Word: forestation
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This tableau demolishes one aspect of what had been conventional evolutionary wisdom. Paleoanthropologists once thought that what got our ancestors walking on two legs in the first place was a change in climate that transformed African forest into savanna. In such an environment, goes the reasoning, upright-standing primates would have had the advantage over knuckle walkers because they could see over tall grasses to find food and avoid predators. The fact that Lucy's species sometimes lived in a more wooded environment began to undermine that theory. The fact that Ardi walked upright in a similar environment many hundreds...
...which belonged to at least 35 Ar. ramidus individuals. Combine those bones with the thousands of plant and animal fossils from the site and they get a remarkably clear picture of the habitat Ardi roamed some 200,000 generations ago. It was a grassy woodland with patches of denser forest and freshwater springs. Colobus monkeys chattered in the trees, while baboons, elephants, spiral-horned antelopes and hyenas roamed the terrain. Shrews, hares, porcupines and small carnivores scuttled in the underbrush. There were an assortment of bats and at least 29 species of birds, including peacocks, doves, lovebirds, swifts and owls...
Everyone expects azure skies and crystal-clear waters from the Maldives. But a jungle landscape so verdant it smacks of Borneo? Certainly, if you happen to be on Villingili island, home to half of the country's local flora in the form of lush primary forest, three freshwater lagoons and a sprawling mangrove swamp. It's there, in the Maldives' far-flung south, that you'll find the new Shangri-La Villingili Resort and Spa, www.shangri-la.com - the only luxury property in the area and the fruit of five years' laborious construction owing to its remote location...
...While pristine water will always remain the Maldives' main attraction, you should change out of your wet suit for the resort's nature trails, which take you into a forest where age-old banyans thrive luxuriantly alongside the native bird life. In fact, afternoons, when the sun is merciless, can be spent cycling through these peaceful, shaded woods...
...Gros Morne National Park Located on the province's west coast, this wonderland of forest and fjords, www.grosmorne.com, is home to moose, caribou, whales, eagles and black bears. Spend a morning hiking around the Tablelands, a slice of ancient ocean floor forced up when the continents of Africa and North America collided several million years ago. Then take a boat trip down Western Brook Pond in the isolated northern reaches of the park. Don't be fooled by the word pond: Western Brook is 10 miles (16 km) long. The journey through the jagged cliffs and cascading waterfalls will leave...