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TRAVEL/SCIENCE NEWS


The Sun/Sunday, February 16, 2014


8 reasons to visit Epcot this spring


 (Cox Newspapers) -
 Epcot's Flower &
Garden Festival turns 21
this year, and now's the
perfect time to make
a toast since the
new Spice Road Table
restaurant at Morocco
in the World Showcase
has some of the best
sangria we've ever
tasted.
 Here are eight reasons
to plan a trip to Epcot
during the festival,
which runs March 5 to
May 18:
 Groovy bands: Gary
Lewis and the Playboys
("This Diamond Ring")
hit the Flower Power
concert stage for the
first time March 14-16.
The Alan Parsons Live
Project ("Eye in the
Sky") is also new this
year, May 16-18. On







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opening weekend,
March 7-9, the Guess
Who kicks off the
Flower Power concert
series.
 Monstrous Garden:
A new Mike & Sulley's
Monstrous Garden
(near the park's iconic
Spaceship Earth)
welcomes the kids with
a playland and special
topiaries, including
Peter Pan.
 Hummingbirds at
Home: Do you want to
attract hummingbirds
to your garden? Check
out a new exhibit with
walk-through garden by
the National Audubon
Society. +TGIF Getaway:
8 reasons to visit Epcot
this spring photo
 Gardens aglow: After
sunset, illuminated
gardens will cast a glow.


 (AP) For tourism
in Florida, 2013 was a
record year.
 Tourism in the
Sunshine State in-
creased by 3.5 percent
in 2013 compared with
the prior year, with


 It's easy being green:
Kermit the Frog and
Miss Piggy will make
their topiary debuts
among the 100-plus
topiaries throughout
Epcot during the
festival.
 HGTV stars: Alison
Victoria of "Kitchen
Crashers" and Matt
Blashaw of "Yard
Crashers" will appear
each weekend at the
Festival Center.
 Outdoor Kitchens:
For the second year, 11
outdoor kitchens will
send delicious smells
wafting throughout
Epcot as chefs prepare
delights like smoked
turkey ribs and
"Piggylicious Bacon
Cupcakes." Last year's
top menu picks like
the Watermelon Salad


about 94.7 million
people visiting Florida
in 2013.
 Gov. Rick Scott
announced last year's
numbers Friday at
Universal Orlando
Resort, where nearly


with local baby arugula,
feta cheese, pickled red
onions and balsamic
reduction will be back
for an encore at the
Florida Fresh Outdoor
Kitchen.
 Spice Road Table:
Now let's get back to
that sangria the
organic and delectable
Spice Road Signature
Sangria ($9.99 per glass)
at Morocco's newest
restaurant. Spice Road
is right on the lagoon
and offers spectacular
views of the Epcot
ball, but you could be
blind-folded and still
enjoy the tapas and
drinks here. We also like
the wine flights three
3-ounce pours of white
or red wine, all from the
Mediterranean region
($12.99).


3,500 new jobs are
expected to be created
this year. Universal
Orlando is building
the Wizarding World
of Harry Potter Diagon
Alley, adding a new
hotel and expanding the


MCT PHOTO


Epcot Center in Orlando.


CityWalk entertainment
complex.
 Visit Florida, the
state's tourism arm, said
the number of direct,
travel-related jobs also
was at a record high:
1,088,200 Floridians


employed in the in-
dustry, a 2.9 percent
increase from 2012.
 Scott said he is pro-
posing that the Florida
Legislature boostVisit
Florida's budget by
57 percent to $100 million.


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 (Los Angeles Times) -
 Scientists have discov-
ered the fossil remains of
an ancient marine reptile
in the act of being born.
 The fossil shows that
the little icthyosaur was
just starting to swim
headfirst out of its moth-
er's body at the time of
its death, with two other
icthyosaur embryos still
awaiting their own birth
experience.
 The rare fossil was
discovered in what was
once an inland sea that
split China in two. Today,


the site lies 150 miles
east of Shanghai near
the city of Chaohu in the
Anhui province. Scientists
believe the embryos and
their mother were buried
in a landslide.
 "It must have been
pretty close to where
they lived because their
skeletons were perfectly
preserved," said Ryosuke
Motani, a paleobiologist
at the University of
California, Davis.
 Motani and his col-
leagues from Peking
University and the Anhui


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Geological Museum have
been working at the site
for three years. In that
time they have uncovered
80 new icthyosaur skel-
etons that date back to
the early Triassic period,
roughly 248 million years
ago.
 Icthyosaurs, technically
called ichthyopterygians,
were a group of reptiles
that lived at the time
of the dinosaurs. They
looked a bit like dolphins
with a torpedo shaped
body and a long, thin
snout, and like dolphins,
they needed to swim to
the surface to breathe.
Adults were just under
3 feet long, and they
probably ate worms and
other small animals living
in the sea.
 It is not uncommon for
reptiles and fish to give
birth to live young, but
while most land animals
give birth head first, most
air-breathing marine
animals like dolphins and
whales give birth tail first.
 "This delays the
exposure of the head for
the last minute, which is
ideal for a water birth,"
Motani said. Unlike a fish,


a newly born icthyosaur
or a dolphin would need
to swim to the surface
in order to take its first
breath.
 However, in the early
icthyosaur fossil scientists
found, the embryo icthyo-
saur is clearly coming out
of its mother head first.
 In a new paper pub-
lished in the journal PLOS
One, Motani argues that
the headfirst birth of this
primitive icthyosaur fossil
suggests that giving birth
to live young first devel-
oped on land, and then
continued to evolve in the
water.
 "Icthyosaurs from a
much later time period
were coming out like
dolphins, tail first," he
said. "But this is the most
primitive kind of icthyo-
saur, and the headfirst
birth suggests to me that
its ancestors clearly lived
on land."
 Motani added that
more findings from
the Chaohu site will be
coming soon.
 "There are some very
interesting animals there
that we didn't know
before," he said.


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EPCOT offering tasty bites and beer,
 special appearances by HGTV
INTERNATIONAL stars and the Flower Power
F LOW ER & concert series, with '60s bands.
GARDEN FESTIVAL For more: Call 407/W-DISNEY
 (934-7639) or visit www.
 When: March 5-May 18 epcotinspring.com. The festival,
 What: A 75-day flower and including all gardening programs
garden extravaganza, with 100 and exhibits, is included in
topiaries, 11 Outdoor Kitchens regular Epcot admission.


2013 was a record year for tourism in Florida


Fossil found in China shows ancient


 reptile in the act of being born


I -_- --d- --.K- -A


I nave ever seen! ", TLorenz