This Week I Learned

mid-June

  • spiders have a joint between their cephalothorax and abdomen, called a pedicel
  • Schwarzenegg is a region in Europe (schwarz = black, egg = ridge)
  • About half of U.S. rail traffic routes through Chicago, where six of the nation's seven rail lines meet
  • learnings from The Ends of the Earth
    • There is controversy over what exactly caused the extinction at the end of the Jurassic period — asteroid? Volcanism? Both??
    • Camels originally evolved in the Americas (like horses!), reaching Eurasia via Beringia
    • Apart from CO2 and stuff, one of humanity's greatest environmental disruptions is actually in the nitrogen cycle — the biggest in over 2 billion years
    • The Appalachian Mountain Range is believed to have played a part in the late-Ordovician mass extinction, as they provided more surface area of rock to weather away and send carbon-rich rock tumbling into the ocean to be sequestered as part of the carbon cycle, leading to falling global temperatures
  • the impeccable pelican spider...
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