Inside and outside the aviary, it's like two worlds. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

When they first entered the door, Zhang Zi'an and Guo Dongyue were frightened by the noisy birdsong, but unconsciously, they were already a little accustomed to this kind of noise, and when they followed Wei Kang through two doors in a row and returned to the outside, they even felt that their ears were terrifyingly quiet, and they always wanted to make some sounds.

In addition to sound, another difference is temperature. A cold wind blew, Zhang Zi'an shrunk his neck, and quickly put on the coat he had taken off after entering the aviary. The aviary is very warm, about 20 degrees Celsius, and even sweating slightly after walking around, while outside, even if it is almost noon, it is still bleak in the autumn breeze, and the cold is soaking, and it is easy to catch a cold at first glance.

Guo Dongyue was more concerned about whether the two red-faced peonies would catch a cold than himself, so he covered his coat outside the cage to protect them from the wind.

They removed disposable plastic shoe covers from their feet and threw them into the trash can at the door. The bottom of the shoe cover has been stained with a lot of bird droppings and millet grains, and it feels disgusting at a glance.

Since it is a suburb, taxis are few and all sit with guests. Guo Dongyue picked up his mobile phone and looked for a hitchhiker again.

"Two, why don't you just leave without saying hello?"

Lu Mingyi happily chased after him from behind and warmly invited: "It's almost noon, I'll be the host, and the two of you will have lunch before leaving." ”

"No need, we still have something to do. Guo Dongyue directly refused, he was mainly worried that the pair of parrots would get sick if they stayed outside for too long.

Zhang Zi'an really wanted to eat a free lunch, but he saw the way Fina licked his lips and knew that he was almost hungry, so he might as well go back to eat it to save it from losing his temper again.

"It's a shame...... Another day, when I go to the city another day, let's find a place to get together. Lu Mingyi did not feel resentful because of Guo Dongyue's refusal, he had inquired just now and knew that Guo Dongyue had this temper, but he was capable and highly evaluated within the company, and he might open his own design institute in the near future.

Guo Dongyue was not interested in socializing with remuneration, and shirked: "In the future, I may not have time recently." By the way, these two parrots ......" He lifted the cage and lifted the corner of his coat for Lu Mingyi to see.

A few wisps of cold wind poured into the birdcage from under the corners of his coat, and the male bird with the red head and neck thoughtfully moved his position to block the cold wind for the yellow-orange head and neck mother.

Lu Mingyi recognized at a glance that they were two red-faced parrots, although they were rare, they were not particularly precious, so he said generously: "These two parrots are nothing, so I will give them to Mr. Guo." ”

"Just borrowing it, wait...... I'll be back later. Guo Dongyue put down the corner of his clothes and said seriously, with a slight pause in his tone.

Lu Mingyi thought he was just polite and insisted on giving it to him.

On the other hand, Wei Kang is still trying to persuade Zhang Zi'an to persuade him to have the courage to dedicate himself to science.

Lu Mingyi also came over to help Wei Kang persuade him, but he just took a little gene for testing, so there is no need to be too stingy, right?

Although Zhang Zi'an has been dreaming of science since he was a child, he is still very difficult about it.

"Come and see this. ”

Weikang knew that seeing is believing, took out his mobile phone, and opened a web page to show them. Zhang Zi'an felt a headache when he saw the English on the screen, but he finally knew the famous domain name nature.com.

This is an article in the June 19, 2017 issue of the journal Ecology &Evolution in the journal Nature, written by the Eva-Maria_Geigl research group at the University of Paris VII, France. Look at this picture. Wei Kang pulled down the page and enlarged a picture in the middle of the article.

The simple and clear line of this picture shows a golden cat with dark markings eating fish under a chair where a woman sits. Zhang Zi'an knew that he should focus on the cat in the painting, but his eyes involuntarily glanced at the smooth thighs of the woman in the painting......

"This is a mural from ancient Egypt 3,500 years ago. Wei Kang pointed to the cat in the painting, "Take a closer look." ”

"3,500 years ago?"

Zhang Zi'an was devastated, thinking that he had heard it wrong.

"That's right, 3,500 years ago, in 1,500 B.C. Wei Kang replied in the affirmative, "At that time, China was still in the early Shang Dynasty. This picture is part of an ancient Egyptian mural and is one of the strongest but not conclusive evidence of the origin of domestic cats from ancient Egypt. Look, is this cat in this picture very similar to your cat, but very different from the modern Egyptian cat?"

Zhang Zi'an could see at a glance that the cat in the picture was completely different from the modern Egyptian cat. The modern Egyptian cat has a predominantly spotted body, but the cat in the painting, like Fina, has a predominantly spotted body.

Wei Kang knew that Zhang Zi'an was knowledgeable, and there was no need to explain much about the difference between primitive Egyptian cats and modern Egyptian cats, he just briefly explained the cause and effect relationship, "According to the content of this special issue on June 19, from the time the wild cat was tamed as a domestic cat, until the 14th century AD, ancient domestic cats have always had a mackerel-like striped coat color, just like this cat in the mural and your cat. From the 13th century AD, the coat color of domestic cats slowly transitioned from stripes to spots. This is why the original Egyptian cat had a striped coat color, while the modern Egyptian cat has a spotted coat color. ”

Zhang Zi'an felt a little enlightened, and people with high knowledge spoke differently, explaining a problem he had never thought about in simple terms. Although this knowledge is useless in life, maybe one day you can pretend to be forced in front of others?

"In addition, your cat has both stripes and spots on its body, and the stripes are supplemented by the main spots, and the cat in the mural is pure stripes, while the modern Egyptian cat is pure spots...... In other words, your cat is like the Archaeopteryx back then, a key link in the evolutionary chain, a real living fossil!" Wei Kang became more and more excited.

Wei Kang is not young anymore, Zhang Zian is really worried that he will be excited.

Zhang Zi'an looked closely at this mural picture and found another detail - the modern Egyptian cat is divided into five colors, namely silver, bronze, smoky gray, black, and blue/white ash, and the cat in the mural looks golden yellow, the same as Fina...... No, it should be said that Fina is the same as the cat in the mural, after all, this cat is 1500 years earlier than Fina and is considered to be Fina's ancestor.

Not only Zhang Zi'an, but even Fina approached curiously, carefully observing its ancestor on the mobile phone screen.

He already understood the importance of Fina. To the extent that Fina appeared would put an end to the long-standing debate over the origin of the domestic cat, to put it mildly...... Based on this, Weikang can write several papers with high impact factors, and even become famous overnight.

Still, he couldn't say yes easily - because it wasn't up to him, and he had to respect Fina herself...... No, it's the opinion of this cat.

"Professor Wei, let's go back and think about it first. He planned to delay it for a while, and then discuss it with Fina when no one was around, and he couldn't rush it.

Wei Kang sighed helplessly, "At least leave me your contact information." ”

"That's fine. ”

Zhang Zi'an and Wei Kang exchanged contact information, and it happened that the hitchhiker called by Guo Dongyue also stopped at the door, and he took Fina and Snow Lion to get into the car with Guo Dongyue and return to Binhai City.