Earliest Swimming Turtle Fossils Found -- New Species

Fossils of the earliest known swimming turtles have been uncovered on an island in northwest Britain, scientists reported today.
The fossils of the previously unknown species suggest turtles first took to water during the Middle Jurassic period (180 to 160 million years ago).

Four crushed but intact skeletons had been found along with the remains of two other specimens, in a single slab of rock in 2004 on Scotland's Isle of Skye. Since then, researchers have painstakingly freed the fossils.
The fossils belonged to a pond turtle, Eileanchelys waldmani, which bridges the evolutionary gap between primitive land turtles and modern aquatic turtles.
(See photos of sea turtles.)
Turtles first appeared in the Triassic period some 210 million years ago. They were exclusively land creatures, said study team member Jérémy Anquetin, a French Ph.D. student at the Natural History Museum in London.
These earliest turtles were heavy, lumbering creatures armed with thick shells and protective spikes, he said.
But the new fossil turtle had a domed, tortoise-like shell measuring up to 11.8 inches (30 centimeters) long and it was much more delicately built.
"It's light framed, just like an aquatic turtle," Anquetin said.
"Until the discovery of Eileanchelys, we thought that adaptation to aquatic habitat might have appeared among primitive turtles, but we had no fossil evidence of that," he added.
"Now we know for sure that there were aquatic turtles around 164 million years ago," Anquetin said.

Shark "Virgin Birth" Confirmed

A female blacktip shark in Virginia fertilized her own egg without mating with a male shark, new DNA evidence shows.
This is the second time scientists have used DNA testing to verify shark parthenogenesis—the process that allows females of some species to produce offspring without sperm. (Read about the first time.)

The female shark, dubbed Tidbit, died during a routine physical exam before the pregnancy was identified.
A necropsy—an animal autopsy—after her death revealed she was carrying a near-term pup fetus that was about 12 inches (30 centimeters) in length.
Tidbit was caught in the wild when she was very young and reached sexual maturity in a tank at the Virginia Aquarium in Virginia Beach, where she lived for eight years.
"The interesting thing about that was there were no male blacktip sharks in the tank for the entire time of her captivity," said Demian Chapman, a researcher with the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook University in New York.
"So the question is, where does this baby come from?" he asked.
Chapman is the lead author of a study on the female blacktip in the latest issue of the Journal of Fish Biology.
DNA fingerprinting
Chapman and his colleagues generated a DNA fingerprint for the mother shark and her pup fetus with a procedure identical to a human paternity test.
Ordinarily, a shark's DNA contains some genetic material from its mother and some from its father. Tidbit's pup, however, was not ordinary.
"Every part of the fingerprint of the embryo comes from the mother," Chapman said. "In other words, there is no genetic material from a father."

Spiders, Urine Recycler Aboard for Space Shuttle Launch

The space shuttle Endeavor is set to launch this evening with an odd assortment of cargo—including live spiders, butterflies, and new technology to turn urine into drinking water.

The shuttle was cleared for a Friday launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida earlier this week, despite a 30 percent chance that a cold front could stir up rain and thick clouds.
Besides seven astronauts, Endeavor's cargo includes two new sleeping chambers, a second toilet, and a water-purification system, all of which will let NASA double the occupancy of the International Space Station to six.
The new mission is the 124th space shuttle flight and the 27th to the International Space Station. The seven-member crew will spend 15 days performing basic maintenance on the station before returning to Earth.

Breaking News: Dark Matter Proof Found Over Antarctica?

High-energy electrons captured over Antarctica could reveal the presence of a nearby but mysterious astrophysical object that's bombarding Earth with cosmic rays, researchers say.

Or the electrons may be the long-awaited physical evidence of elusive dark matter

Either way, the unusual particles are exciting for astrophysicists, who say they could someday confirm or deny decades of unproven theories.

Mammoth Genome Decoded -- Clones on the Way?

Using hairs from woolly mammoths, scientists have sequenced an extensive genome of these elephant cousins, a new report says.
The development brings researchers a step closer to "resurrecting" the extinct species via cloning, though so many technical obstacles stand in the way that some experts doubt it could ever happen.

A Gremlin , After 85 Years, First Gremlin Found Alive

Everyone should know about Gremlins. They are those little furry creatures that if you get them wet, they multiply and if you feed them after midnight, they turn pretty evil.

Well I cannot say for sure that the food and water part are real, but apparently a Gremlin, mouse-sized primate called a Pygmy Tarsier, has been found alive for the first time in 85 years.

Hiding in the mountaintops of a cloud forest in Indonesia, these little Gremlins weigh about 2 ounces, have large eyes, claws instead of fingernails, and are covered in fur to keep warm in the damn and cool environment.

Last seen in 1921, the Gremlins were thought to be extinct until this recent discovery.
We only hope the Indonesians will keep them out of the sun, dry, and avoid feeding them after midnight.

Rainbow Movie Downloads

The film Rainbow is quite different from the run of the mill love and youth stories and the director and producer of the film, VN Adithya must be appreciated for daring to make something different. But the film does not manage to create a great impression partly due to the below par performances by the lead actors.

Story: Shyam (Rahul) is an orphan. He lives in a rented house. The house belongs to Gollpaudi Maruthi Rao. Paruchuri is his son-in-law. Parachuri has a daughter Kamala (Sindhu Menon). Kamala is good looking girl but unfortunately she is both deaf and dumb. She is working as an artist with a paints company. Swapna (Sonal Chouhan) is the daughter of a stage artist. He had dream of becoming a film actor but could not succeed. So Swapna now wants to fulfill her dad’s wish by becoming a big film actor. Swapna meets Shyam and he in turn decides to help Swapna fulfill her dream. Shyam helps Swapna to get her portfolio prepared by his friend Sunil, who is a photographer. He also enrolls Swapna in an acting school run by Shiva Reddy. Shyam meets with a major accident and the injury on his head makes him colour blind. While the colour in the life of Shyam has gone out, Swapna manages to make a big impression in Tollywood and she becomes a successful heroine. The rest of the story is what happens to Shyam’s love for Swapna and what happens to Swapna’s dream of making it big as an actress