Word: sumatran
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...rhinoceros is one of earth's oldest creatures, dating from the Eocene epoch, when horses were the size of dogs, some 55 million years ago. There are five surviving rhino species -- black, white, Sumatran, Indian and Javan -- all of them endangered because of poachers who kill them for their horns. Africa's black, or hooked-lipped, rhino (Diceros bicornis) is the latest to land on the endangered list. In 1970 there were 65,000 of the beasts roaming the rough bush country of east, central and southern Africa. Today there are fewer than 4,000, half of them in Zimbabwe...
Perhaps the ultimate protection against species extinction is what the San Diego scientists call their Frozen Zoo. More than just a sperm bank, it is a repository of fibroblast cells taken from the connective tissue of hundreds of exotic wild animals, ranging from Sumatran tigers to Uganda's pygmy chimps. These cells, which are easier to store and grow than most, are kept in liquid nitrogen at a temperature of -196° C ( - 320° F) against the day when technology will be ready to reawaken them. Says San Diego's Benirschke: "We could probably get along...