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Most of us know that platypuses are unique because they are mammals (echidnas also lay eggs) but they also lay eggs. They live only in the Australian continent. However, even if you leave that, they still can be fascinating because of certain facts about their ways.

Read on to know more about them:

• When it was first discovered many scientists that the discovery was some kind of a hoax
  The animal is a combination of a duck (webbed feet and bill), an otter (fur and body) and a beaver (its tail).
• Male platypuses are poisonous. With their sharp spikes on the heels of their rear feet they can give quite a toxic blow to their enemies.
• Platypuses hunt for their food under water. They have skin folds that provide protection to their eyes and ears from water. They swim a beaver.
• A platypus can stay under water without breathing for a couple of minutes.
• A platypus can sense food with its bill. They love to eat larvae, insects, shellfish and worms.
• Platypuses do not have teeth. They take in gravel with their food which helps them to chew. They have cheek pouches for this purpose.
• They lay eggs which hatch within ten days. Platypus kids are as small as lima beans. Mother platypuses take care of them for four months (which is quite long for animals) till they can swim on their own.
• In spite of their webbed feet they can run pretty well on the land.

Brazilian Amazon is found to be place of towns, villages and cities that were densely packed and well organized. The vast areas of rain forest lands happen to be well- established landscape before the settling of European colonists. These findings were highlighted in a study, the co-author of it being Michael Heckenberger, anthropologist, University of Florida, Gainesville.

These findings by Heckenberger and his colleagues from the US and Brazil were reported in the journal Science.

Heckenberger said that the settlements of Brazilian Amazon were on par with medieval towns of Europe. The findings support the controversial theory that Amazon River  Basin was fully occupied by societies that become non-existent due to diseases by the time Europeans colonist arrived on the scene during the 15th as well as the 16th centuries. It was further observed that the present day isolated tribes were the last survivors of those Amazon Societies.

The cluster of the Amazon Basin towns and villages consisted of a seat of power that was ritualistic. It had wide roads extending to other communities. The cities were organized around a central plaza. They were linked to other cities via well constructed roads. A major road, which is aligned with summer solstice, intersects every central plaza. The towns were walled like medieval town. Between the settlements one came across agriculture fields. The structure of these settlements is well organized political entities and indicates regional planning.

Pictures released by the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) owned by the Brazilian government, reveals that a lost Brazilian tribe point their bows and arrows at an aircraft carrying photographers. It is reported that the tribesmen never exposed themselves to the outside world ever before.

Jose Carlos dos Reis Mereilles, head of FUNAI’s environmental protection which is responsible for the pictures, claimed that they were aware of the existence of the tribe in thick rainforest regions lying next to the Peruvian border since years now and that many pictures of their presence were captured on their earlier trips as well but not revealed to the public eye for scrutiny.

Jose revealed to the Brazilian newspapers that this time they revealed the sought pictures to the public in order to prove that the there were Indian people living in isolation for years around the Peruvian border. He also brought to attention the need to address the reasons why the tribe has been lying so mum in revealing their survival and presence in the region. It is also possible, he said that the tribe feared that their life would be infringed upon by intruders or meddlers from the Peruvian side.

The pictures were clicked from several FUNAI planes of the assumed inactive thatched roof village lying in a remote Brazilian state called Acre.

The Survival International, a British group which supports indigenous communities all around the globe has revealed in its website that the illegal logging (deforestation or felling of trees), farming and rising development in Peru is posing a threat to the life and existence of the newly found tribe in Brazil. Their existence could be further jeopardized by forcing other dislocated Peruvian tribes to come in contact with the newly found tribe.

Reports revealed that there were as many as 500 Indians living absolutely maroon lives on the Brazilian border.

Stephen Corry, director of Survival International asserted the need for the world to wake up to the existence of this tribe and to sort of assimilate them into the world community for survival. He expressed his concern for the need of acknowledging their fears and territories or else in no time would these tribes be made extinct.

Stephen also revealed that there were as many as 100 tribes around the globe who are living completely isolated lives even today.

Egypt mainly known for its giant monuments like Cheops and Sphinx is once again in news. According to the latest news the walls of these monuments contains millions of marine fossils. These marine fossils are entirely intact and preserved in the walls.

The study was conducted by Ioannis Liritzis et.al, from the University of Aegean and University of Athens. Researchers suggest that the monuments are made from stones carved out of natural stone. According to Ioannis Liritzis et.al “The observed random emplacement and strictly homogenous distribution of the fossil shells within the whole rock is in harmony with their initial in situ setting in a fluidal sea bottom environment.”

Researches chiseled out small samples from the Sphinx Temple, Cheops, the Valley Temple, the Osirion Shaft, Khefren, the Temple of Seti I at Abydos, Osirion at Abydos and Qasr el-Sagha at Fayum. These samples were taken for mineralogy analysis and chemical composition and structure.

With the help of radioactivity measurements and X-ray diffraction researchers were able to find the composition of the samples. The result of these analysis showed that the primary building material consists of white and black granite, pinky granite sandstones and different types of limestone. Limestone mainly contained number of nummulites gen shell fossils. Journal of Cultural Heritage have accepted to publish these findings.

Giving example of Cheops, researchers told that 40% of the whole building stone rock was constituted by the shell fossils of nummulites gen. Nummulites were very simple marine organisms with the literal meaning “little coins”. These shells lived around 55.8 to 33.9 million years ago in Eocene period and are commonly found in limestone of Egypt.

The main argument presented by Ioannis and team is that the stones used for the construction of the monuments instead of cast in molds they are carved out of the natural stone. And the reason behind this argument is the undamaged and random distribution of shell fossils within the stone. Secondly X-ray pattern shows absences of lime, which is ought to be present in case of cast stones. They also pointed out that in ancient Egyptian paintings, text or sculptures there is no references of casting tools like buckets or molds.

Scientists have been grappling with the controversies that surround the birth of the Grand Canyon. Today, yet another group of scientists are here to state that the Grand Canyon is 9 times older than people have perceived it to be.

New evidences suggest that the a part of the Grand Canyon, also known as the Upper Granite Gorge was formed more than 55 million years ago. Rebecca Flowers, a professor from the University of Colorado remarks by saying that history is complicated and that the Grand Canyon did not appear just 6 million years ago but has an ancestral history of canyons which are integrating over the years to become what it is today.

An earlier study revealed that the Colorado River was responsible for carving out the Grand Canyon about 6 million years ago. The latest study refutes the established birth of the Grand Canyon by a method where scientists have measured the uranium and helium contained in the rocks from the Upper Granite Gorge, which clearly signifies when they cooled and when they were unearthed by erosion.

The study revealed that the rocks experienced cool temperatures about 55 million years ago. The top and bottom of the gorge also suggested cooling at a similar time which signified that the Upper Granite Gorge had formed out of already existing canyons than a plateau as was assumed earlier.

Though there were related evidences which suggested the existence of prior canyons nothing was really confirmed till date. A study conducted by a team of geologists at the University of Mexico confirmed that the Grand Canyon was born out of the sweeping Colorado River. The study also emphasized that parts of the Canyon were probably formed about 17 million years ago. This assertion confirms the latest study that claims that some parts of the Grand Canyon like the Upper Granite Gorge was born in a different time.

Scientists still find it hard to arrive at conclusions relating to the route that the Colorado River took before depositing the sediments along Lake Mead and as to how the precursor canyons combined over the ages to stand as it does today.

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The world’s oldest living tree, a conifer, was discovered in Sweden. It took root at the end of the Ice Age, according to researchers. The 13 foot tall "Christmas" tree is not all that ancient, but its root has been taking shape for 9,550 years.

The team of researchers led by Leif Kullman, a professor of ecology and environment at the University of Umea in Sweden claims that it is the longest lived identified plant of the planet. Its longevity is on account of its ability to clone itself. The lifespan of the spruce’s trunks or stems is 600 years old, which is the reason for the longevity of life of the tree.

The Norway spruce was used to decorate European houses during Christmas. It would be difficult to discover trees older than 9,550 years because Sweden was covered by ice-sheets till last Ice Age.

This discovery proves that deglaciation in Sweden had taken place much earlier than thought of. The ice sheets during the Ice Age might have been much thinner than what was believed.

Also the discovery of the tree will help scientists to study how plants will respond to present climatic changes.

Source : National Geographic