The mexican grizzly bear is believed to be extinct but a small population may still exist in the mountain ranges of Mexico.

Mexican Grizzly Bear

The Chicxulub crater is thought to be over 66 million years old and was formed when a large asteroid, roughly 10km in diameter, hit the Earth. The resulting change in climate conditions across the globe caused a global extinction event where up to 75% of plant and animal species were lost to time. All land-faring dinosaurs are believed to have perished as a result of the asteroid's impact on global climate.

Chicxulub Crater

For most of it's existence, ketchup has not been a tomato-based sauce. It started as a fish sauce first found in China which then spread across the trade routes to the rest of the world. It used to be comprised of fish entrails, meat byproducts, and soybeans. This version of ketchup was not tomato-based at all and was easier to preserve for long journeys, making it a popular sauce for travellers. The ketchup we know today dates back to 1812, the recipe credited to a scientist from Philadelphia. Heinz, in 1876, introduced their own version of Ketchup which improved the initial recipe by adding vinegar to preserve the tomato-based sauce.

How Ketchup Came About

Several underground cities have been found in Turkey. One of them being the city of Derinkuyu. Derinkuyu is an ancient, multi-level, underground city believed to have housed up to 20,000 people. The city is full of winding passages and underground tunnels with several opening to the world above ground. Located in Cappadocia, the city is believed to have been built into the surrounding soft volcanic rock some 700 to 800 years BC. The city was used by the Byzantines to shelter civilians during the Arab-Byzantine wars between 780-1180 AD. The city was in use as recently as 1909 when a Cambridge linguist conducting research in the area recorded the local population seeking haven in the underground cities from ongoing persecution.

Derinkuyu Underground City

Earth is commonly known to have 7 continents, but there is an 8th continent, Zealandia, that is mostly submerged in the Pacific Ocean. New Zealand is part of the Zealandia continent, making up for most of what's left above sea-level of the continent. The landmass has been submerged for approximately 23 million years with estimates of the continent's age at nearly 1 billion years. Zealandia resides in the middle of two tectonic plates, the Pacific and Australian plates. These plates underwent a failed rift in the past which resulted in a landmass forming in the depressed areas exposed by the rift.

Zealandia, the 8th Continent

Camels today are known to live and thrive in desert environments but recent archaelogical discoveries suggest camels may have evolved to survive in the arctic. The large humps that camels possess allow them to store fat for the slow release of nutritions and water over time, which is certainly useful in the desert. But this would be equally handy in the Canadian arctic during the plioscene prior to the ice age. Prior to the ice age, the Canadian arctic would have been covered in boreal forests but still have dark and harsh winters. A possibility is that camels evolved in the arctic but migrated south during the ice age and settled in the environment closest to what they were accustomed to. The wide flat feet of camels which serves to distribute their weight making walking easier, may have originally evolved to help them walk through the snow. This feature would be benificial in walking across the desert sand.

Camels in the Snow

Kolbeinsey is a small island at the north-most point of Iceland. In 1616, the island was measured to be 700m by 100m. The erosion of the island has been rapid, with the island being only 40m by 40m by 1986. Freezing and thawing cycles, as well as sea ice, are the main reasons for the rapid erosion of the island. In April 2021, the Icelandic coast guard determined the island to be 20m by 14.5m. Roughly 400 years later, a sizable island has been reduced to a couple of rocks poking above the waves in low tide.