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TIL A New Bird Species “Big Bird” Has Evolved on Galapagos And Scientists Watched It Happen

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gm5L TIL tuberculosis wiped out 50% of the males in a troop of savanna baboons after they consumed tainted meat. The more aggressive males died, leaving their less aggressive peers to create and pass down a uniquely unaggressive culture.
Brd0y TIL Sergei Prokofiev died the same day as Stalin in 1953. Millions attended Stalin's funeral, but only 40 for Prokofiev's. A musical periodical noted his death on p. 116, with pages 1 to 115 devoted to Stalin. Flowers were so scarce in Moscow that Prokofiev's family used cuttings from house plants.
xdD5 TIL that woolly mammoths still walked the Earth during the time of the construction of the Great Pyramid in Egypt
pYw5G TIL that when they test DNA from hair, they actually analyse the root skin attached to the hair. The hair itself contains no DNA and is useless in the analysis.
gMeQb TIL of a brawl involving 50 congressmen on the US House floor in 1858. It ended when someone knocked off a man's wig and the man accidentally put it back on backwards, causing both sides to laugh and stop fighting.