Adventure Ausrama Blog

The fossil of a fish much like a piranha appears to be the earliest flesh-eating fish. It was found in Germany. Having teeth similar to a piranha it lived 150 million years ago. Remains of its victims were found nearby. It mainly ate the fins of fish. Evolving to consume only fins was a survival mechanism. Fish that were attacked did not die immediately. They survived to provide a meal another day. The hunter's teeth were triangular. With serrated edges, they were ideal for cutting flesh. Initially, bony fish could only bite chunks of flesh out of prey or swallow them whole. Slicing of flesh appeared much later. The hunting method of the fossilized fish was identical to modern-day piranhas. Injuries to the attacked were the same. The ancient specimen was a sea dweller. Piranhas live only in fresh water. Oddly, some piranhas are vegetarians mainly eating seeds. They are a normal food for South American people who say they taste like any other fish. It is not understood why they...

Biological research shows genetic resistance to Tasmanian devil disease. The Tasmanian devil is an animal unique to Australia. It Once resided all over the continent. Perhaps is was easy for Aboriginals to catch for food. It cannot run very fast. It could just have died out due to a warming of the country. Tasmania is its only natural home today. Their raucous cries led to them being named devils by European settlers. They are violent to each other though attacks on humans are virtually non-existent. Scavenging for food is their number one priority. A facial disease began in the species in 1996. It was unusual in that it is the only known cancer transmitted from animal to animal. Tasmanian devil numbers fell by 80 per cent in twenty years due to Tasmanian devil facial tumor disease (DFTD). Extinction was predicted. However, it was noticed that some animals survived without getting the disease. Genes were examined and these devils had five genes not present in ...

If there is a major world disaster will Mankind survive? In the past our forebears got through environmental difficulties, so there is no reason to believe that this will not continue to happen. As technology becomes increasingly specialized, things we take for granted will be lost. Humanity will take a few steps back or fall right back into a survival-type culture. The skill to print could end. Story telling could return as a way to pass on culture. Man has always been inquisitive about what lies over the horizon. Experimentation will still be the key to survival. In a major disaster only those species that can adapt will live through it. Neanderthals were not smart enough to survive. This is despite their brains being larger than humans. The brains of Man obviously operated differently. This could have been the power of imagination. Neanderthals learned more by direct copying of behavior. Humans can deduce answers from information. Another important factor is present ...

Only Western people get depressed due to their fast way of living - right? Unfortunately, this is not the case. Those in developing countries are also stressed as they struggle to survive. While Westerners do not have to worry too much about securing food, getting adequate sustenance for themselves and families is in many cases the main priority for the Third World population. An examination of depression in developing countries by the University of Queensland on 480,000 subjects highlights this disturbing finding. People in Third World nations just do not go to doctors for treatment. The survey in 91 countries shows that stress is common across the board. There is a fine line between depression and stress. Many would say they are the same thing. Anxiety was found to be higher in the USA with depression there being the lowest. Examining depression specifically, developing countries had more than twice the rate of the US - 9 per cent. Political and military conflict was the main...

The number of oceanic dead zones in the world is increasing. In the zones oxygen levels are too low to sustain life. It is widely know that a monster area in the south Atlantic is growing in size, but there are hundreds more smaller dead zones. They are caused by overfishing and the nutrient rich residue in fertilizer runoff. Climate change also plays a part. As oceans warm up layers form and some become stagnant with low oxygen levels. Long standing currents and wind directions have changed which has reduced layer intermixing. Since 2000 over 400 dead zones have been identified. In the 1980s there were little more than a hundred. Some are huge, more than 70,00 sq kilometers, while many are less than a square kilometer. The lack of oxygen not only causes death. Offspring are born deformed. They do not survive, or produce fewer young. Danger of a mass extinction is now very high. Dead zones are forming on continental shelves where most fishing is done. The mere presence of humans is dee...