Origin of The Komodo Dragon

Dragons may come from the land Down Under. Scientists now find that the world’s largest living lizard species, the Komodo dragon, most likely evolved in Australia and dispersed westward to its current home in Indonesia. In the past, researchers had suggested the Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis) developed from a smaller ancestor isolated on the Indonesian islands, evolving its large size as a response to lack of competition from other predators...

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What Killed The Dinosaurs?

THE GREAT MYSTERY Surely ever since the first fossils of obviously extinct animals were found, humankind has wondered: "Why did they die?" A poignant question, for it has relevance to us — if extinct animals were wiped out by some catastrophe, couldn't that just as easily happen to us? Could we be found as fossils someday, and would no one know why we died? History: Until recently, people simply knew that dinosaurs went extinct — their fossils were found throughout the Mesozoic era, but were not located in the rock layers (strata)...

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The Lost City of Atlantis

 The Lost City of Atlantis If the writing of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato had not contained so much truth about the human condition, his name would have been forgotten centuries ago. But one of his most famous stories—the cataclysmic destruction of the ancient civilization of Atlantis—is almost certainly false. So why is this story still repeated more than 2,300 years after Plato's death? "It's a story that captures the imagination,"...

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History of Pyramid

Built during a time when Egypt was one of the richest and most powerful civilizations in the world, the pyramids—especially the Great Pyramids of Giza—are some of the most magnificent man-made structures in history. Their massive scale reflects the unique role that the pharaoh, or king, played in ancient Egyptian society. Though pyramids were built from the beginning of the Old Kingdom to the close of the Ptolemaic period in the fourth century...

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