Friday Facts: Week #6

Greetings everybody! HAPPY FRIDAY! Friday comes so quickly, hope everyone is has had a good week. We know you've been looking forward to the weekend and especially this post! Enjoy.

Gigantopithecus is an extinct genus of ape that is thought to have existed from around nine million years to one hundred thousand years ago. Probably the closest thing to a real King Kong it was alive at the same time as early humans. They are also the largest apes that ever lived, with heights of up to 3 meters, and weighing a massive 540 kilograms.

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Despite the popular belief that once a brain cell is killed it is gone forever, in the early 90s, scientists identified neural stem cells which are self-renewing and mulit-potent cells (cell that can produce two or more different types of differentiated cells) that generate new neurons. In 1998 it was found that the human hippocampus (an area of the brain responsible for short-term memory to long-term memory and spatial navigation) retains the ability to generate neurons throughout life.

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Dark chocolate is known for its vast benefits. Dark chocolate contains more of the original cocoa bean than milk chocolate does and cocoa is a fabulous source of flavonoids (a class of plant secondary metabolites). One benefit is that it contains 19 percent of the US RDA for iron, while an ounce of beef sirloin only contains 3 percent! Just to be precise here are the standard references from USDA National Nutrient Database: 70-85 percent cacao solids, value per 100 grams is 11.90 milligrams of iron. While beef, bottom sirloin, tri-tip roast, separable lean and fat, trimmed to 0% fat, all grades, roasted, value per 100 grams is just 1.66 milligrams of iron! This does not mean you should run to your nearest supermarket and grab some dark chocolate. Chocolate bars can contain more than 20grams of saturated fat, which is way too great for consumption daily.

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A DNA lab in Scotland found that everyone who carries one of 3 variants of the red-hair gene is a direct descendant of the first redhead ever to have it. Two of the variants were introduced in West Asia around 70,000 years ago, and a inferior variant originated in Europe around 30,000 years ago. Most carriers of the red hair gene variants don’t actually possess red hair themselves and may not realize they carry it. 

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Homosexuality refers to sexual attraction, sexual behavior or romantic attraction between members of the same sex or gender. In the animal kingdom, homosexuality is quite ordinary and many exercise same gender sex to deal with conflicts. Homosexual behavior has been observed in over 1500 species of animals and is well documented for 500 of them. It would be daunting to provide you with a list of 1500 species but here are a few: Pygmy Chimpanzee, Giraffes, Sheep, Black Swans, Gulls, Mallards, Ibises, Penguins, Vultures, Amazon Dolphins, American Bison, Bottlenose Dolphins, Elephants, Monkeys, Japanese Macaque, Lions, Polecat, Dragonflies and others.

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Thank you for stopping by. Hope you have enjoyed this weeks Friday facts segment! Would you like us to mention a fact in next week Friday facts? Make sure to leave a comment and come back for more articles!!

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