8 bookmarks for 2023-04-11

159.

Humans Were Actually Apex Predators For 2 Million Years, New Study Finds

www.sciencealert.com/real-paleo-diets-may-have-been-far-more-carnivorous-than-anything-we-d-eat-today

Paleolithic cuisine was anything but lean and green, according to a recent study on the diets of our Pleistocene ancestors.

158.

yojo: A CI bridge from Forgejo/Gitea to SourceHut

sr.ht/~emersion/yojo
157.

Octopus punches fish in the head (just because it can) | Live Science

www.livescience.com/octopuses-punch-fish.html
156.

Идея эволюции Дарвина: творчество, мысли, правило: VIKENT.RU

vikent.ru/author/210

«Уезжая в Великое Плаванье, Дарвин захватил с собой и недавно вышедший первый том «Основ геологии» крупного английского геолога Чарлза Лайеля (1797-1875), который, в противовес господствовавшей в то время теории катастроф, одним из первых пытался установить медленное, эволюционное развитие земной коры, происходящее под действием всё тех же вечных, так считал Лайель, факторов (атмосферные осадки, текучие воды, морские приливы и отливы, извержения вулканов, землетрясения и т. д.), какие незаметно для человеческого глаза неуклонно видоизменяют (малое творит БОЛЬШОЕ) лик земли.

Эта книга произвела на Дарвина большое впечатление. В университетские годы он нисколько не сомневался в правильности основной церковной догмы (Библия, стих I: «Вначале сотворил Бог небо и землю» и так далее) или её вариантов (в какой-то момент Бог разочаровался в созданных им существах и ниспослал на их головы катастрофы, чтобы уничтожить всё живое и начать всё сначала). Однако теперь, воочию наблюдая во время многочисленных высадок на южно-американский континент природу этих далёких от Англии краёв, его начали брать сомнения. Он постепенно убеждался, что «ваять» природу, видимо, могут не только сверхъестественные божественные силы, но и действующие в продолжение гигантских промежутков времени (миллионы лет казались при Дарвине сроками фантастически большими, теперь счет идет уже на миллиарды) силы ничтожные.

155.

Canadian Wetland Classification System — Wetland Policy

www.wetlandpolicy.ca/canadian-wetland-classification-system

The Canadian Wetland Classification System (National Wetlands Working Group 1997) is based on a hierarchical system, which includes (1) wetland class, (2) wetland form and (3) wetland type. The five wetland "classes" are differentiated by their developmental characteristics and the environment in which they exist. The five classes are: bog, fen, marsh, swamp, and shallow water. Some wetlands accumulate peat (partially-decomposed organic matter) and are called peatlands. Bogs and fens are the dominant peatland classes in Alberta, although some swamps and marshes can also accumulate peat. In contrast, shallow open water wetlands and many marshes and swamps do not accumulate peat.

154.

Spider Uses Its Web Like a Giant Engineered Ear | The Scientist Magazine®

www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/spider-uses-its-web-like-a-giant-engineered-ear-69366

The bridge spider uses its web as an engineered “external ear” up to 10,000 times the size of its body, according to a preprint study posted to bioRxiv on October 18. The discovery, which has not yet been peer reviewed, challenges many assumptions that scientists have held for years about how spiders and potentially other arthropods navigate and interact with the world around them.

“Evolutionarily speaking, spiders are just weird animals,” Jessica Petko, a Pennsylvania State University York biologist who didn’t work on the new study, writes in an email to The Scientist. “While it has been long known that spiders sense sound vibration with sensory hairs on their legs, this paper is the first to show that orb weaving spiders can amplify this sound by building specialized web structures.”

153.

‘If it’s alive, it sleeps.’ Brainless creatures shed light on why we slumber | Science | AAAS

www.science.org/content/article/if-alive-sleeps-brainless-creatures-shed-light-why-we-slumber

But others in the field are pushing for a much more inclusive view: that sleep evolved not with modern vertebrates as previously assumed, but perhaps a half-billion years ago when the first animals appeared. “I think if it’s alive, it sleeps,” says Paul Shaw, a neuroscientist from Washington University in St. Louis. The earliest life forms were unresponsive until they evolved ways to react to their environment, he suggests, and sleep is a return to the default state. “I think we didn’t evolve sleep, we evolved wakefulness.”

152.

The Insidious Magic of Cats - Björn Wärmedal

warmedal.se/~bjorn/posts/2021-09-29-the-insidious-magic-of-cats.html

Our neighbour is quite happy about him having a safe haven from the other cats. When he was bullied so much that he wasn't even left alone to eat in peace she gave us cat food to give him. Nowadays we just buy our own. I don't know if he ever eats there any more, but he surely eats at our house every single day.