Did Cavities Kill Earth's Largest Ape?

Besides “anywhere he wants,” where does a 1,200-ape sit down for diner? The extinct 10-foot tall Gigantopithecus probably found a seat near the bamboo salad bars of Southeast Asia’s forests from approximately 9 million to 300,000 years ago.

However, that bamboo buffet may have disappeared as the Tibetan Plateau rose and ushered in a cooler climate. Without bamboo, the apes may have turned to sugary fruits that rotted their teeth, reported New Scientist.

Near the end of apes’ time on Earth, the animals’ now-fossilized teeth bore deep erosion and potential signs of decay. This may mean they ate increased amounts of acidic, sugary fruit as the bamboo dwindled, the lead author of recent study in Quaternary International, Yingqi Zhang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told New Scientist.

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Zhang based his dental diagnosis of  Gigantopithecus’ demise on 17 teeth recently excavated from Hejiang Cave in China. The teeth were found along with fossils from rhinos, pandas, tapirs, hyenas, colobine monkeys, tigers and other animals.

The mixture of other animals suggests the giant ape may have lived in or near dense forests (monkeys and pandas) and mixed woodlands (rhinos and tapirs). The giant ape also co-existed with Homo erectus, an ancestor of humans, according to an earlier study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In its forested habitat, Gigantopithecus ate a mixture of tough, fibrous grasses, likely bamboo, and fruits and seeds from plants in the fig family. Russell Ciochon, biological anthropologist at the University of Iowa, discovered the extinct ape’s diet by examining residues left on fossilized teeth. These ancient left-overs, known as opal phytoliths, were microscopic silica structures that formed in the plants. Their distinctive shapes indicated which plants created the phytoliths. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published Ciochon’s results.

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Although scientists know what  Gigantopithecus ate, much of the rest of the animals’ lifestyle remains a mystery. Even the estimated massive size of the ape hasn’t been proven. No skeletal remains of the ape have been discovered besides numerous teeth and three jawbones.

If the ape was a scaled up version of its closest relative, the orangutan, it would have been up to 3 meters (9.8 feet) tall standing erect and weighed up to 540 kg (1,200 lb). However, the teeth may have been proportionately larger in Gigantopithecus than in orangutans, which would mean the extinct primate was actually smaller than the estimate.

Dozens Injured in Rare Argentina Piranha Attack

Piranhas on a Christmas Day feeding frenzy injured some 60 people in the Argentine city of Rosario, officials said Thursday.

Those injured in the attack Wednesday by the ferocious fish included a girl who lost part of a finger, Health Undersecretary Gabriela Quintanilla told reporters.

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Quintanilla said the attack occurred Wednesday off the coast of Rosario, some 310 kilometers (200 miles) north of Buenos Aires.

A medical official, Gustavo Centurion, said the attack which began at mid-morning on Christmas Day was "very aggressive."

"There were some people that the fish literally had torn bits of flesh from," he said.

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The region has been hit by a heat wave with temperatures soaring to some 38 degrees Celsius (more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit) prompting thousands to seek relief in the waters of the Parana River, which is packed with carnivorous fish.

Officials said the unusually warm weather also was apparently responsible for the fish congregating on the river's surface before the attack.

Polar bear midnight PICNIC captured in amazing photos.

Polar bears are usually a solitary and lonely animal - but not on this occasion as 20 joined together for a midnight picnic.

These amazing snaps show a group of males, females and cubs all chowing down on the remains of a whale carcass.

Usually Polar bears would never tolerate being so close to each other, but with food in plentiful supply they seem too lethargic to fight.

The photographs were taken at the Eskimo village of Kaktovik on the edge of the Arctic Ocean in Alaska.

Wildlife photographer Michal Tyl said: "We were invited by our Eskimo friends to join them on a night visit of a whale carcass, which had just been caught and harvested by Eskimos.

"Being one of the first nations, Inupiat Eskimos from Kaktovik have the right to catch and harvest three whales every year, which they do in autumn.

"The polar bears who come to Kaktovik in autumn swim from free-flowing ice further north and have learned that there is always something left for them from the whale once the Eskimos have removed all the 'good pieces'.

"What is left are mostly bones with bits of meat - more than enough to feed the hungry bears for the day."

The 32-year-old added: "We went in a small group of four and came to see an amazing spectacle.

"It was a feast of over 20 bears of all sizes, from small cubs to large males. They were all dirty from mud and blood, chewing, cracking bones, squelching and growling.

"The larger bears were easily dealing with huge whale ribs as if they didn't weigh anything.

"Bear sows were letting their cubs squeeze in next to male bears, although this would never be possible during the day.

"Their only goal was to get as fat as possible, quickly. Some of them could hardly drag their bellies, since this was their second whale of the year and they were already full after finishing the leftovers from the first one."

Polar bears are considered one of the few animals who actively hunt humans - but Mr Tyl said he felt relaxed among them.

Snow Leopard Collared for First Time in Nepal

In a first for Nepal, scientists captured and collared an elusive snow leopard to track the movements of the endangered cat. This male snow leopard was captured using a foothold snare. Conservationists say it was not harmed during the capture on Nov. 25, 2013.
Scientists outfitted an elusive snow leopard with a GPS collar in Nepal, a first for the Himalayan country, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) announced today.

By tracking the movements of the spotted cat, conservationists hope to learn more about the ecology and behavior of the species to make better decisions about protecting the endangered animals.

The 5-year-old male snow leopard was captured in a snare in eastern Nepal's Kangchenjunga Conservation Area on Nov. 25, 2013. Named "Ghanjenzunga" after a local deity, the cat weighs 88 lbs. (40 kilograms) and measures 6.3 feet (193 centimeters) from the base of its head to the base of its tail. After being sedated, the cat was fitted with a GPS Plus Globalstar collar and released back into the wild.

Aerial Survey Will Be First to Count Most of Africa's Elephants

How many elephants are there in Africa? Nobody knows, and nobody has really attempted to count them all at the same time. Until now.

Mike Chase, an elephant biologist based in Botswana, will lead the first pan-African aerial survey to count elephants in 22 countries. The project is funded by a $7 million grant from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and his company, Vulcan Inc., and will involve 46 scientists and 14 small aircraft.

The results will help conservationists, scientists and policymakers protect African elephants from poachers, Chase told LiveScience. Poaching is at "crisis" levels, Chase said — there are now about 50 percent fewer elephants than there were 35 years ago, according to various estimates, although exact number are hard to come by. Chase seeks to change that. "How can we conserve that which we don't know?" asked Chase, a no-nonsense man with a southern African accent and an obvious passion for elephants. But one gets the sense that he doesn't like to carry on and on about it.