An ancient species of great ape likely disappeared hundreds of thousands of years ago when climate change put their favorite fruits out of reach during dry seasons, scientists recently reported.

The species is known as Gigantopithecus blacki. It once lived in southern China. It stood 3 meters tall and weighed up to 295 kilograms. It represents the largest great ape known to scientists.

“It’s just a massive animal — just really, really big,” said Renaud Joannes-Boyau, a researcher at Australia’s Southern Cross University. He helped write the study, which recently appeared in Nature. But its size may also have been a weakness. Joannes-Boyau said, “When food starts to be scarce, it’s so big that it can’t climb trees to explore new food sources.”

The huge apes likely looked similar to the modern orangutans (红毛猩猩). They survived for around 2 million years in Guangxi. They ate plants that included fruits and flowers — until the environment began to change. Starting about 600,000 years ago, Guangxi’s forests began producing fewer fruits. The area was experiencing more periods of dry weather. Researchers examined pollen (花粉) and sediment (沉积物) found in caves to learn more about the changes and their effects. The giant apes did not disappear quickly, the researchers say. They likely went extinct sometime between 215,000 and 295,000 years ago.

As the climate changed, smaller apes may have been able to climb trees to search for different food. But the researchers found that the giant apes ate more food that provided less nutrients. “When the forest changed, there was not enough food preferred by the species,” said Zhang Yingqi of China’s Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology. He helped write the study.

Do you know why different animals or insectshave their special colors? Colors are used mainly to protect themselves.

Why can’t some birds easily catch locusts（蝗虫）? It is because locusts change their colors together with the change of the colors of crops. When crops are green, locusts look green. But as autumn comes, locusts change to the same brown color as crops have. Some other insects with autumn comes, locusts change to the same brown color as crops have. Some other insects with different colors from plants are easily found and eaten by others. So they have to hide themselves for lives in the day and appear only at night.

If you study the animal life, you’ll find the main use of coloring is to protect themselves. Bears, lions and other animals can’t be easily seen by hunters（猎人）. This is because they have the colors much like the trees.

Have you ever noticed an even more strange thing? A kind of fish in the sea can send out black liquid when it faces danger. While the liquid spreads over, its enemies can’t find it. And it quickly swims away. So it has lived up to now though it is not strong at all.

All dogs can benefit from training throughout their lives. But where to begin the process? Thus, we have sought advice from some experts on where to start. 【小题1】.

Identify your training goals

【小题2】. If you’re interested in skill training, or basic manners, such as teaching your dog to sit, stay and lie down, that’s the field of a dog trainer. If your dog has a behavior problem-anxiety, aggressiveness, fearfulness-then what you need is a dog behavioral consultant.

Decide how you’d like to train your dog

When it comes to training methods, you have a few options. Group classes are cheaper but less personalized, while customized classes with training facilities are more expensive and riskier.【小题3】. If you don’t want to pay a lot of money for dog training, you can choose free or low-cost resources you can find online.

【小题4】

Generally speaking, many trainers fall into two broad categories. The first is positive reinforcement (强化) trainers, which means giving your dog something good to train. The second is balanced trainers who are willing to make a series of corrections using positive reinforcement methods.

Be realistic

Your dog may bark at your guests. 【小题5】. Since you can’t change a German shepherd’s genetic impulse (基因冲动) to protect its territory, you may need to change your expectations, instead.