Word: giant
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...animals remain elusive, known mostly through their bones and skins. But a team of British and Laotian fieldworkers under contract to New York's Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) say they have taken blood samples from a live specimen of one of the creatures -- the giant muntjac -- in a menagerie owned by a Laotian military group. If they are correct, studies of the captive animal could confirm the claim made earlier this year by Vietnamese scientists and MacKinnon concerning the giant muntjac. MacKinnon analyzed a skull brought to him by Do Tuoc and Shanthini Dawson, an Indian biologist. It resembled that...
Nonetheless, the Vu Quang ox, giant muntjac and slow-running deer might have come to the attention of the world much sooner had Vietnam and Laos not been isolated by wars and trade embargoes. For many years, local hunters and even Laotian forest officials have used antlers taken from the animals as hat racks or as parts of ceremonial altars, unaware that these trophies represented species new to science. Indeed, MacKinnon found among the unsorted bones in the collection of Hanoi's Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources some skulls of the slow-running deer that had been gathering dust...
...common feature of the three newly discovered animals is their primitive characteristics, suggesting that they have remained essentially unchanged for aeons. The slow-running deer has simple horns that remind Arctander of a Viking helmet. The giant muntjac has large canine teeth that deerlike animals used in fights long ago, before they evolved elaborate antlers. All three animals have braincases that are relatively small in proportion to their size. Taxonomist Groves says the Vu Quang ox seems somewhat similar to the hemibos, an extinct creature that lived in India 5 million years...
...Justice Department acknowledged that it was investigating whether Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy improperly accepted gifts, such as free travel and sports tickets, from Tyson Foods, the giant Arkansas-based poultry company with close ties to the Clintons. Espy, whose department regulates poultry producers, denied any wrongdoing...
Michael A. Miles, CEO of Philip Morris --the world's largest tobacco company -- resigned after six years on the job, in a move that stock traders say underscores the consumer products giant's commitment to cigarette production. Nonsmoker Miles' plan to separate the embattled tobacco branch from the rest of the company looks unlikely, and company executives are preparing to shore up their image on Wall Street. The stock has been on a long, downward slide over the last decade...