No blood relation

SPECULATION as to whether the modern human race has any blood link with the Neanderthals may now be put to rest. There is none. Possibility of the Neanderthals - people who inhabited Europe more than 28,000 years ago - having mingled with the human race as we know it now through interbreeding have been further negated by the revelations made by latest scientific research.

INDIA

In a novel scheme to keep Delhi roads free of litter, the municipal corporation has decided to levy a penalty of Rs 50 on those found spitting, dumping vegetable, groundnut skins and cigarette buds in public places. Over four tonnes of fish died in the Railadevi Lake in Thane, Mumbai, due to asphyxiation after water was drained out to facilitate an ongoing beautification drive.

Dinosaur-bird a hoax

The National Geographic magazine suddenly finds itself in an embarrassing situation with the discovery that the "missing-link" dinosaur-bird featured by it in November is a fake. The fossil is two animals put together either mistakenly by its discoverers in China or as an artful forgery. Archaeoraptor, on display at the National Geographic Society in Washington until recently, has a birdlike upper torso and the tail and feet of a small raptor. The magazine said it was a "true missing-link that connects dinosaurs and birds."

The largest dino

a team of palaeontologists in southern Patagonia, usa , has discovered the fossils of the largest dinosaur ever found. Measuring 48-51 metres (m) in length, the herbivore, which lived during the Cretaceous period about 105 million years ago, is around 8 m longer than Seismosaurus, till recently the largest dinosaur. Palaeontologist and director of Florentino Ameghino Museum in north Rio Negro, Carlos Munoz said: "We're ecstatic about this spectacular find." The dinosaur had a small head, long neck and an exceptionally long tail.

Out of Africa?

Many anthropologists believe that our direct ancestors, Homo sapiens , originated in Africa and left the continent about 100,000 years ago. This is popularly known as the "Out of Africa" theory. Others, however, say that H sapiens evolved independently in separate locations. A new analysis of an ancient Australian skeleton tilts the balance against the Out of Africa point of view. Discovered in 1974 in a dry lake in New South Wales, the skeleton was originally thought to be about 40,000 years old.

Fossils found

it was during a geological field study in February that K Satyanarayana of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Regional Geology Laboratory came upon the fossils of a dinosaur in the Kuar Bet island in Kutch, the west coast of India, which is controlled by the Indian Army. It was found in the house of brigadier Ashok Duggan.

The CO₂ factor

Up in smoke

the history of Australia is closely linked to the fires that have engulfed the continent for centuries. Captain James Cook who reached the Australian shores in 1770 described it as a "continent of smoke". Some describe it as a land shaped by smoke ( New Scientist , Vol 162, No 2184).

Fresh evidence

a fresh analysis of the skeletal remains found at Lake Mungo in New South Wales, Australia, 25 years ago indicate they may be up to 68,000 years old -- 28,000 years older than earlier scientific estimates. The revised dating of the remains by scientists at the Australian National University rewrites the history of Australia's occupation and has profound implications for worldwide debate over the origins of modern man.

The missing link

scientists working in a remote part of Ethiopia have unearthed the remains of a new species of an ape-like animal that lived around 2.5 million years ago, and some stone tools. They say the tools were possibly used by the first human ancestor to prepare meat , a dramatic evidence of butchery being one of the oldest professions.