Shark Documentary: A Dead Shark!!

Geologic Evidence May Support Chinese Flood Legend

A deluge that washed down the Yellow River nearly 4,000 years ago could be linked to the founding of China’s semi-mythical first dynasty.

Nearly 4,000 years ago, a landslide sent boulders and sediment tumbling into a valley of the Yellow River. The carnage created a massive earthen dam some 660 feet (200 meters) tall, cutting off the river for months.

When that dam finally burst and the river broke free, a massive flood raged across the countryside—and potentially altered the course of Chinese history.

That’s the story told by sediments and archaeological remains described Thursday in a provocative new study published in Science. If correct, the geologic evidence provides a kernel of truth to one of the country’s most important legends: a great flood that paved the way for the Xia, China’s semi-mythical first dynasty.

“Its importance is just like the story of Noah’s flood in the Western world,” says study leader Qinglong Wu of China’s Peking University.

According to the legend, ancient China held a vast watery landscape that took decades to make livable, largely through the efforts of a hero named Yu. For his work, he was rewarded with political power, ultimately founding the Xia dynasty.

There’s considerable debate, however, over whether the Xia actually existed. The main evidence comes from stories written down centuries after their rule, and no archaeologically recovered writings have been concretely tied to the Xia.

If the newly discovered flood is the great flood of legend, it offers tantalizing evidence for the tale. For starters, the flood dates to 1920 B.C., a period that coincides with a critical time in Chinese history: the beginning of the Bronze Age and the start of the Erlitou culture, which some archaeologists associate with the Xia.

“If the great flood really happened, then perhaps it is also likely that the Xia dynasty really existed too. The two are directly tied to each other,” says study co-author David Cohen of National Taiwan University.

Continue Reading.

The human brain in comparison with those of other animals. The diverse yet unified pattern of nature never fails to amaze me.

The Ocean Turnover

These are brachiopods, a type of filter-feeding organism that first evolved in the Cambrian era oceans. Although they look a lot like modern-day bivalves (clams), they are a very different organism, found in a totally different phylum. They can readily be distinguished by their shell shapes; brachiopods have sort of a “kink” in their shells whereas bivalves have more rounded shapes. Clams are molluscs, while brachiopods come from the phylum brachiopoda. These two types of filter-feeding organisms have an interesting interplay in the geologic record; if you pick up a limestone from the Paleozoic it is likely to be dominated by brachiopods, while Mesozoic and Cenozoic bivalve shells dominate limestones.

Keep reading

Canaries do not hate these spicy treats. In fact, they would be more than willing to eat jalapeno peppers. These are rich in vitamins A and C. / via

A video recording the exciting moment when a diver looking for Megalodon teeth, finds a massive, 6 ¼", fossil tooth off the coast of the Carolinas.

Be sure to follow MegalodonSwag on Tumblr for more great Megalodon related news, information, videos and more…

Microbiolgy & Virology flash cards i made today.

So You Think You Know Cephalopods?

Pop Quiz! Georgia Aquarium Wants to Test Your Knowledge of Cephalopods

Manatee

Climate change could kill 534,000 people in 2050

If you’ve ever needed a statistic to slap you in the face to make you give a damn about climate change, this is it: A new report from The Lancet estimates more than 500,000 adults could die in 2050, thanks to how climate change will kill crop productivity, altering the diets and available food all over the world.

Follow @the-future-now​

Swimming With Whale Sharks - Philippines by Tommy Schultz