The mystery of the extinction of this distant relative of humans has been solved. The answer is that they didn't eat well | Expo Daily

The mystery of the extinction of this distant relative of humans has been solved.

The answer is that I don’t eat well.

Recently, a team of scientists from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Australia and the United States solved the mystery of the extinction of Gigantopithecus brevis, which lived in Guangxi, my country.

The principle of the research is to find fossils and deposits of plants and animals of the same period as Gigantopithecus, determine their ages, reconstruct the ancient environment of the time based on this, and reproduce the feeding behavior of Gigantopithecus at that time, draw a more complete ecological picture of the prosperous period, transition period, extinction window period and post-extinction period of Gigantopithecus' survival, and finally deduce the reasons for their extinction.

The results of this comprehensive study show that Gigantopithecus became extinct between 295,000 and 215,000 years ago, much earlier than previously thought. Between 2.3 million and 700,000 years ago, they flourished in forests with abundant and diverse food resources. Between 700,000 and 600,000 years ago, the environment began to become more diverse due to increased seasonality, and the structure of forest communities began to change. At this time, Gigantopithecus' "food problem" became increasingly severe.

After the forests were reduced, Gigantopithecus inevitably faced a shortage of food. The alternative foods they relied on were high-fiber, low-nutrient foods, which greatly reduced the diversity of their food. Despite this, their bodies became larger and more cumbersome, and the geographical range of their feeding activities was greatly reduced.

As a result, its population faced long-term survival pressure and continued to shrink, eventually leading to extinction. However, the orangutans, close relatives of Gigantopithecus, became smaller and more flexible as living conditions changed, and also changed their feeding behavior and habitat preferences, thus being able to survive the environmental changes.

Academicians of the two academies selected the top ten scientific and technological advances in the world in 2023

On January 11, 2024, the top ten scientific and technological progress news in the world in 2023, selected by academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, were announced in Yantai, Shandong.

Top 10 science and technology news in the world in 2023:

1. Scientists draw the most comprehensive map of human brain cells to date

2. Artificial intelligence successfully generates original proteins from scratch for the first time

3. The world's largest experimental nuclear fusion reactor begins operation

4. OpenAI officially releases GPT-4

5. Satellite successfully transmits solar energy to Earth for the first time, proving the credibility of space-based energy

6. The first successful human eye transplant

7. The smallest particle accelerator ever built

8. Scientists achieve single-atom X-ray detection for the first time

9. The world's first insect brain "map" is completed

10. The first draft of the human pan-genome is released

The event of selecting the top ten scientific and technological progress news in China and the world by academicians of the two academies has been held 30 times. This announcement event is hosted by the Academic Affairs Bureau of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the General Office of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, China Science News, Shandong Provincial Department of Science and Technology, and Yantai Municipal People's Government.

Ah? You squirrel with thick eyebrows and big eyes,

Why do you want to learn to hibernate?

Do squirrels hibernate? Most squirrels do not need to hibernate because they can store enough food, such as nuts, before winter comes so that they will not starve in winter.

But some squirrels are exceptions, although there is only one word difference, but gray squirrels do not hibernate, ground squirrels do hibernate. Ground squirrels do not store food in the winter and directly sleep through the winter.

Because they live in the Arctic, a place where the sun cannot be seen once the polar night begins, Arctic ground squirrels can sleep in caves in the tundra and snow for about 8 months without eating, drinking or going to the toilet. In the remaining time, they hurry out to eat and reproduce, otherwise they will miss the sleep time.

Through a series of experiments, scientists discovered how ground squirrels stay thirsty when hibernating: they consume part of the electrolytes in the blood, such as sodium, potassium, urea and lactic acid, regulate the blood concentration, and store them elsewhere in the body (scientists speculate that it may be in the bladder), which does not stimulate the central nervous system and therefore does not feel thirsty.

Scientists have not yet fully understood the specific method of reducing electrolyte concentration. However, urea is certain, and urea can be recycled as a nutrient for muscles and liver. If we want to understand the rest, we can only continue to study...

If you don't pay attention, Neptune will lose its color~

New research confirms that Neptune's true color is a light blue-green, similar to Uranus, and not the darker blue shown in popular images.

Photos sent back by NASA's Voyager 2 probe as it flew past these outer solar system planets in the 1980s showed that Uranus and Neptune had distinctly different colors, which was puzzling because the two planets have similar sizes, masses, and chemical compositions.

When people processed the images from Voyager 2, they found that the original photos of Neptune it took used contrast enhancement technology to highlight imperceptible atmospheric features, and the color balance of the final composite image made Neptune look bluer.

Scientists at the time knew this and wrote the changes into the captions, but over time the captions became separated from the images, and Neptune's deep blue color became fact in the public mind.

The content is compiled from China Science Popularization Expo Weibo, Science Academy, and China Science Daily

This article was first published in China Science Expo (kepubolan)

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