› added 11 years ago

172

TIL that cheetahs were almost wiped out by the last ice-age, and all modern cheetahs are descended from a small portion of the surviving cats that interbred to maintain their species. Because of this, cheetahs are practically genetic clones of one another.

Read more smithsonianmag.com

via reddit.com

5YlYr TIL: The gravestones of John Parr (The first British soldier to die in WW1) and George Edwin Ellison (The last British soldier to die in WW1) both face each other in the same graveyard
m1VBP TIL There is a word called “Tittynope” which means: A small quantity of anything left over. This word is no.11 on a list of the most unusual words according to culturesconnection.com.
wDGP TIL People who take vitamin B6 dream more vividly.
Q7NL TIL that papercuts hurt so much because the cut often bleeds very little or not at all, leaving the skins pain receptors open to the air.
GEv7 TIL the Parthenon is in such bad condition because occupying Turkish forces used it as a powder magazine which exploded when hit by a Venetian shell in 1687.