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Rare Fruit Sold for $1,000 in Indonesia

In this AP photo taken on November 25, 2017, a cut Musang King durian is shown by a vendor during the International Durian Cultural Tourism Festival in Bentong, Malaysia.
In this AP photo taken on November 25, 2017, a cut Musang King durian is shown by a vendor during the International Durian Cultural Tourism Festival in Bentong, Malaysia.
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Rare Fruit Sold for $1,000 in Indonesia

In this AP photo taken on November 25, 2017, a cut Musang King durian is shown by a vendor during the International Durian Cultural Tourism Festival in Bentong, Malaysia.
In this AP photo taken on November 25, 2017, a cut Musang King durian is shown by a vendor during the International Durian Cultural Tourism Festival in Bentong, Malaysia.

A mall in an Indonesian town displayed some rare Durian fruits, which have the most powerful smell in the world and have a huge popularity in southeastern Asia. The special fruits are being sold for $1,000 apiece.

The German News Agency reported that the store located in Tasikmalaya, managed to sell two of this fruit known as "J Queen" from the first day, despite its high price -14 million rupees (over $1000) apiece - according to the Compas.com website.

The fruit price caused a significant debate in the town, where the minimum monthly wage is two million rupees (around $142).

The local media reported that some of the mall visitors came and took pictures with the singular fruit. A social media user said on Twitter: "I would rather buy a motorcycle. At least, I can use it for ten years."

Aka, discoverer of the royal type of the Durian fruit, said it has a very special peanut butter-like taste. It comes in a round form, unlike the regular Durian, which usually comes in an oval form.

Aka, 32, an Indonesian psychology graduate, explained that the "J-Queen" fruit has these unique characteristics because it is a hybrid of two good types of Durian in Indonesia.

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Muddy Footprints Suggest 2 Species of Early Humans Were Neighbors in Kenya 1.5 Million Years Ago

An aerial view shows a research team standing alongside the fossil footprint trackway at the excavation site on the eastern side of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya in 2022. AP
An aerial view shows a research team standing alongside the fossil footprint trackway at the excavation site on the eastern side of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya in 2022. AP
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Muddy Footprints Suggest 2 Species of Early Humans Were Neighbors in Kenya 1.5 Million Years Ago

An aerial view shows a research team standing alongside the fossil footprint trackway at the excavation site on the eastern side of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya in 2022. AP
An aerial view shows a research team standing alongside the fossil footprint trackway at the excavation site on the eastern side of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya in 2022. AP

Muddy footprints left on a Kenyan lakeside suggest two of our early human ancestors were nearby neighbors some 1.5 million years ago.
The footprints were left in the mud by two different species “within a matter of hours, or at most days,” said paleontologist Louise Leakey, co-author of the research published Thursday in the journal Science.
Scientists previously knew from fossil remains that these two extinct branches of the human evolutionary tree – called Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei – lived about the same time in the Turkana Basin.
But dating fossils is not exact. “It’s plus or minus a few thousand years,” said paleontologist William Harcourt-Smith of Lehman College and the American Museum of Natural History in New York, who was not involved in the study.
Yet with fossil footprints, “there’s an actual moment in time preserved,” he said. “It’s an amazing discovery.”
The tracks of fossil footprints were uncovered in 2021 in what is today Koobi Fora, Kenya, said Leaky, who is based at New York's Stony Brook University.
Whether the two individuals passed by the eastern side of Lake Turkana at the same time – or a day or two apart – they likely knew of each other’s existence, said study co-author Kevin Hatala, a paleoanthropologist at Chatham University in Pittsburgh.
“They probably saw each other, probably knew each other was there and probably influenced each other in some way,” The Associated Press quoted him as saying.
Scientists were able to distinguish between the two species because of the shape of the footprints, which holds clues to the anatomy of the foot and how it’s being used.
H. erectus appeared to be walking similar to how modern humans walk – striking the ground heel first, then rolling weight over the ball of the foot and toes and pushing off again.
The other species, which was also walking upright, was moving “in a different way from anything else we’ve seen before, anywhere else,” said co-author Erin Marie Williams-Hatala, a human evolutionary anatomist at Chatham.
Among other details, the footprints suggest more mobility in their big toe, compared to H. erectus or modern humans, said Hatala.
Our common primate ancestors probably had hands and feet adapted for grasping branches, but over time the feet of human ancestors evolved to enable walking upright, researchers say.
The new study adds to a growing body of research that implies this transformation to bipedalism – walking on two feet — didn’t happen at a single moment, in a single way.
Rather, there may have been a variety of ways that early humans learned to walk, run, stumble and slide on prehistoric muddy slopes.
“It turns out, there are different gait mechanics – different ways of being bipedal,” said Harcourt-Smith.