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An ancient human species, which was thought to be extinct long time ago, likely survived until about 14,000 years ago, a new study has suggested. Researchers unearthed a fragment of thigh bone in a Chinese cave, which they believe could reveal human ancestors’ unexpected survival.

The femur found in southwest China is about 14,000-year-old. After analysis, the researchers found the bone resembles those human species thought to be vanished by the Late Pleistocene. The fossilized femur was compared with modern human leg bone and found that the specimen belongs to an ancient human species that survived recently.

Over 13 years after getting separate, formerly conjoined twin sisters Maria de Jesus and Maria Teresa Alvarez, also known as the ‘Las Dos Marias’, gave a visit at the Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA. They brought cheer to the doctors and nurses who were behind their separation.

As per the UCLA website, the identical twin sisters were just a year old when they went under a complicate, complex and draining 23-hour long surgery for separation. They were born conjoined at the skull and membrane that shields and protects the brain.

Blood vessels that supply essential oxygen to the brain were also tangled between the girls. They underwent a dangerous operation and 40 people worked hard to keep the girls alive.

On Wednesday, drug developer Advaxis Inc said that the US Food and Drug Administration had lifted a clinical ban on its three experimental cancer therapies. The move has sent the shares of the company up by as much as 38%.

In October, the US health regulator had put the mid-stage trials of the lead therapy of the company, axalimogene filolisbac, on hold following the death of a patient.

Then, Advaxis said that the patient has died because of progression of cervical cancer and no role was played by the drug in life loss. Later, the FDA put a clinical hold on all three therapies in the drug developer's pipeline.

A new US study claims that merely popping in antibiotics could cure appendicitis in children, a condition for which surgery is considered the only option at present.

The study claimed that children who took to treatment through antibiotics for simple appendicitis instead of going under the knife recovered fully without ever needing a surgery.

Dr. Peter Minneci of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, said: "There is a relatively good body of literature in adults and also in children that shows patients and parents involved in the decision process do better".

A new research conducted in the US has defied an earlier finding that blamed random cell mutations for a majority of cancers. The research instead cites smoking, drinking, exposure to sun and air pollution as the main reasons behind most of the tumours.

Conducted by scientists at Stony Brook University in New York, the study suggests that environmental and external factors play a much greater role in cancer incidence than simple mutations in cell division. The researchers say as such, several cancers may be more preventable than previously thought.

A Fisherman accidentally found a 200-year-old endangered salamander in a Chinese cave. Unlike other salamanders, this one is a giant creature with size about 4.5 feet long, as per a report of the People’s Daily online.

The paper also reported that size of the Chinese giant salamander, Andrias davidianus, is not surprising as it can grow to more than six feet long. The finding has grabbed attention because the salamander species is critically endangered. The researchers moved the ancient animal to a research facility.

Some people predict the salamander species could be a target for Chinese poachers as the amphibian is delicacy in the East Asian country. As Chinese people consider the salamander a great delicacy, its population has dropped more than 80% in last just five decades.