Animal

French Bulldog, For The First Time In 31 Years, Has Been Ranked As The Most Favorite Dog In The USA, Surpassing The Labrador Retrievers. The Rank Was Done By The American Kennel Club Based On Data From 716,500 Voluntary Registrations From Dog Owners. The 3rd, 4th, And 5th Positions Went To Golden Retrievers, German Shepherds, And Poodles.

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The World’s First Cataract Surgery On Penguins Was Done, By Mandai Wildlife Group, On 6 Geriatric Penguins That Reside At Singapore’s Jurong Bird Park, A Popular Tourist Attraction That Houses Some 5,000 Birds. The Cloudy Lens, In A 2.5 Hours Surgery Per Penguin, Were Replaced With Lenses Manufactured In Germany To Fit Each Penguin’s Eye.

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An Arctic Walrus, For The First Time In Over 25 Years, Was Spotted Along The W. Coast Of Scotland. Walrus Are Long Distance Travelers, And Some Experts Are Speculating This To Be The Same Walrus Seen In Netherlands, France, England, & Iceland. 2 Walrus Groups Are Thought To Exist In The Wild: ~25,000 Atlantic And ~ 200,000 Pacific Walruses.

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A Very Rare Insect, The Giant Lacewing, Or Polystoechotes Punctata, Of The Jurassic Era, Has Been Spotted For The First Time Since It Vanished In The 1950s From E. North America. The Bug, Found In 2012 At An Arkansas Walmart, Was Identified In 2022. Factors Like Pollution & Artificial Light Are Said To Have Caused Its Disappearance.

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The Biggest Living Frog On Earth, Said To Grow As Big As A Cat, Is Now Endangered As It Has Been Over-Hunted For Food And Pet Trade In Cameroon And Equatorial Guinea. A Conservative Group Is, However, Effectively Making Efforts To The Save The Frog By Working With Hunters And Setting Up Alternative Food Sources, Snail Farms, For The Locals.

The USDA Has Approved The First-Ever Vaccine For Honey Bees. The Vaccine License, Conditionally Issued To Diamond Animal Health On December 29th, 2020, Would Help Prevent And/Or Treat The American Foulbrood Disease In Honeybees. The Disease Is Said To Be One Of The Most Widespread And The Most Destructive Of The Honey Bee Brood Diseases

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An Armoured Dinosaur From The Cretaceous, Named Jakapil kaniukura, Has For The First Time Been Discovered, By Palaeontologists, In Southern Argentina. The Creature, Part Of The Thyreophoran Dinosaur Group That Includes Stegosaurus, Is Said To Be The Size Of An Average House Cat. And Is Speculated To Have Walked Upright On Its Back Legs.

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Whale Sharks, According To Scientists, Are The Largest Fish Species And The Biggest Living Onmivores On Earth, Taking The Title From Alaska’s Kodiak Bear. But Unfortunately, The Creature, Which Can Survive For Over A Century, Are Endangered, And Little is Known About Their Behaviour And How They Give Birth To Help Better Protect Them.

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A 17-Year-Old Hairless Chinese Crested-Chihuahua Mix, Called Mr. Happy Face, Has Been Crowned The World’s Ugliest Dog In A Contest Held In Calif. On June 24th, 2022. And Took Home The $1500 Grand Prize. Mr. Happy Face, Who Was Adopted From An Arizona Shelter By Jeneda Benally, Was Not Expected To Live This Long Due To Medical Issues.

Conservancy Biologists, To The Best Of Known Record, Caught The Largest, 215-Pound, 18 Ft Long, Burmese Python Ever Found In Florida State. The Python, Pregnant With 122 Eggs And Caught In December 2021, Is Believed To Be A Pet That Was Released To The Everglades. The Snake Was Euthanized To Protect The Everglades Ecosystem.

An Endangered Stingray, Caught In The Mekong River In Cambodia, Is Said, To The Best Of Known Record, To Be The World’s Largest Freshwater Fish. The Stingray, Caught On 6/13/22, Weighed 300kg (661lb) And Measured 3.98m Long And 2.2m Wide. This Record Beats The Previous Record Holder, A 646lb (293kg) Mekong Giant Catfish Caught In Thailand In 2005.

Scientists Are Indicating That The White Rock Spinosaurid, A Giant Crocodile-Faced Dinosaur, Discovered On The Isle Of Wight, Could Be Europe’s Biggest Predatory Dinosaur. The Animal, Estimated To Be 125 Myrs Old And Said To Exceed 10 Metres (33 Feet) In Length, Could Be A New Spinosaurid Species, And The Youngest Spinosaurid Ever Found.

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Wain, The Wombat, Has Been Confirmed By The Guinness World Records As The Oldest Living Wombat. Wombats Are Said To Live To An Average Age Of 15 Years In The Wild And Up To 20 Years In Captivity, But Wain Is Currently At The Age of 32, Which Is Equivalent To 100 Human Years. Folks Can Visit Wain At The Satsukiyama Zoo, In Japan.

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A Chihuahua, Named TobyKeith, Has Been Acknowledged By The Guinness World Records As The Oldest Living Dog. TobyKeith, Age 21 Years 66 Days, Based In Greenacres, Florida, Was Born On January 9th, 2001. The Oldest Dog Ever Recorded Was An Australian Cattle Dog, Named Bluey, Who Died At The Age Of 29 Years 5 Months.

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Stan, The World’s Most Complete Tyrannosaurus Rex Skeleton, And Also The Most Expensive Fossil In The World, Now Has A New Home At The New Museum Of Natural History, Which Is Expected To Open In 2025 In Abu Dhabi. Stan, A 67 Million-Year-Old T. Rex That Is 39-Foot-Long (11.7-Meter-Long), Was Bought For $31.8 Million In 2020.

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Researchers, In A First, Achieved Asexual Reproduction, Parthenogenesis, In A Mammal Using CRISPR. And The Surviving Mice Birthed Asexually Was Raised To Adulthood And Reproduced Sexually. This Feat Could Have Implications In Agriculture & Medicine. However, More Research Is Needed To Improve The Process & Success Rate Of Viable Offspring.

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The World’s Most Complete And Best Preserved Triceratops Skeleton Was Exhibited For The First Time At Melbourne Museum In Australia. The Dinosaur Fossil Had 266 Bones, Comprising 85% Of The Total Skeleton. The Triceratops, Named Horridus, Stands About 2 m (6.6 ft) Tall, 6 To 7 m (19.7 to 23 ft) Long, And Weighs Over A Ton.

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Researchers Have Found, In Montana, The Fossil Of The Oldest Known Ancestor Of Octopuses. The Fossil, ~330 Myrs Old, Indicates That Octopuses Existed Earlier Than Thought, Even Before Dinosaurs. The 4.7 Inch Fossil, With 10 Limbs (Modern Octopuses Have 8), Belongs To A Vampyropod, A Likely Ancestor Of Modern Octopuses And Vampire Squids.

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Scientists May Have Discovered, In China, The Oldest, ~168 Myrs Old, Stegosaur Fossil, Called Bashanosaurus Primitivus, That Could Shed Light On Stegosaur Evolution. The Stegosaur, The Oldest Found In Asia, Is A Herbivorous Dinosaur With Attributes Not Seen In Later Stegosaur. Stegosaur Species Have Not Been Found In Antarctica & Australia.

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Researchers Have Discovered The Remains Of The World’s Largest Animal, A Jurassic Pterosaur, That Ever Flew When It Existed 170 Myrs Ago In Scotland. The Fossil Find Will Throw More Light On Pterosaur Evolution, As It Indicates That The Dinosaur, With A Wingspan Of 2.5 Meters Or Larger, Existed 25m Years Earlier Than Previously Thought.

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