Shoutout to the weird fact I found on a museum plaque last weekend

I was at the natural history museum in Chicago and stopped to read about the dodo bird. The plaque said they only went extinct about 350 years ago, which felt way more recent than I ever imagined. I always pictured them as ancient creatures, but that's basically the 1600s. It really made me think about how fast a whole species can disappear. Has anyone else stumbled on a fact that totally shifted how you saw something?

3 comments

3 Comments

tarahart2mo ago

My friend just learned that Oxford University is older than the Aztec Empire.

adam_thomas2mo agoMost Upvoted

Isn't it wild how time gets all bunched up in our heads, @tarahart? I get the same feeling when I see a really old building next to a new one.

grant.margaret2mo ago

Totally get that feeling. I once read that Cleopatra lived closer to the moon landing than to the building of the Great Pyramid. My brain just blue-screened for a solid minute. It makes my own timeline of "ancient history" feel completely wrong, like I've been picturing everything on the wrong shelf. Kind of humbling to realize how bad I am at judging time.