According to Science News, Modern rattlesnakes have pared down their weaponry stockpile from their ancestor’s massive arsenal. They have lost the need for such a high potency to protect them from their enemies of few. Collection of genes, which probably came about through many gene duplications, coded for toxins affecting the blood, brain and muscles of the snake’s prey. But four million to seven million years ago, some rattlesnake species independently dropped different combinations of those genes to get smaller and more specialized sets of venom toxins. Rattle snakes need to build up antibodies to help keep themselves safe from their own venom, this uses lots of energy and resources therefore if stronger venom is developed then they would practically be dying from energy loss and lack of resources to live from poisonous venom. Its not possible to tell how strong the venom of the ancestral rattlesnakes was but we can say it was sure the pinnacle of nastiness.
One fisherman in Buenaventura, Columbia caught a fifty centimeter long brown and grey fish he could not identify. later he was told it was a Cobia and it should not be in there. The fish is said to have escaped from fish farms in Ecuador. The farmer of these fish claims intruders came into the farm and cut the net releasing around 1,500 fish into the ocean. Though not native to the Eastern Pacific ocean they have been found from Panama to Peru. By a study of six European countries, over three years, nine million fish have escaped these off shore pens. Some escapees such as Tilapia have overthrown the native fish when they escaped there nets. When a majority of fish escape these off shore or shoreline nets they tend to take over the native fish and weaken the whole environmental structure of the sea they are in.
On August 31,2016 The Washington Post wrote ''Scientists probing a newly exposed, formerly snow-covered outcropping in Greenland claim they have discovered the oldest fossils ever seen, the remnants of microbial mats that lived 3.7 billion years ago.'' This discovery is the oldest know fossil of life on earth ever recorded. They found the fossils in Greenland under a bed of sediment. Although found in 2012 this is just becoming a huge discovery since the scientist have been studying these fossils to make sure their discovery was true. The scientists determined the age of the rocks through radiometric dating, in this way they measure the abundance of elements created by the steady decay of uranium.
Blue Cut Fire The blue cut fire that has burned down 30,000 plus acres in the past 3 days is devastating many families. There have been 96 homes that have burned down and three others with severe fire damage. This Thursday it had slowed down dramatically but the Cajon Pass is still full of smoke. The Cajon Pass has no trees but it does have thick vegetation and shrubs. The fire has burned more than 49 square miles and was just 4 percent contained since exploding Tuesday morning. Officer Sean Collins said the dry brush is just like firewood. The fact that there is hot winds breezing through the pass has not helped one bit. "Flames had turned a lot full of cars — including some vintage models — into a junkyard of hollowed-out shells. Countless trees were scorched or gone" said Fox News.
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