Fossil of rodent that weighed as much as a one-tonne truck discovered

US researchers have discovered a fossil of a rodent in South America, which might be the largest rodent known to have existed.

In a boulder on the southern coast of Uruguay, the 53 centimetre-long skull of the new species, Josephoartigasia monesi, was discovered.

The researchers, based on the age of the rock, estimated that the skull is between two and four million years old.

"This is a remarkable finding because of the size of the animal and the fortunate completeness of the skull," Nature quoted evolutionary biologist Ines Horovitz of the University of California, Los Angeles, as saying. The scientists couldn't access other skeletal measures, such as the length of the limb bones that are traditionally used to estimate the size of an animal, because they found only the skull of the rodent.

However, the research team developed an equation relating skull length to body mass using information from 13 of J. monesi 's closest living relatives.

The calculation gave an estimate of 1,008 kilograms. Adding information from 6 other measures of skull size gave an estimate of 1,211 kilograms, with a likely range of 468 to 2,586 kilograms.

The relatively small grinding teeth in the skull suggested that J. monesi was a member of the Dinomyidae family, which contains just one living example, the pakarana. This rodent lives in South America and weighs roughly 15 kilograms.

The resemblance in molars and premolars suggest the bull-sized J. monesi had a relatively weak jaw and lived on roughly the same diet as its modern-day cousin: soft vegetation and fruit.

Dog digs up dead best friend

Oscar was so distraught after his best friend died that he dug him up and put him in his bed.

Oscar, an 18-month-old Lancashire heeler, missed Arthur, the family cat, so much after he died that the dog dug him up and brought him back into the house, according to the UK Web site TimesOnline.



When Oscar’s owner, Robert Bell of Great Manchester woke up the next morning, he discovered the dog curled up beside Arthur’s body in his basket.

The two pets had been constant companions, and Arthur watched over Oscar, Bell said. When Arthur died, Oscar was there as Bell buried his buddy in the garden.

During the middle of the night, Oscar had managed to get out of the cat door, dig up the cat and drag him inside. The dog then licked the cat clean before falling asleep next to his body.

“It must have taken him nearly all night,” Bell said about Oscar.

Arthur is now reburied in a secure grave, and the Bell’s have found Oscar a new friend … a kitten.

A good reason not to bury man's best friend (or its best friend) in your back yard!

Aussie teen blames pot for animal thefts

Darwin, (Australia), January 9: An Australian teenager blamed the influence of marijuana for his decision to steal two crocodiles and a monkey, local media reported Wednesday.

Benjamin Glen Watts, 19, pleaded guilty in court Tuesday to twice breaking into a wildlife park on the outskirts of the tropical city of Darwin last July, Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio reported on its Web site.

Watts said he planned to sell the stolen baby crocodiles and the marmoset but had been unable to find buyers, ABC reported.

Crocodylus Park spokesman Grahame Webb said Wednesday the animals were returned unharmed.

Watts' lawyer told the court his client admitted it was a 'dumb stoner' thing to do and had written to Crocodylus Park to apologise.

Magistrate Greg Cavanagh sentenced Watts to a three-month suspended jail sentence. Watts has been counseled for his marijuana use since the thefts.

A court official was not immediately available for comment.

Monkeys 'Pay' for Sex by Grooming

SINGAPORE (Jan. 6) - Male macaque monkeys pay for sex by grooming females, according to a recent study that suggests the primates may treat sex as a commodity.

"In primate societies, grooming is the underlying fabric of it all," Dr. Michael Gumert, a primatologist at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said in a telephone interview Saturday.

Japanese Macaque monkeys groom each other at Jigokudani Wild Monkey Park in Yamanouchi, Japan.

"It's a sign of friendship and family, and it's also something that can be exchanged for sexual services," Gumert said.

Gumert's findings, reported in New Scientist last week, resulted from a 20-month observation of about 50 long-tailed macaques in a reserve in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Gumert found after a male grooms a female, the likelihood that she will engage in sexual activity with the male was about three times more than if the grooming had not occurred.

And as with other commodities, the value of sex is affected by supply and demand factors: A male would spend more time grooming a female if there were fewer females in the vicinity.

"And when the female supply is higher, the male spends less time on grooming ... The mating actually becomes cheaper depending on the market," Gumert said.

Other experts not involved in the study welcomed Gumert's research, saying it was a major effort in systematically studying the interaction of organisms in ways in which an exchange of commodities or services can be observed - a theory known as biological markets.

Dr. Peter Hammerstein, a professor at the Institute for Theoretical Biology at Humboldt University in Berlin and Dr. Ronald Noe, a primatologist at the University of Louis-Pasteur in Strasbourg, France, first proposed the concept of biological markets in 1994.

"It is not a rare phenomenon in nature that males have to make some 'mating effort' in order to get a female's 'permission' to mate," Hammerstein said in an interview, likening the effort to a "fee" that the male pays.

"The interesting result of Dr. Gumert's research on macaque mating is that the mating market seems to have an influence on the amount of this fee," Hammerstein said.

Hammserstein said Gumert's findings indicate the monkeys are capable of adjusting their behavior to "different market conditions."

Gumert completed his fieldwork in February 2005 and first published his findings in the November issue of "Animal Behaviour," a scientific monthly journal.

Clever parrot with a painter elephant

A particular parrot and an elephant might look like the rest of their species, but according to their owners the two are the most talented animals on Earth.

'Griffin', the parrot is as clever as a three-year-old child, and 'Hong', the elephant is a fantastic painter.

The parrot can easily understand abstract concepts such as time, place and matter. And the elephant is so good at his painting skills, that he once fooled a roomful of art experts into thinking that his daubs were produced by a human.

The duo are featured in a Five documentary series called 'Extraordinary Animals'. In the first programme Hong, a Thai elephant who creates paintings for tourists is looked at.

Alex Menamid, the caretaker of Hong, said that his paintings have a quality of line and an elegance that is very touching. "His paintings in particular have a quality of line and an elegance that is very touching," The Sun quoted Menamid, as talking about Hong.

Meanwhile, the parrot also impresses the audience with his brilliance in the documentary series. In one of the shows, the African Grey counts the number of times trainer doctor clicks her fingers and answering questions about the size and shape of objects.

Even when the order of questions is varied, Griffin gets the answers right, proving he understands what he is being asked.

Tiger Escapes Zoo Cage, Kills Visitor

SAN FRANCISCO (Dec. 26) -- Investigators trying to determine how a tiger escaped its zoo enclosure on Christmas Day -- killing one man and mauling two others -- plan a thorough sweep of the zoo grounds Wednesday to look for clues.

Authorities do not believe more people were attacked, but they want to inspect the area in the daylight. Zoo officials are still uncertain how long the tiger, which last year badly mauled a zookeeper, was loose before being shot dead.

Tatiana, a female Siberian tiger, was killed Tuesday after she escaped from her cage at the San Francisco Zoo and mauled three people, killing one. Officials are trying to figure out how the animal got free.

The three men who were attacked Tuesday while visiting the zoo were in their 20s, police spokesman Steve Mannina said. The attack occurred just after the 5 p.m. closing time, on the east end of the 125-acre grounds.

They suffered "pretty aggressive bite marks," Mannina said.

The two injured men were listed in critical but stable condition at San Francisco General Hospital. John Brown, an emergency room physician, told the San Francisco Chronicle that they suffered deep bites and claw cuts to their heads and upper bodies.

The Siberian tiger, named Tatiana, was the same giant cat that attacked a zookeeper just about a year ago during a public feeding, said Robert Jenkins, the zoo 's director of animal care and conservation.

The approximately 300-pound female did not leave through an open door, Jenkins said. But he could not explain how it escaped -- the tiger's enclosure is surrounded by a 15-foot-wide moat and 20-foot-high walls.

"There was no way out through the door," Jenkins said. "The animal appears to have climbed or otherwise leapt out of the enclosure."

The first attack happened right outside the Siberian's enclosure _ the victim died at the scene. A group of four responding officers came across his body when they made their way into the dark zoo grounds, Mannina said.

Then they saw the second victim. He was about 300 yards away, in front of the Terrace Cafe.

The man was sitting on the ground, blood running from gashes in his head. Tatiana sat next to him. Suddenly, the cat attacked the man again, Mannina said.

The officers started approaching the tiger, bearing their handguns. Tatiana started moving in their direction. Several of the officers then fired, killing the animal.

Only then did they see the third victim, who had also been mauled.

The zoo is open 365 days a year. Although no new visitors were let in after 5 p.m., the grounds were not scheduled to close until an hour later, and there were between 20 and 25 people still on site when the attacks happened, zoo officials said. Employees and visitors were told to take shelter when zoo officials learned of the attacks.

"This is a tragic event for San Francisco," Fire Department spokesman Lt. Ken Smith said. "We pride ourselves in our zoo , and we pride ourselves in tourists coming and looking at our city."

There are five tigers at the zoo _ three Sumatrans and two Siberians. Officials initially worried that four tigers had escaped, but soon learned only one had escaped its pen, Mannina said.

On Dec. 22, 2006, Tatiana reached through the cage's iron bars and attacked a keeper with her claws and teeth, causing deep lacerations to the worker's arms. The zoo 's Lion House was temporarily closed during an investigation.

California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health blamed the zoo for the assault and imposed a $18,000 penalty. A medical claim filed against the city by the keeper was denied.

Mayor Gavin Newsom said in a statement he was deeply saddened by the latest attack and that a thorough investigation was under way.

After last year's attack, the zoo added customized steel mesh over the bars, built in a feeding shoot and increased the distance between the public and the cats.

Tatiana arrived at the San Francisco Zoo from the Denver Zoo a few years ago, with zoo officials hoping she would mate with a male tiger. Siberian tigers are classified as endangered and there are more than 600 of the animals living in captivity worldwide.

The zoo will be closed Wednesday.

Monkeys and college students as good at mental math

Monkeys performed about as well as college students at mental addition, U.S. researchers said on Monday in a finding that suggests nonverbal math skills are not unique to humans.


The research from Duke University follows the finding by Japanese researchers earlier this month that young chimpanzees performed better than human adults at a memory game.

Prior studies have found non-human primates can match numbers of objects, compare numbers and choose the larger number of two sets of objects.

"This is the first study that looked at whether or not they could make explicit decisions that were based on mathematical types of calculations," said Jessica Cantlon, a cognitive neuroscience researcher at Duke, whose work appeared in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Biology (www.plosbiology.org).

"It shows when you take language away from a human, they end up looking just like monkeys in terms of their performance," Cantlon said in a telephone interview.

Her study pitted the monkey math team of Boxer and Feinstein -- two female macaque monkeys named for U.S. senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein of California -- with 14 Duke University students.

"We had them do math on the fly," Cantlon said.

The task was to mentally add two sets of dots that were briefly flashed on a computer screen. The teams were asked to pick the correct answer from two choices on a different screen.

The humans were not allowed to count or verbalize as they worked, and they were told to answer as quickly as possible. Both monkeys and humans typically answered within 1 second.

And both groups fared about the same.

Cantlon said the study was not designed to show up Duke University students. "I think of this more as using non-human primates as a tool for discovering where the sophisticated human mind comes from," she said.

The researchers said the findings shed light on the shared mathematical abilities in humans and non-human primates and shows the importance of language -- which allows for counting and more advanced calculations -- in the evolution of math in humans.

"I don't think language is the only thing that differentiates humans from non-human primates, but in terms of math tasks, it is probably the big one," she said.

As for the teams, both were paid. Boxer and Feinstein got their favorite reward: a sip of Kool-Aid soft drink. As for the students, they got $10 each -- enough for a beer or two.

Japanese Scientists Develop Fearless Mice

By manipulating the genes in the nasal cells of mice, scientists at Tokyo University engineered rodents that displayed no fear responses when confronted by cats.


Cat and mouse may never be the same. Japanese scientists say they've used genetic engineering to create mice that show no fear of felines, a development that may shed new light on mammal behavior and the nature of fear itself.

Scientists at Tokyo University say they were able to successfully switch off a mouse's instinct to cower at the smell or presence of cats - showing that fear is genetically hardwired and not learned through experience, as commonly believed.


Mice are naturally terrified of cats, and usually panic or flee at the smell of one. But mice with certain nasal cells removed through genetic engineering didn't display any fear," said research team leader Ko Kobayakawa.

In his experiment, the genetically altered mice approached cats, even snuggled up to them and played with them. Kobayakawa said he chose domesticated cats that were docile and thus less likely to pounce.

Kobayakawa said his findings, published in the science magazine Nature last month, should help researchers shed further light on how the brain processes information about the outside world.

Kim Dae-soo, a neural genetics professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Seoul, who was not involved in the research, said Kobayakawa's research could explain further what fear is, and how to control it.

"People have thought mice are fearful of cats because cats prey on them, but that's not the case," Kim said.

"If we follow the pathway of related signals in the brain, I think we could discover what kind of networks in the brain are important for controlling fear."

Christmas gift for the elephants $20,000 footwear

Two elephants at Singapore's Night Safari are celebrating the holidays in giant, custom-made boots designed to ease pain from their wounded feet, the facility said Thursday.

The pachyderms, Tun, 20, and Jamilah, 30, are now walking in boots from Gore-tex, known for its tough outdoor apparel.

WL Gore and Associates, the brand's maker, made the $20,000 footwear as a Christmas gift for the elephants on learning of their plight.

Zoo veterinarian Sonja Luz, 35, said she was inspired by her Gore-tex jacket and wrote to the company for help.

Tun's right front leg is stiffer and longer than her left after she was injured in 2003 during a mating attempt, Luz said. The extra pressure on her shorter front left leg created lesions on the sole.

Jamilah has pressure sores on her front feet from walking.

A beauty pageant for camels

London, December 9 : Beauty pageants are not just for pretty women, for the latest to join the beauty race are camels!

Mazayen al-Ibl competition is a contest held in the desert region of Um Rgheiba 400km (248 miles) from Riyadh, where camel owners gather to find the "most beautiful camels."

And the main indicator of a truly beautiful camel is its nose - a long and drooping nose in considered more attractive.

"The nose should be long and droop down, that's more beautiful. The ears should stand back, and the neck should be long. The hump should be high, but slightly to the back," Times Online quoted Sultan al-Qahtani, who organised the event in Rgheiba on Dec 8, as saying.

"In Lebanon they have Miss Lebanon. Here we have Miss Camel," Walid, moderator of the competition's website, said.

The camel remains a celebrated figure of the traditional nomadic lifestyle of Beduin Arabs of Saudi Arabia. (ANI)

4 tips to stop a dog's obsessive barking

Curb Out-of-Control Barking

A common problem canine caretakers face is uncontrollable or obsessive barking. Here are a few suggestions for handling it.

Follow through. If you give your dog a look, a sound, or a physical correction to tell him to stop his barking, he might stop for an instant, wait until you relax ... then go right back to barking. The dog's body relaxes, but his brain stays on alert! So be patient. Wait until your dog gives you complete and total submission before you go back to what you were doing.

Calm down. Many people get so irritated with the constant barking that their own frustration level rises. While this is understandable, you can't expect your dog to follow you. Animals simply don't follow anxious, angry, or frustrated leaders. Instead your dog will mirror your energy. If you're frustrated, then he's frustrated, and when he's frustrated, it makes sense for him to bark. To effectively correct your dog, you need to control your own frustration first.

Make your claim. If your dog is barking repeatedly in the presence of a specific stimulus, it's important to let the dog know that you "own" that object, person, situation, or place. Use your calm-assertive energy to make your claim.

Exercise your dog! Often dogs develop problem barking as a result of pent-up energy. So make sure your dog has the right amount of exercise for his energy level. Your dog should be relaxed, calm, and submissive before you put him in a situation that's likely to trigger barking.

PETA boycotting Mars candy co. over animal cruelty

Washington, December 8: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is calling for a boycott of M&Ms, Twix candy bars and other snack foods made by Mars Inc, claiming the company funds experiments that kill mice, rats, guinea pigs and rabbits.

"In violation of its own written policy, the candy company is currently funding a study at the University of California, San Francisco, that uses rats. The rats are force fed by having plastic tubes shoved down their throats, and they are then cut open and killed," PETA said in a statement.

"In response to this new information, PETA is filing a legal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over Mars' false statement," the group said in a statement. The FTC investigates claims of dishonesty in advertising.

Mars spokeswoman Alice Nathanson said regarding the University of California experiment: "I can't speak to any information that PETA may or may not have. I can't speak to any experiments."

But, she said that the privately held company "would never issue or post a statement that we were not 100 percent confident in."

PETA spokeswoman Kathy Guillermo said in an interview the experiments seemed aimed at developing health claims for chocolate because it contains flavonoids.

Health studies have found that flavonoids protect against heart disease and cancer.

Guillermo said the boycott would start on Monday.

Mars says on its Web site that it bars animal research "involving euthanasia, vivisection or the suffering of any animal" in developing its snacks, drinks and pet products.

But the Web site also says that a separate business unit, Symbioscience, would undertake "limited forms of animal testing" when required to demonstrate the safety or efficacy of "pharmaceutical and therapeutic food products."

PETA said in its statement that Mars paid for experiments in which mice had to swim in a pool of water and paint and find a hidden platform to avoid drowning and were killed later.

The group also accused Mars of funding an experiment in which plastic tubes were surgically attached to guinea pigs' carotid arteries and cocoa ingredients were injected into their jugular veins to cause a sharp drop in blood pressure, and another experiment in which rabbits were fed high-cholesterol diets with varying amounts of cocoa and later the main blood vessels to their hearts were cut out and examined.

The University of California, San Francisco, confirmed in a statement that it was conducting a Mars-funded study of the potential health benefits of cocoa flavanols involving testing on rats.

"UCSF takes seriously the responsibility of working with animals and is committed to maintaining the highest standard of humane treatment in animal care and use," Clifford Roberts, interim associate vice chancellor for research said in the statement.

Dog wins freedom in Japan after saving woman

TOKYO, December 7 (Reuters) : A dog won his freedom from the pound, and probable death, after saving an elderly woman who got lost and nearly froze to death in Japan, police said.

A 73-year-old woman suffering from dementia disappeared from her home near Tokyo on Wednesday, one of the coldest days so far this winter, and was found a day later hugging the dog in a park 5 km (3 miles) away.

"The dog was nestling up to the grandmother. No one doubted that he is her dog," Mitsuo Nakagawa, vice chief of Hitachinakanishi Police Station, told Reuters.

It was only later the police found it was not the woman's pet.

Instead of impounding the dog, and putting it at risk of being gassed like hundreds of thousands of strays each year, the police took it back to the park and let it go.

Dolphins too use 'flowers' to woo their females

London, December 6 : Men use flowers, chocolates and gifts to woo women. However, impressing females comes a lot cheaper to dolphins as just a bunch of weeds can cut the ice for them.

A new study has revealed that male bottlenose dolphins impress females by carrying pieces of plants and twigs defying earlier beliefs that it is their playful behaviour that does the trick for them.

It is quite rare in the animal kingdom that animals indulge in sexual display through object-carrying, with only humans and chimpanzees doing anything similar.

However, the habit has been observed in isolated populations of dolphins in river dolphins in Brazil, Venezuela and Bolivia suggests it has either been passed on through generations or evolved separately in different groups.

This discovery could provide proof of the existence of dolphin culture that is defined as a non-hereditary, complex skill taught to some members of a population by others and passed down through generations.

Until recently, culture was seen as a defining human characteristic not shared by other species. This is why the suggestion that dolphins also exhibit cultural behaviours is controversial.

Dr Tony Martin of the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, and Dr Vera da Silva, from the National Institute of Amazonian Research in Brazil studied 6,026 groups of dolphins in Mamiraua, a flooded rainforest reserve in Brazil.

Out of these 221 groups, at least one individual was carrying an object such as weed, a stick or a lump of clay.

Such groups usually contained adult females, and the carriers were nearly always adult males. Aggression between males was also 40 times more likely in the object-carrying groups.

The scientists said that if the object-carrying was just playfulness, females and juveniles would also have been expected to carry objects, however they did not.

DNA analysis of tissue samples collected from adults and calves was also carried out, which backed up their theory.

"I was struck by how many of the most frequent object-carriers were on the list of probable fathers of individual calves," Telegraph quoted Dr. Martin, as saying.

He added: "It's so unusual that many of my colleagues were sceptical when I first suggested the idea, but now I think the evidence is overwhelming."

Bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, western Australia, break off pieces of marine sponge carrying them on their snouts in order to protect themselves as they probe the ocean floor.

It is the only known example of tool use among dolphins, and the scientists who made the discovery also concluded this was evidence of cultural behaviour.

"I'm now convinced this behaviour is social learning - and from that point of view, you can call it a culture," said Dr Michael Krutzen, from the University of Zurich in Switzerland.

The findings of the study will be presented at a conference organised by the Society for Marine Mammalogy in Cape Town, South Africa. (ANI)