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| There’s a goat-sheep hybrid called a 'geep.' | |
| By Bennett Kleinman | |
| From labradoodles to ligers, the animal kingdom is rife with portmanteaus. While some are fairly common, others such as the “geep” — a goat-sheep hybrid — are exceedingly rare. DNA testing has confirmed that several purported geep are no more than odd-looking goats, but there are a few recorded cases of genuine living, breathing geep being born to goats and sheep living in captivity. The main reason geep are so rare is due to genetic differences between goats and sheep. Goats have 60 chromosomes while sheep have 54, so if they mate, it often results in a stillborn birth. But some babies do survive, and those that have been confirmed to be geep typically have the body of a sheep and horned head of a goat, while also displaying a goat’s nimble mannerisms. | |
| Mammals |
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Istanbul, Turkey, is located in both Europe and Asia. | |
| Istanbul (formerly known as Constantinople, and before that as Byzantium) isn’t just the biggest city in Turkey. It’s one of the most famous cities in history, not to mention the capital of both the former Byzantine and Ottoman empires. It’s also notable for being split between two continents. | |
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| A blue whale’s heart is the size of a Harley-Davidson. | |
| By Michael Nordine | |
| Blue whales, the largest animals to ever exist, are more massive than most of us can fathom. They can reach lengths of more than 100 feet and weigh up to 330,000 pounds, more than twice the weight of any known dinosaur. As such, blue whales need similarly large organs to support their prodigious size — especially their hearts, which are roughly the size of a Harley-Davidson: 5 feet long, 4 feet wide, and about 400 pounds. That makes them the largest blood-pumping organ in the world, more than 14 times the size of an elephant’s heart and 640 times larger than our own. | |
| Mammals |
Humans invented alcohol before we invented the wheel. | |
| The wheel is credited as one of humankind’s most important inventions: It allowed people to travel farther on land than ever before, as well as to irrigate crops and spin fibers, among other key benefits. Today, we often consider the wheel to be the ultimate civilization game changer, but it turns out that creating the multipurpose apparatus wasn’t really on humanity’s immediate to-do list. Our ancient ancestors worked on other ideas first: boats, musical instruments, glue, and even alcohol. | |
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