30-mln yr old fossilized mega-dung reveals secret ecology of lost world

October 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Almost 70 percent of female alligators chose to remain with their partner, often for many years, a new study has revealed. The 10-year-study was conducted by scientists from the Savannah River Ecology Lab (SREL) in North Carolina.

October 3rd, 2009 T. rex still looking for home after Vegas auctionLAS VEGAS — A fossilized Tyrannosaurus rex is still looking for a home after bidders failed to meet the minimum price Saturday at a Las Vegas auction. But auction house Bonhams & Butterfields is in negotiations with a number of institutions and individuals, and Tom Lindgren, the company's natural history director, said he's confident a sale will be completed in the next couple of weeks.

September 20th, 2009 LONDON - Scottish government has given a farmer 568,000-pound grant to convert porcine dung into electricity and cash. In the biggest project of its kind, financed under Rural Priorities grant scheme, East Lothian landowner Jamie Wyllie will build a 1.5 million-pound "anaerobic digester" which will turn pig slurry into power for his farm, with any surplus being sold to the national grid.

September 15th, 2009 LONDON - The first complete map of the lakes beneath Antarctica's ice sheets reveals the continent's secret water network is far more dynamic than we thought, and could be acting as a powerful lubricant beneath glaciers, contributing to sea level rise. According to a report in New Scientist, Ian Joughin at the University of Washington in Seattle and colleagues developed the map.

September 11th, 2009 Rare Badlands dino makes voyage to JapanBISMARCK, N.D. — Dakota the duckbilled dinosaur is a hit in Japan after making its biggest trip ever.

August 26th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of paleontologists and ornithologists led by Yale University has discovered evidence of vivid iridescent colors in feather fossils more than 40 million years old. The finding signifies the first evidence of a preserved color-producing nanostructure in a fossilized feather.

August 20th, 2009 Correction: CIA-Secret ProgramWASHINGTON — In an Aug. 19 story about a secret CIA program to kill al-Qaida suspects, The Associated Press reported erroneously that Anne Tyrrell is the spokeswoman for Xe Services, a private security company.

August 19th, 2009 LONDON - Dinosaur hunters have found the fossil of a 150 million-year-old squid during a dig in north Wiltshire in England, which was so well preserved they used its ink to paint a portrait of the ancient creature. According to a report in The Sun, paleontologists were stunned to find the soft tissue in the fossilized squid still remained, which beat billion to one odds.

August 5th, 2009 LONDON - Scientists have used 3D imaging that included thousands of X-ray scans to shed light on 300 million year old fossilized spider-like species. According to a report by BBC News, the two species, Cryptomartus hindi and Eophrynus prestvicii, are closely related to modern spiders.

July 31st, 2009 LONDON - Archaeologists have found historic treasures buried under Peterborough's Cathedral Square in England, which reveals the secret life of the city during medieval times. "We have found a whole manner of objects, from coins to really chunky old door keys," city museum archaeologist Ben Robinson told Peterborough ET newspaper.

July 3rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new study, scientists have suggested that the internal clock in plants can help make climate change scenarios and CO2 level figures more accurate. The study was done by an international team of researchers led by the University of Castilla-La-Mancha (UCLM) in Spain.

June 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In the world of yellow dung flies, the small guys can also get the girl, but only if they are hanging out on apple pomace instead of cow dung, reveals a new study. While the large, brawny males almost always have an upper hand in getting a mate, but this is the first time that alternative male reproductive strategies have been observed in this species.

June 15th, 2009 US reveals new pieces of Gitmo hearingsWASHINGTON — Accused al-Qaida mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed complained that interrogators tortured lies out of him, though he proudly took credit for more than two dozen other terror plots, according to sections of government transcripts released Monday. "I make up stories," Mohammed said at one point in his 2007 hearing at Guantanamo Bay.

May 29th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists at the University of Leeds in the UK have uncovered a previously unknown giant volcanic eruption that led to global mass extinction 260 million years ago. The eruption in the Emeishan province of south-west China unleashed around half a million cubic kilometers of lava, covering an area 5 times the size of Wales, and wiping out marine life around the world.

March 18th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists have found five specimens of 95 million year old fossils of Cretaceous octopuses, which reveals a much earlier origin for the modern octopus. The five specimens have been found by palaeontologists in Cretaceous rocks in Lebanon, which have astonishingly preserved the octopuses' eight arms with traces of muscles and those characteristic rows of suckers.