The Top 1 Chinese University is controversial, but the Top 1 Chinese University Food must be this!

The Top 1 Chinese University is controversial, but the Top 1 Chinese University Food must be this!

Who is it that can make countless students wait and look forward to it in the freezing cold of minus four or five degrees Celsius?

Who can directly become the number one trending search and make famous universities such as Tsinghua University, Peking University, and Renmin University compete with each other?

She is the most mysterious woman in Beijing’s university circles recently—Aunt Goose Legs.

Image source: Weibo screenshot

Regarding the "goose leg dispute", the development process is as follows:

As early as 2016, the auntie was selling goose legs at a stall near Peking University and Renmin University. At that time, the auntie's business was only mediocre. Even half a month ago, the auntie was still shouting in the Renmin University group "I have extra goose legs", trying to sell them but no one responded. Until one day last week, someone realized that the auntie had not come for a long time, and at the same time, someone found that the auntie appeared at the gate of Tsinghua University. From then on, the gears of fate began to turn...

Students from Tsinghua University helped the aunt to set up several WeChat groups, and they surrounded the goose leg stalls offline, queuing for dozens of minutes just to taste the delicious goose legs.

Image source: Internet

In order to feed the hungry students, many school canteens in Beijing also followed up urgently, trying to overcome the "technical difficulties" in one fell swoop.

So, this winter, whoever can eat goose legs will be the real No. 1.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

However, today we are not talking about the taste of goose legs (after all, I haven’t tasted them either). The reason why geese can make an immortal mark in the history of the Internet, in addition to their taste, is that geese themselves are a very interesting poultry.

Internet celebrity "God of War" Goose

Before "Auntie Goose Legs", the last time a goose was on the hot search was because of its fighting power - the fighting power of an ordinary person is only 0.5 of a goose.

Goose can not only bite, but also flap. Although the wings are only a thin piece, the bones at the end of the wrist and palm of birds are fused into one piece, called carpometacarpus.

Image source: Zheng Guangmei's "Ornithology"

When a goose hits a person or another goose, it bends one wing halfway at the elbow, bends the wrist fully, and lets the carpometacarpal protrude forward. When the wing flaps, the hard carpometacarpal bone hits down like a fist. If two geese are fighting, they will grab the base of the other's wing with their mouths, trying to pin the other to the ground, and then use their carpometacarpal bones to hit the other hard, like Wu Song hitting a tiger.

If you want to know how the "fighting race" geese feel, you can pay attention to their necks. The first action of a goose when encountering an enemy is to stretch its neck straight forward parallel to the ground, like a snake. If its neck is stretched out parallel and arched upward in the middle to form a "peak", it means that it is afraid and intends to retreat. If the goose's neck droops down like an elephant's trunk, but its head stretches upward and points to the opponent, it means that although it is nervous, it does not intend to retreat, but is ready for a desperate battle.

The picture comes from the Internet

Many people hate the bully goose at the village entrance, but some people think it is brave. Geese are monogamous, and both parents are responsible for taking care of the goslings. If they encounter predators or competing for resources, the gander will be the first to go out and protect his wife and children. In this way, his temper seems to be forgivable. Although Ye Nosov's "Admiral" loves to fight, he is really responsible for his children. He used his wings to protect the goslings in the hail and vowed to fight to the death, showing the spirit of a great general.

"Bully Swan" and "Tangmen Poison Goose"

If we look at the Anatidae family, where geese belong, there are even more people with strong martial virtues. Swans and wild geese belong to the Anatidae subfamily. When it comes to swans, "Swan Lake" and "The Dying Swan" always give people an impression of being delicate, gentle and elegant. In fact, swans are also brave and good at fighting.

Like geese, swans also raise their young together as a couple. Swans that protect their young are irritable and belligerent, and they also have two martial arts skills: biting with their mouths and flapping with their wings. Swans are the largest waterfowl of the Anatidae family, and they can fly, and their wings are much stronger than those of geese. Zoologist Konrad Lorenz once told a terrible case in which a mute swan (Cygnus olor) at the Berlin Zoo flapped its wings and broke both forearms of the keeper.

Mute swan. Image source: pixabay

In sub-Saharan Africa, there is a large water bird called the Spurred Goose (Plectropterus gambensis). Although it is called "goose", it belongs to the Spurred Goose subfamily of the Anatidae family and is slightly more distantly related to geese.

"Spur" means the thorn on the foot of a rooster. This thorn is not a claw, but a protruding thorn-like bone on the foot bone, covered with keratin like a claw, which is a weapon used by fighting cocks to kick their opponents. As the name suggests, the spur-winged goose has a spur on its wings. Its spur is a sharp thorn that grows from the bone at the base of the wrist, so that when it flaps its wings, it is not a blunt attack, but a more painful penetrating attack.

The strangest feature of the spur-winged goose is its poison. Sometimes the spur-winged goose will eat a type of beetle called lycopersicon (not turnip, which is a vegetable), and this type of beetle contains a highly toxic substance called "cantharidin". Cantharidin accumulates in the body of the spur-winged goose, so people may also be poisoned if they eat the spur-winged goose. The hidden weapon and poison are combined together, which can be said to be the Tang Sect disciple of the goose family.

Goose's "Army" and "Navy"

Goose relatives also have large ground combat units. Ducks are well adapted to living on land and in water, so in their evolutionary history, they often go to the ground to forage for food.

Between 9 and 6 million years ago, a giant duck bird called Garganornis ballmanni lived in Gargano and Scontrone, Italy. It weighed more than 20 kilograms, two or three times that of a swan. With such a heavy body, it could no longer fly, but its wings had not degenerated and were retained as weapons. The wrist and metacarpal bones of this large bird were particularly enlarged, forming a large and hard bone lump, which upgraded its "fist" to a "sledgehammer".

An artist's concept of the Gargano Duck. Image source: handwiki

During the same period, Gargano was also home to some extinct large birds of prey, such as a large owl called Tyto gigantea, which was nearly 30 inches long. The Gargano duck may have used its strong wrist bones to beat these predators hard to protect its children.

An artist's impression of the Gargano Great Grass Owl. Image source: handwiki

The water surface is a familiar territory for the goose family. In 2022, scientists named two swans that lived in the Miocene (about 23 million to 5.33 million years ago): Annakacygna hajimei and Annakacygna yoshiiensis. Their fossils were found in the southwest of Gunma Prefecture, Japan, and their Chinese name can be translated as Anzhai swan.

"Ataka" refers to a large, slow-moving warship in ancient Japan, the Atakebune. The Atakebune swan is about the same size as today's black swan, while the Yoshii Atakebune swan is 1.3 times longer than the Atakebune swan. It is thicker and fatter than modern swans, and its bones are very thick, which means it is much heavier than modern swans. Both swans cannot fly, and live in the sea, floating on the sea all day long. The high-density bones act like ballast, sinking the swan's body, deepening its draft, and making it more stable in the water, just like a heavy ship.

Swan of Ataka. Image source: http://ideas.fandom.com

The most peculiar thing about the Ataka swan is its wings. From the traces of muscle attachment on the bones, we can see that a muscle on its shoulder blade is very developed. The function of this muscle is to lift the upper arm backwards. In birds, this action is to fold the wings, which is generally not a common action.

There are two other peculiarities in the wings of the Ataka swan: a bone at the base of its wrist is embedded in the area between the wrist and the radius of the forearm like a triangular wedge, which blocks its wrist and allows it to rotate only between a minimum of 60° and a maximum of 135°, and cannot be fully straightened. The muscle used to rotate the palm of the hand is well developed at the forearm and wrist of the Ataka swan, so it often turns its hand upwards - yes, birds have hands, and this part is the "wing tip" of chicken wings or marinated goose wings.

These movements of the Ataka swan seem confusing. It is very good at raising its upper arms, turning its hands upward, and its wrists always retain a certain degree of curvature. But if we understand the behavior of modern swans, the answer will be obvious. The wings of modern swans are placed in such a posture that they form a cradle-like structure on their backs, protecting their chicks in the middle. It is also worth noting that the tail vertebrae of the Ataka swan are particularly large, indicating that its tailbone is very long among birds (birds may have long tail feathers, but their tailbones are usually very short). A long tail can be raised to block the gap behind the buttocks to prevent the little swan from falling out of the "cradle".

A swan protecting its chicks. Image source: pixabay

The Ataka swan is better at carrying children than today's swans. It is more like an aircraft carrier than an ancient warship. Floating on the sea, it is difficult to dock, and it has to withstand the invasion of wind and waves. This can be said to be the safest choice.

After reviewing all kinds of geese, I want to go back and say a few more words about the latest developments of Auntie Goose Legs. Because it became popular all of a sudden, not only students, but also many other people who saw the hot search and various Internet celebrities flocked to it. Auntie has stopped roasting these days because of too much pressure. I still hope that everyone can buy rationally and leave some living space for ordinary people.

Author: Red Queen Popular Science Creator

Reviewer: Huang Chengming, Researcher at the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences