Did you know that whales express emotional loss? Or that they use distinctive clicking sounds to identify and recognize other whales, as we would use a name? Experts link their intelligence to their large brain size, but a big brain isn’t the only thing that makes these marine mammals so special. They have characteristics that show advanced levels of intelligence, including reasoning, problem-solving, and strong memory skills.What Types of Animals are Whales?Whales are cetaceans, as are por ...read more
The mighty megalodon keeps its crown as one of the largest sharks to have ever lived. It was an apex predator of prehistory, reigning the seas and raining teeth on ocean floors, until its ultimate extinction around a couple million years ago.Despite having died out far before any of our lifetimes, megalodons manage to live on, swimming and zipping through the depths of our fantastical imaginations. Here’s what to know about this ancient superpredator, who dwarfs today’s great whites and kill ...read more
In 1975, Swiss restoration workers started rehabbing the Barfüsserkirche, a Medieval church built in 1256 by Franciscans. The building had been in use for more than 700 years. It was initially a church before it was converted into a salt warehouse in 1795. Eventually, it became a museum.The years of salt storage damaged the floors, and as workers began demolition, they hit a surprise. There were two coffins near where the choir once stood. One of the coffin’s occupants was a pile of bones. Th ...read more
In the shadow of the world's most infamous volcanoes, history has been shaped by fire and ash. From the catastrophic eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815, which forged a nearly four-mile caldera and altered global temperatures, to the thunderous explosion of Krakatoa in 1883, these titanic forces of nature have left indelible marks on both the Earth's surface and humanity's memory.Here are five of the most explosive volcanic disasters throughout history and where they rank on the volcanic explosivi ...read more
In 1959, Colonel Remy Van Lierde of the Belgian Royal Air Force was on helicopter patrol. He had flown in over 400 missions, his eyes trained to spot friend and foe below. That skillset that would help him with the ensuing ordeal over the Katanga region of the Congo, for what he saw next shocked him and his copilot: A truly gargantuan snake, estimated by his account to be over 50 feet in length. This measurement would easily have made it the largest snake alive on Earth, dwarfing today's tit ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine