Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of In Re: News Item titled "Nayar river is vanishing - a yatra reveals conservation goes beyond science and policy" appearing in ‘The Down To Earth’ dated 03.06.2025. The original application was registered suo-motu based on the news item titled "Nayar …
Some say they never died, they simply flew away. Fearsome gigantic beasts that evolved into the myriad coloured birds we see around us today. Others are of the opinion that they were snuffed out by a hammer of the gods. Huge, mean and terrifying, they were cold-blooded lizards which were …
The last time one hit us was around 65 million years ago. It wiped out the entire dinosaur population along with 70 per cent of Earth's other species and left behind a monster crater nearly 200 kilometres in diameter. Thankfully, history will not repeat itself, this time. On December 6, …
More dangerous than all the nuclear weapons of the world put together are these bombs in outer space. Huge rocks which form a crude circle between Mars and Jupiter in a part of the solar system known as the asteroid belt. There are 300,000 asteroids larger than 90 metres wide …
For creatures that were supposed to have dominated the entire planet, dinosaur fossils have been singularly missing from Africa. But now palaeontologist Paul Sereno from the University of Chicago claims that he has disinterred from Algeria and Niger fossils of several dinosaur species, among them 2 previously unknown -- a …
ONE of the hottest debates in palaeontology is whether dinosaurs were warm-blooded like humans or cold-blooded like reptiles. Scientific opinion has so far favoured the latter view, but 2 researchers claim they found a 67-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex fossil to be remarkably warm (Science, Vol 265, No 5169). The "thermometer" used …
THE results of the recent analysis of a skull excavated 10 years ago from cave deposits at the Jinniushan site in China reveal that it is the oldest specimen of Homo sapiens found in the country (Nature, Vol 368, No 6466). The skull, along with an almost complete skeleton, was …
SOME 1,000 dinosaur eggs found in China have become a bone of contention between scientists and commercial collectors (Science, Vol 261, No 5122). Scientists covet these beautiful and undamaged eggs because they could provide an insight into the Cretaceous period (140-65 million years ago) when dinosaurs roamed the earth. But …
LIFE IMITATES art more than art imitates life, said Oscar Wilde. His statement was borne out recently when US scientists re-enacted in their laboratory the plot of Steven Spielberg's latest film, Jurassic Park, which shows dinosaurs being re-created from their DNA, procured from the blood sucked by mosquitoes and preserved …
STEVEN Spielberg's latest science fiction blockbuster, Jurassic Park, has already broken records at the box office. It is a thrilling tale of humans encountering dinosaurs. Though the film may take some time to reach India, last month, STAR Plus telecast an hour-long special programme on the making of Jurassic Park, …
SCIENTISTS have found in the foothills of the Andes mountains the remains of what they contend is the earliest dinosaur. Unlike its giant descendants, the discovery by a US-Argentinian team measured just over a metre from nose to tail-tip and weighed only 11 kg. The newly-found dinosaur has been named …
SCIENTISTS D S J Choy and P Altman working at the Investigative Cardiology Laboratory attached to the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, USA, have turned their attention to dinosaur hearts (The Lancet, volume 340, number 8818). Intrigued by the sheer size of the Barosaurus, a long-necked dinosaur that …
THE MADAGASCAR pochard, a duck species thought extinct 22 years ago, has been resurrected with the recent finding of a lone male in the island nation in the Indian Ocean. The duck was nabbed by a poacher in Lake Aloatra and recovered from him. It has since been kept at …
DIAMONDS may be forever, but the dinosaurs of yore must have wished it otherwise. The glittering jewel is now being held responsible for their extinction. Canadian scientist David Brez Carlisle feels that dinosaurs perished in a storm of diamonds from outer space. This adds a now dimension to the traditional …
There are few controlled data with which to assess the conservation role of corridors connecting refuges. If corridors were used sufficiently, they could alleviate threats from inbreeding depression and demographic stochasticity. For species that require more resources than are available in single refuges, a network of refuges connected by corridors …
