Nick Redfern on alien big cats

Worlds largest ever snake discovered

A new species of prehistoric giant boa constrictor, the "Titanoboa", has been discovered. This behemoth of the reptile world lived several million years ago, weighed as much as a car and was as long as a school bus, putting even the most terrifying of Hollywood"s giant movie snakes to shame."The largest snake the world has ever known — as long as a school bus and as heavy as a small car — ruled tropical ecosystems only 6 m...

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Fish with human teeth bit angler

An angler in the US had quite a shock when a fish he"d caught bit him with distinctly human-like teeth.Samples from the mysterious fish have been sent away for analysis to determine its species, in the meantime the specimen has been placed on ice however nobody is in a rush tocook and eat it. Anangler had a shock in the US - when a mystery fish bit him back with distinctly human-looking teeth. . Frank Yarborough was fishing in Lake Wylie, South Carolina, when he hooked the fish which w...

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Insect size limited by oxygen

Bugs were a lot bigger more than 250 million years ago -- millipedes longer than a human leg, dragonflies with wing spans like hawks -- and now a question that has long puzzled scientists has been explained. The reason there are no humongous insects now is because of a bottleneck that occurs in insects' air pipes as they grow larger. They were able to surmount the problem in the Paleozoic Era thanks to a high-oxygen atmosphere.Insects aren't like animals with backbones and deliver oxygen...

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Truth found in tales of monster fish

Anglers all have tales about the one that got away, the fish of legendary size that stripped the line from the reel. A new study suggests why that there might indeed be giants and offers an explanation for how they grow so huge. Turns out fishermen themselves can be responsible for the monsters. If a lake or pond is overfished, and a lot of the big ones are caught, the situation is ripe for oversized freaks to develop, according to a new computer model. The research suggests that harvesting only...

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New frog species found in Thailand

Submitted by Pendekar Timur: A new species of mountain frog that changes colour in response to its surroundings has been discovered in northeast Thailand, a biologist said Wednesday. The Odorrana aureola, known locally as the Phu Luang Cliff frog after the national park where it was found, can grow to 80 millimeters (3.5 inches) and has a green body which occasionally turns brown, researchers said."It reflects its surrounds," said Tanya Chan-ard, curator of Bangkok'sNational Scienc...

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10ft shark mauled by 20ft behemoth

Officials in Queensland have alerted swimmers to keep out of the water after a giant shark was found almost bitten in two by what is estimated to be a 20ft monster great white almost as large as the shark from the movie Jaws."A "monster"great white shark measuring up to 20 ft long is on the prowl off apopular Queensland beach, according to officials. . Swimmers were warned to stay out of the water off Stradbroke Island after th...

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Do animals have emotions ?

In his latest book, Pleasurable Kingdom, ethologist Jonathan Balcombe tells a nice story of two fish crows he observed on Assateague Island off the coast of Virginia. "They first engaged in flight play then, over the next 10 minutes, one bird (always the same one) repeatedly sidled up to the other, leaned over and pointed his/her beak down, exposing the nape. The other bird responded by gently sweeping his/her bill through the feathers as though searching for parasites. There was every indi...

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Heads spinning over 200-yard spider web

If you hate creepy-crawlies, you might want to avoid Lake Tawakoni State Park, where a 200-yard stretch along a nature trail has been blanketed by a sprawling spider web that has engulfed seven large trees, dozens of bushes and the weedy ground. If you hate mosquitoes, you might just love this bizarre web."At first, it was so white it looked like fairyland," said Donna Garde, superintendent at the park about 45 miles east of Dallas. "Now it's filled with so many mosquitoes tha...

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Group finds dog-sized gigantic toad

Submitted by Pendekar Timur: An environmental group said Tuesday it had captured a "monster" toad the size of a small dog. With a body the size of a football and weighing nearly 2 pounds, the toad is among the largest specimens ever captured in Australia, according to Frogwatch coordinator Graeme Sawyer."It's huge, to put it mildly," he said. "The biggest toads are usually females but this one wasa rampant male ... I would hate to meet his big sister." Frogwatch...

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Life confusing for two-headed snakes

Submitted by Pendekar Timur: The two-headed monsters of myth may have a basis in reality. Two-headed snakes are rare but not unheard of, and one recently found in Spain is giving scientists an opportunity to study how the anomaly affects their ability to hunt and mate. "We hear of one every several years," said Gordon Burghardt, a herpetologist at the University of Tennessee who has studied several two-headed snakes. The snake in Spain, discovered near the village of Pinoso, is a two-m...

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