The skulls date back more than 500 years.…

Thonis  Heracleion the Lost City: In 1987 maritime archeologist Franck Goddio founded the Institut Européen d’Archéologie Sous-Marine (The European Institute of Underwater Archaeology) in order to concentrate solely on underwater excavations. He has found several important shipwrecks including the San Diego found in the waters of the Philippines and Napoleon Bonaparte’s flagship during his campaign in Egypt, the Orient. His most important excavation to date is the discovery of the ancient sunken port city of Thonis Heracleion and parts of the city of Canopus in the Bay of Aboukir near Alexandria, Egypt. Partnered with the Egyptian Ministry for Antiquities, Goddio and his team…

The curation of this content is at the discretion of the author, and not necessarily reflective of the views of Encyclopaedia Britannica or its editorial staff. For the most accurate and up-to-date information, consult individual encyclopedia entries about the topics. In 1963 Alfred Hitchcock released The Birds, one of his most iconic thrillers. The movie considered what would happen if flocks of birds, animals that linger in the background of many of our daily lives, suddenly rose up and attacked a small coastal town in California. The film was inspired by a real-life event, namely an attack by sooty shearwaters on Capitola,…

Archaeologists have discovered an ancient Egyptian temple with 15 mummified falcons, many of them headless and buried around a pedestal. The discovery suggests a previously unknown ritual performed by the Blemmyes, a nomadic people who once inhabited what is now southern Egypt and Sudan. The team of Spanish and Polish archaeologists just published an extensive analysis of their findings during the 2019 excavation season at Berenike, an ancient and long-abandoned Red Sea port city that borders Egypt’s Eastern desert. These intriguing results, which appear in the American Journal of Archaeology , provide detailed information about the religious shrine or temple…

(Inside Science) — Experts believe the building blocks of life first bumped into each other about 3.5 billion years ago. This serendipitous collision somehow helped form the first rudimentary cell — and the first life on Earth. At least, that’s been the predominant theory. Now, a team of scientists from the University of Washington is challenging this idea in a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They propose that membranes might have been the key component that helped congregate the pieces needed to create the first cell. “If you want to explain life, you have to explain…

The “Oldest Gold Of Mankind” was found in the Varna Necropolis, on The Bulgarian Black Sea Coast In 1972, an excavator operator working in the industrial zone of the city Varna will stumble upon something that will turn out to be a very significant historical site. The Varna Necropolis has discovered approximately half a kilometer from Lake Varna and 4 km from the city center. It is estimated that it was made sometime between 4,600 BC to 4,200 BC. Around 300 graves have been found at this burial site, but the most significant is grave 43. It contained the remains…

The charges related to the reckless use of illegal poison resulted in the deaths of 15 birds, including five red kites. A PENSIONER has been convicted of killing raptors and other wild birds with poison, executing 15 in total. Barry Nicolle, 67, admitted numerous charges at Dumfries Sheriff Court on Wednesday. He is due to be sentenced on Friday, May 19. The charges related to the reckless use of illegal poison resulted in the deaths of 15 birds, including five red kites, in the Stewarty area of Dumfries and Galloway between 2019 and 2020. Police said they were recovered within a mile radius…

Earth’s magnetic field is incredibly important to life on our planet. Beyond allowing for compass navigation and displaying the Aurora Borealis way up north, it is responsible for shielding us from the worst effects of the Sun’s rays. A little bit of Sun, we need—a lot would have some serious negative impacts. Thankfully, we do have a magnetic field. But there’s a bit of a problem: Our magnetic field has a dent in it—what ScienceAlert calls a “pothole in space.” It’s called the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA), and it’s not a physical dent. It’s a region in the skies between…

The newly-discovered dormant black hole, named Gaia BH2, is orbited by a red giant star, and has a mass of 8.9 solar masses. Gaia BH2 is located approximately 3,800 light-years away in the constellation of Centaurus. This black hole, as well as Gaia BH1, was discovered by studying the movement of its companion star. A strange ‘wobble’ in the movement of the stars on the sky indicated that they are orbiting a very massive object. Other explanations for these massive companions, like double-star systems, were ruled out since they do not seem to emit any light. The distance of the stars…

Hoard of Viking coins worth at least £500,000 found during police raids A hoard of Viking coins has been confiscated by police investigating an illegal trade in historic treasures that could rewrite British history. The collection of coins and a silver ingot, dating back to King Alfred the Great’s reign of the 9th century, were retrieved at households in Durham County and Lancashire by police. Believed to be worth at least £500,000, a leading expert has told the MailOnline they could ‘add significantly to our understanding of the political history of England in the AD 870s’ as they reveal a…

Archaeologists Say New Airport Near Machu Picchu “Would Destroy It” The Incan citadel of Machu Picchu in Peru is one of the world’s most stunning pieces of engineering, and a hypnotizing, historical remnant of a mystical past. Nestled in the Andes at around 8,000 feet, the government is now planning to boost the lucrative tourism it draws annually even more — by building a multibillion-dollar international airport nearby, which critics are adamant “would destroy it.” The Unesco World Heritage Site is traditionally reached by taking a flight to the Cusco airport 46 miles away, which only has one runway. From…

The origin of life is one the great unanswered questions in science. One piece of this puzzle is that life started on Earth 4.5 billion years ago, just a few hundred million years after the formation of the Solar System, and involved numerous critical molecular components. How did all these components come to be available so quickly? One potential explanation is that the Earth was seeded from space with the building blocks for life. The idea is that space is filled with clouds of gas and dust that contain all the organic molecules necessary for life. Indeed, astronomers have observed…

When you stack up the most promising recent exoplanet finds, as illustrated here, it becomes clear none is Earth’s true twin. But even more habitable worlds may be out there waiting to be found. Earth is the only place in the universe where we know life exists. But with billions of other star systems out there, it might not be the best place for life. In a new study, astronomers modeled the potential for life on other watery planets and found some conditions that can create oceans maximized for habitability. The model suggests that watery planets with dense atmospheres, continents, and…

Wood Duck Information Scientific Name: Aix sponsa.Family: Duck.Length: 18 inches.Wingspan: 29 inches.Distinctive Markings: Male has an iridescent “slicked-back” crest, red eyes, a bill striped with yellow, red, white and black, a bright-white “bridle” and boldly colored feathers on its body and wings. Female is an overall gray with some blue and purple wing markings, a white eye ring, brown eyes and a  duller bill. Nest and Eggs Selects a natural cavity or a nest box, sometimes up to a mile away from water. If you live near water, put up a nest box and you may attract wood ducks to your yard. Make sure it has a…

American robins wake up early to eat breakfast — but how do robins find worms in the ground? We chatted with an expert to find out. Few birds are as closely associated with earthworms as the American robin. These red-breasted backyard favorites are hopping around in the grass and plucking wriggling creatures from the ground. But how do robins find worms? The answer might surprise you. Turns out, a robin’s ability to hunt down worms in your yard relies on a few of its senses — one more than the rest. Enjoy 15 cheerful robin bird pictures to welcome spring. How Do Robins…

KENDALL Jenner has shown off an iмpressiʋe s𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 in new gyм videos. She flaunted her curʋes in a Ƅlack sports bra as she wowed her followers with the athletic feat. Kendall Jenner showed off an iмpressiʋe s𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 in new videos Credit: Instagraм/Kendall Jenner She deмonstrated her strength on the мonkey Ƅars at her trainer’s fitness studio Credit: Instagraм/ Kendall Jenner Taking to her Instagraм Stories, 26-year-old Kendall showed off a video of her swinging along the мonkey Ƅars at her personal trainer’s gyм. She skilfully мoʋed down the long row of Ƅars attached to the ceiling. Wearing a Ƅlack sports…

Siberian Princess reveals her 2,500-year-old tattoos The intricate patterns of 2,500-year-old tattoos – some from the body of a Siberian ‘princess’ preserved in the permafrost – have been revealed in Russia. The remarkable body art includes mythological creatures and experts say the elaborate drawings were a sign of age and status for the ancient nomadic Pazyryk people, described in the 5th century BC by the Greek historian Herodotus. But scientist Natalia Polosmak – who discovered the remains of ice-clad ‘Princess Ukok’ high in the Altai Mountains – is also struck about how little has changed in more than two millennia.…

The new image is not only cute, it also illustrates a psychological phenomenon known as pareidolia. The University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory recently shared this image of several martian surface features that combine to resemble the face of a bear. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter recently snapped an unexpected — and adorable — image of a martian formation that bears a striking resemblance to the face of a woodland creature more commonly found on Earth: a bear. The new image was captured Dec. 12 by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), a spacecraft…

On February 9, the United Arab Emirates’ Hope probe will arrive at the Red Planet after just seven months of travel. Last July, a trio of Mars-bound missions left Earth. And now, the first craft is about to reach its destination. Tomorrow’s arrival at the Red Planet will truly kick off the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) first interplanetary mission — dubbed Hope — which coincides with the 50th anniversary of the country’s independence.The UAE Space Agency will broadcast the event starting at 9 A.M. EST (February 9) on their website. You can watch it directly below once the stream is live.…