Word: ancient
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...conversation piece in Chapoutier's cellar if word hadn't reached Baux-de-Provence, a progressive appellation where nearly all vines are farmed organically. There, Schlaepfer and partner François Pillon saw a resemblance between the Egg and the dolia, or the large amphorae used to make ancient Rome's most renowned wine, Falernum. (See TIME's Global Adviser for exotic, beautiful and interesting getaways...
...western Chinese city of Xi'an. Far from China's dynamic coastal manufacturing and financial centers, Xi'an for decades has been an economic backwater known mainly as the home of China's famed terra-cotta warriors, reminders of the city's glory days as a capital of ancient dynasties...
...animals in question were crocodiles, which thrived in the wetlands of the ancient Sahara 100 million years ago. Sereno found his first specimens of these prehistoric monsters about a decade ago, a species called Sarcosuchus, nicknamed SuperCroc: it was some 40 ft. long and weight 8 tons. (See pictures: "Dinosaur-Era Crocodiles Are Discovered in the Sahara...
...reporting in the journal ZooKeys, Sereno's team has announced the discovery of fossils from three brand-new species and new fossils from two known species. Along with SuperCroc, they add up to a virtual menagerie of ancient crocodiles that inhabited a range of ecological niches - species nicknamed BoarCroc, RatCroc, PancakeCroc, DuckCroc and DogCroc. (See the top 10 scientific discoveries...
Oddly enough, it was a modern crocodile - an Australian freshwater croc known as a "freshy" - that helped Sereno figure out how some of the ancient crocs behaved. "It's able to get up and gallop, unlike the saltwater crocodiles that live nearby," he says. Since many of the ancient crocodiles have legs like the freshies but tails like the salties, he figures they were both good swimmers and good runners - a lethal combination that may explain something intriguing about dinosaurs...