Fossils of giant cheetah found
Scientists have unearthed what they say are the remains of the largest and bloodiest known cheetah which stalked the planet thousands of years ago.
The fossils found at a 1.8-million-year-old site in Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia, one of the oldest known sites for ancient human species out of Africa, where fossils of a dirk-toothed cat and a similar scimitar cat had already been discovered before.
Based on its arm and paw bones, the stoutly built cheetah (Acinonyx pardinensis) is believed to be weighed about 110 kg, about double the weight of its modern cousin.
The oldest cheetah fossil known was a skull of Acinonyx kurteni found in China; the animal lived between 2.2 million and 2.5 million years ago.
The area, where the latest discovery was made, was once a forested valley floor whose edges blurred into savanna and grasslands, the kind of open ground needed for cheetahs to run down prey, the researchers reported in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews.
The researchers said this extinct cheetah likely thrived as a killer, with each cat downing an estimated 7,500 kg of prey a year, more than any other predator in its community.
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Daniel Craig believes that aliens exist
London: James Bond star Daniel Craig says he believes in the existence of extra-terrestrials but thinks they have never come to earth.
The 43-year-old actor, who stars in sci-fi movie Cowboys & Aliens with Harrison Ford, is convinced that other life-forms do exist.
“I do believe there’s life out there. I’m not sure I believe they’ve been to Earth but there is life out there,” he said.
Previously Avatar actress Michelle Rodriguez had confessed of being intrigued by the possibility of life on other planets.
“I believe in the possibility of aliens. We only perceive four per cent of what exists — the other 96 per cent is a mystery to us and to science, so I’m just leaving room for options,” she said. —PTI
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