World’s oldest mammal - a giant bowhead whale that had a 130-year old harpoon stuck in its neck.

A giant bowhead whale caught off the coast of Alaska in 2007 had a harpoon point embedded in its neck that showed it survived a similar hunt more than a century ago.

Biologists claim the find helps prove the bowhead is the oldest living mammal on earth.

They say the 13-centimetre arrow-shaped fragment dates back to around 1880, meaning the 50-ton whale had been coasting around the freezing arctic waters since Victorian times. The weapon fragment lodged in a bone between the whale's neck and shoulder blade comes from a 19th century bomb lance.

Because traditional whale hunters never took calves, experts estimate the bowhead was several years old when it was first shot and about 130 when it died in 2007.

Calculating a bowhead whale's age can be difficult, and is usually gauged by amino acids in the eye lenses.

It is rare to find one that has lived more than a century, but experts now believe the oldest were close to 200 years old.

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Baby born without blood

You can hardly tell today, but when six-month-old Olivia Norton was born, doctors were shocked by her 'ghost white' body.

Olivia was born with a condition so rare it is likely to be written in to medical textbooks – she was born without blood.

The condition known as fetomaternal haemorrhage meant Olivia's blood ran back into her mother's system, leaving her with such a low heamoglobin count it couldn't actually be considered blood.

Fetomaternal haemorrhag is found in around one every 5000 babies, and can occur spontaneously or due to trauma.

Doctors gave Olivia less than two hours to survive, but thanks to rapid blood transfusions, her skin returned to a normal shade of pink within hours.

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Flying car cleared for takeoff

                                       AFP ©

Drivers hoping to slip the surly -- and traffic congested -- bonds of Earth moved a step closer to realizing their dream, as a US firm said it had successfully tested a street-legal plane.

Massachusetts-based firm said their production prototype "Transition" car-plane had completed an eight-minute test flight, clearing the way for it to hit the market within a year.

The two-seater craft, which has the rounded features of a Fiat 500 and collapsible wings, is on presale for $279,000 and some 100 vehicles have already been ordered.

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Largest rat in the world

The Gambian pouched rat, also known as the African giant pouched rat, is a nocturnal pouched rat. It is among the largest muroids in the world, growing up to about 0.9 metres (3 ft) long including their tail which makes up half their length. It is widespread in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Gambian pouched rat has very poor eyesight and so depends on its senses of smell and hearing. Its name comes from the large, hamster-like pouches in its cheeks. It is not a true rat but is part of a uniquely African branch of muroid rodents. It typically weighs between 1 and 1.4 kilograms. It is omnivorous, feeding on vegetables, insects, crabs, snails, and other items.

Unlike domestic rats, it has cheek pouches like a hamster. These cheek pouches allow it to gather up several kilograms of nuts per night for storage underground. It has been known to stuff its pouches so full of date palm nuts so as to be hardly able to squeeze through the entrance of its burrow.

This outsized African rodent is also believed to be responsible for the current outbreak of monkeypox in the United States.

They are trained to detect land mines and tuberculosis with their highly developed sense of smell.

(Source)