Modern humans originated in Africa, some 200,000 years ago, and evolved from their most recent ancestor, Homo erectus, which means ‘upright man’ in Latin. Homo erectus is now an extinct species that lived from 1.9 million years ago up to around 135,000 years ago. However, despite lots of different studies and experiments, there is still …
With some animals, it’s hard to say whether they have hands or paws. Hands and paws look similar: both have thin and hairless skin on their underside, both have different bones, muscles, and ligaments that allow movement, and both have several digits. The main difference between a hand and a paw is the ability to …
If you google how to peel a banana, you might be left scratching your head from so many options. Wikihow, a famous publication featuring how-to articles, describes 8 ways how to peel a banana. One of them includes twisting the banana skin as you would do with a wet towel. Seriously?! And ever since we …
The course of a menstrual cycle is pretty straightforward. Every month, under the effect of hormones, a female body will release a mature egg. The lining of the uterus, called endometrium, thickens, divides into layers, and grows a vast network of blood vessels to receive a fertilized egg. If the egg gets fertilized, a woman …
When you think of what makes us humans unique, having a chin may come to mind. However, that forward-pointing part of the face below the mouth has been bugging scientists for years. By the way, a jaw isn’t just the lower part of the face: It’s that little piece of bone extending from the jaw. …
We have been taught that kissing is something you do when saying hello and goodbye, when dating potential suitors, or when in a relationship. Touch with the lips as a sign of love, sexual desire, respect, or greeting is something well familiar in humans, but what’s the situation when it comes to monkeys? Do monkeys …
They are yellow and tasty. Kids use them as toy guns and phones, adults to make delicious bread. Ever since the dawn of television, a monkey and banana have been an inseparable duo. That’s why you might be surprised to learn that in the wild, monkeys will never eat bananas. The reason is simple: the …
To cool down from excessive heat, many animals will pant, increase skin blood flow, and in a small percentage of mammal species, sweat. Sweat, that messy, smelly, salty liquid produced by skin glands is not unique only to humans. If so, do monkeys sweat? Yes, monkeys sweat, just like humans. Some Old World monkey species, …
If you ever watched Tarzan, you must have noticed how gorillas and other apes use vines to move from one tree to the other. They would grasp the vine, swing with ease, and then catch the next one while flying above the ground. But is that the case? Do gorillas swing from vines? This is …
Gorillas live both in the wild and in captivity. People that have visited gorilla enclosures in zoos know that captive gorillas do not hibernate during the winter because there is no need to. Their enclosures are mostly protected from the cold. But do wild gorillas hibernate when the winter months come upon them? This is a …
They are yellow and tasty. You can use them as toy guns or make delicious bread. To get to the delicious inside body, most people would peel their bananas from the stem down. Multiple sources claim, however, that the correct way to peel a banana is actually from the bottom up. Either way, bananas are …
If you ever saw a gorilla, you must have noticed some peculiar behavior, like chest-pounding, making loud noises, and hitting the ground with powerful hands. But why do gorillas slap the ground? And what does it mean when a gorilla hits the ground? You will be surprised to learn that both males and females do …