The vast majority of population is well aware of the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction, which gained its recognition due to the disappearance of dinosaurs. It took place around 65 mln years ago and wiped out a huge part of the past flora and fauna. The suggested theory is commonly known too - the asteroid hitting the surface of the planet. The mentioned mass extinction however, was not the only one throughout the Earth's history. Interestingly, there are said to have been at least 5 mass extinctions throughout the planet's life. The other four include:

- End Triassic extinction - around 200 mln years ago, presumed to have been caused by lava eruptions and massive floods, 22% of life in the oceans vanished;

- Permian Triassic extinction - took place around 250 mln years ago, this was probably the most destroying one, it is estimated that 95% of all species existing back then disappeared from the surface of the planet, we need to bear in mind that life back then was not fully evolved and consisted mainly of organisms occupying waters, the causation is said to be a comet or asteroid striking the planet;

- Late Devonian extinction - happened around 370 mln years ago, cause is unknown also more details are hard to define;

- Ordovician - Silurian - around 450 mln years ago, caused by the drop in the sea levels and the forming of glaciers, followed by the melting of these and causing mass decrease in numbers of organisms;

Interestingly, some scientists argue that we are currently stepping onto the sixth mass extinction. Their argument is supported with various facts, such as the present biodiversity crisis. The action bioscience website lists the following reasons for the biological diversity loss:

- "human destruction of ecosystems
- overexploitation of species and natural resources
- human overpopulation
- the spread of agriculture
- pollution"
(http://www.actionbioscience.org/newfrontiers/eldredge2.html)

Let's hope the 6th extinction will be at least slowed down...
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Yes the exams are coming up, and frankly I have not got much time left to revise. Although I have been quite a good girl and did lots of revision. Revision is what I want to write about briefly. I find it very amazing how some people start revising literally the night before the exam! I personally need at least two weeks to prepare myself both academically and mentally. And don't get me wrong, it's not like I have to memorise everything... I do work during the year and generally would feel confident if didn't revise... But my point is that I would not be able to leave everything until the last minute, because I would simply FREAK OUT! I know someone who does all his assignments or revision right before the deadline or exam and gets amazing grades. And on top of that - nothing phases him, he just goes into the hall and writes the exam. I absolutely cannot work like this. It's quite interesting that people approach essay writing/revising differently...

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Well, this has not been confirmed yet, because costs a lot of money, but hopefully I will manage to do it this summer. What am I talking about? I am talking about the unbelievable opportunity of observing the amazing gorillas in the wilderness and spending some time with the Masai people in Masai Mara, all in Kenya! This will probably be the most exciting experience of my entire existence! Can you imagine? If I get to see the gorillas in their natural habitats, it will be like an anthropological dream coming true! It makes me shiver, even when I think about it! Right, let me calm down a bit... I originally was googling voluntary work in Africa, because one of my friends helped kids in Kenya with some basic things, such as sharpening pencils or teaching basic English. I wanted to do something similar and apart from all these institutions organizing voluntary work in Africa, I found a website of the Exodus, where they give people an opportunity of seeing the gorillas and visiting the Masai villages! I looked at it very briefly, and immediately felt it was my destiny!!! This is sooooo what I want to do, but I never expected I would be considering doing it during my undergraduate studies... Oh, please keep your fingers crossed! I hope I will cope financially and be able to go on this enbelievable trip!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.exodus.co.uk/

xx

I have always been interested in biology. Nature is the most amazing feature of my live and focusing on it is actually of paramount importance for me. Biological diversity or anthropology, anything that relates to what lives on the Earth, really intrigues me a lot. Having studied biological sciences for ages, it makes me wonder how far can humans' ability to learn reach? I could say, I know more less all important aspects of biology, there are still however so many areas that I have not covered, and every single day I discover new bits and pieces and I so desperately do not want them to escape from my tired (revising for the exams...)brain. How much knowledge is there? Is it all possible that human brain is able to memorise the entire information about a particular subject? I think, it definitely depends on what subject we're talking about, but as far as I know, science has become so advance and of course keeps developing, that it will never reach an end. Every single day, interesting discoveries are being made, and the exact same ideas are approached in different techniques very often giving results that do not match each other... surprisingly. This is what makes science so fascinating! The possibitlies of discovering, testing and challenging!
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For all biological anthropologists, osteologists or osteoarchaeologists who have not heard of the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology I am providing a link where you can sign up and become a member of this organisation. Yup, and it is so worth joining! All you ambitious people with millions of ideas will be able to present your papers and simply broaden and share your knowledge!

here's the link: http://www.babao.org.uk/

xx

While studying anthropology, I notice a lot of interesting things. One of them are different styles of writing ethnographies by different anthropologists. I am not generalising of course, but for example I noticed that British authors seem to be a bit detached and tend not to express their emotions or opinions on particular approaches of the studied culture. American authors on the other hand, sometimes get emotionally involved and become very closed with the native inhabitants of the place they are studying. I find both styles very inspiring...

Well, yes as I already mentioned in one of my previous notes, I have visited the beautiful country of Turkey. More specifically, I went to Istanbul. And yes I had the most awesome time ever. I absolutely loved the place. The geographical location and history make Istanbul a great spot for all who love learning new things and of course travelling. My anthropological studies influence nearly all my approaches and wherever I go, I tend to look at things differently. And that’s how it was this time. I could not stop thinking about the Muslim religion – Islam. I encountered so many interesting rituals, such as the prayers broadcasted from mosques 5 times a day! This in particular made me shiver  Then some others cultural approaches of the Turkish – such as the male and female differences in day-to-day actions or even types of clothing. I am starting to think I would be exciting to write my own ethnography, I would however like to work with some African indigenous peoples. We’ll see. Anyway, yup Turkey was amazing and I am finding it so hard to get used to the reality in England, especially that I have my final exams coming up soon… I don’t even want to think about them!!! Argh…

xxx

Sorry about the short notes, but I was in Turkey and didn’t have much time to write properly. I have found the last two notes quite interesting, so thought I would put them here.

“A recent study found that the romantic cliche of children disobeying their parents' choice for what type of person they should marry to be true.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2008/04/10/DI2008041002354.html?nav=rss_nation/science

Right, this is probably the craziest thing I’ve heard recently. Some anthropologist at Florida Atlantic University “has used new reconstructions of Neanderthal vocal tracts to simulate the voice. He says the ancient human's speech lacked the "quantal vowel" sounds that underlie modern speech.” This is quite amazing, I am stunned by the things modern humans are able to create.

Do visit the link below in order to read the whole article, it’s worth it.

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/dn13672-neanderthals-speak-out-after-30000-years.html?feedId=online-news_rss20

Peter and I went to Port Lympne on Wednesday. I guess it was one of the spontaneous decisions, having been there before myself I told Pete all about it, and he seemed pretty amazed by the fact that you can go on a safari a kind of a real one… African Experience it’s called…
I do not support captivity ideas at all, I find them cruel and freedom-depriving, Port Lympne however is not a typical zoo, it’s a Park that has unbelievably lots of space and really has got this nice feeling to it. What I absolutely love about that place is of course, that endangered species of animals are bred there and released into their natural habitats. Even though I am always quite sceptical about this due to lives led differently in captivity and wilderness (such as people feeding animals, choosing mating partners, providing medical care etc., these you see are unavailable to the animals in the wilderness), stunningly staff at Port Lympne have successfully put animals back in the wild (animals are monitored and there is evidence they are mixing well with the indigenous inhabitants of their land, which is great). Every single species that visitors can observe has a note displayed somewhere outside their occupied area that informs of what numbers are left in the wild or if they’re extinct in the wild and all sorts of other information. It’s so good that Port Lympne spreads the awareness of dangers and ecological issues.
There is one more thing that I definitely need to mention, namely the gorillas. There was this metal box on the wall and had three holes on the top. I have no clue what the box contained, it could have been probably either water or some kind of a liquid food. Anyway, what happens is the gorillas want to get this something out of the box, but obviously they find it quite difficult to do this. Well, read carefully, we actually saw a gorilla pick up a stick, put it through the hole in the box, take it out with the food on the other end and consume it!!! I have never seen primates use tools in reality. I’ve only seen a few documentaries where chimps were using rocks to crack nuts open. I was absolutely stunned…

Yup, we had a great time!

xx