13th Jan 2012: Marine reptile from Germany rewrites fossil record
A new species of ichthyosaur has been discovered from deposits laid down at a time when most of that family of reptiles were thought to have died out. The rare ichthyosaur find from the Braunschweig area, northern Germany, is 130myrs old, dating from the Lower Cretaceous. Most ichthyosaur fossils date from the Jurassic era, millions of years before. The discovery was made during roadworks in 2005, although it has taken time for this new species, Acamptonectes densus, to be officially named. Interestingly, because the neck vertebrae were so tightly packed, it would not have been able to move its neck and, certainly, this find will raise new question about the Jurassic extinction theory.

13th Jan 2012: Elephants now have six toes, according to experts
Ever since 1706, when surgeons first dissected an elephant in Scotland, the structure of the elephant’s foot has always baffled scientists. They found what was thought to be a strange and large lump of cartilage that helped support the elephant’s colossal weight. However, a series of recent CT scans, histology and dissection has concluded that this large lump is actually a sixth toe, because it has a strong similarity with an unusual bone that is found in the front feet of pandas. To find out why elephants have six toes, scientists had to refer to the fossil record. Early elephants, which were present 55mya, had completely different feet, being flat. However, about 40mya, as they grew larger, their feet evolved, also getting larger with a sixth toe used to give the elephant a tip-toed stance. And it seems that elephants are still evolving this sixth toe today.