Encompassing much of northern Africa, the Sahara Desert is well known as a scorching hot, dry place. Early European explorers, lacking experience in these harsh conditions, had a harrowing time exploring the Sahara. All too frequently, they never returned from their expeditions.
But the Sahara was not always a dry place. Believe it or not, 100 million years ago, the Sahara hosted a wetland teeming with aquatic life: fishes, turtles, crocodiles, and sharks! And many of these animals were gigantic.
Traces of a Seaway
How do we know the Sahara was a seaway? The Tuareg people, who are native to the Sahara Desert, first found traces of the wetland in fossil shells. The first published descriptions came from European scientists. And in 1850, a team of explorers, originally led by geologist Adolf Overweg, brought back sandstone from the central Sahara. Sandstone rocks typically form when layers of sand build up in lakes, rivers, or oceans.
Later that century, the Frenchman François Élie Roudaire came across natural basins that fill up and become small, salty lakes after rainfall. He wondered whether these "chotts" in the northern Sahara in Algeria were remnants of a channel to the sea. Roudaire teamed up with Ferdinand de Lesseps, the man famous for building the Suez Canal, which connected the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea in 1869. The two men envisioned bringing water in from the Mediterranean Sea through a 120-mile-long canal to farm the Sahara.
Recruiting engineers and businessmen, they went forward with surveys for the project. What they hadn't anticipated was a ridge of hard limestone that cut right across the canal's path. De Lesseps tried to convince people that the canal was still a good idea, but he never got enough support for the project.
この記事は Muse Science Magazine for Kids の April 2022 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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この記事は Muse Science Magazine for Kids の April 2022 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
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To figure out if we can die of boredom, we first have to understand what boredom is. For help, we called James Danckert, a psychologist who studies boredom at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
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SERGE WICH
Serge Wich’s favorite days at work are spent out in the forest, studying orangutans in Sumatra and Borneo or chimpanzees in Tanzania.
ELODIE FREYMANN
When you’re feeling sick, it probably doesn’t occur to you to try eating tree bark.
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APE ANTICS
The Whirling World of primate play
Dr. Ape Will See You Now
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THE LEFT OVERS
A lot has happened for modern humans to get to this point. We lost most of our hair, learned how to make tools, established civilizations, sent a person to the Moon, and invented artificial intelligence. Whew! With all of these changes, our bodies have changed, too. It’s only taken us about six million years.
SO, WHAT IS A PRIMATE?
What do you have in common with the aye-aye, sifaka, siamang, and potto? If you said your collarbone, you re probably a primatologist—a person who studies primates. If you’re not, read on.