Science World

Nigersaurus taqueti was a sauropod dinosaur that roamed what is now Niger around 105 million years ago, and it may have had the fastest tooth replacement rate of any known dinosaur. Its wide, flat muzzle held more than 500 slender teeth packed tightly together in rows, earning it the nickname the "Mesozoic cow."

Scientists determined the replacement rate by studying microscopic growth lines preserved in the fossilized teeth, similar to counting rings in a tree. Each line represented a single day of growth, and counting them revealed that every tooth was replaced roughly every 14 days, with as many as seven backup teeth already forming behind each one in use.

That rapid turnover made sense given how Nigersaurus ate. Paleontologist Paul Sereno described its feeding style as nipping rather than chewing, with teeth that slid past each other like scissors instead of grinding food down. Combined with a lightweight, almost fragile skull, Nigersaurus was built entirely for constant, low grazing on soft vegetation, wearing through teeth faster than its body could afford to replace them the normal way.

Jaequan Faulkner was 13 years old, running a hot dog stand outside his home in Minneapolis, selling hot dogs, chips, and sodas to save up for school clothes. He called it Mr. Faulkner's Old Fashioned Hot Dogs.

Someone reported him to the city health department.

Under normal circumstances, that call ends with a shutdown. Instead, health inspectors put their response on hold while they figured out how to help him instead. They connected him with a local business development group, walked him through proper food handling, got his stand up to code, and helped him understand the basics of running a business, pricing, marketing, and finance.

Then, when it came time for his permit, the inspectors pooled their own money and paid the $87 fee themselves.

"Surprisingly, I'm like, dang, the city's not the bad guy in this situation," Jaequan said. "They're actually the ones who are helping me."

His stand passed inspection and business exploded, selling up to 150 hot dogs a day through the rest of the summer.

Someone tried to shut a kid down. A group of city employees decided that was not going to be how this story ended.

"I can't do it anymore. This is my last donation."

Bai Fangli said those words on a snowy day in Tianjin, China, standing in front of teachers at a middle school, his hair and beard white, his clothes soaked through. He was in his 90s. He had just pedaled there on a tricycle to hand over 500 yuan.

It was the last of over 350,000 yuan he had given away.

Bai never went to school himself. He grew up illiterate, working as a laborer from childhood, and the regret of it never left him. At 74 years old, an age when most people have long since stopped working, he began pedaling a tricycle taxi through the streets of Tianjin, earning 20 to 40 yuan a day, and giving nearly all of it to schools.

He lived like a beggar by choice. Mismatched clothes. Discarded shoes. A single room near the train station. When the station was demolished in 1999, he had nowhere to work, so he spent a winter watching bicycles in a shed instead, saving every 10-cent coin in a lunchbox until he had enough to give away again.

Over nearly 20 years, he supported more than 300 students who could not otherwise afford school. Many of them never learned his name.

When he died, he left behind no savings. Just a tricycle, a radio, and a small caged bird.

Thousands attended his memorial in Tianjin. A man who never once received an education spent his final decades making sure hundreds of children never had to live without one.

Five Parrots Walk Into a Zoo. It Goes Badly.

In 2020, Lincolnshire Wildlife Park in England acquired five grey parrots within the same week and made the reasonable decision to house them together while they settled in.

It was not a reasonable decision.

The five birds, named Billy, Tyson, Jade, Elsie, and Eric, discovered almost immediately that they shared a talent. They could swear. Enthusiastically, creatively, and at full volume, directly at visitors.

Worse, they laughed after every single one.

Staff found it hilarious at first. Then visitors started laughing too, which only encouraged the parrots, who quickly understood that profanity plus audience equals reward. Within days the five had formed what can only be described as a foul-mouthed comedy collective, feeding off each other's energy and escalating with every interaction.

The zoo separated them and relocated them to different areas of the park, hoping that distance and new companions would reset their behavior.

It did not fully work. The parrots had already taught some of their new neighbors a few choice words.

African grey parrots are among the most intelligent birds on earth, capable of learning hundreds of words and understanding context. These five understood context perfectly.

They knew exactly what they were doing.