TopNews

A new species of dinosaur with a fascinating appendage, a ‘sail’ on its back, has been discovered by scientists. So far, scientists have no idea about what was the purpose of this unique feature for the dinosaur.

They have been pondering over it, guessing could the feature have helped the animal in regulating body temperature? Or, did the dinosaur arrogantly use the sail for showoff?

In a paper published on Wednesday in the journal ‘PLOS ONE’, researchers have described the new dinosaur species as Morelladon beltrani.

Some 125 million years back, when it used to walk the Earth, Morelladon was only over eight-feet tall and stretched about 20-feet long. At that time, the animal belonged to the medium-sized ones.

According to a new report, the devastating magntitude-7.8 earthquake that hit Nepal in April 2015 could have been even much, much worse than what occurred. Recently, an international team has published a review of the events that the impacts stemming from the big earthquakes was much lower than people feared. On analyzing hundreds of thousands of satellite images taken before and after Nepal’s Gorkha quake, a 64-member team has been able to count only 4,312 landslides. Though, the quake resulted in huge devastation in Nepal, it still triggered slope failures much less severe than its magnitude would suggest. But, by any measure the Nepal quakes in April and May were devastating; more than eight and a half thousand people lost their lives.

A new study has linked smoking and being exposed to secondhand smoke to risk of infertility and early menopause in women. Heavy or habitual smokers experience menopause earlier and could have higher risk of infertility, the study added.

Andrew Hyland, an author of the study and chair of health behavior at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, said secondhand smoke is a less researched topic, especially among women who never smoked.

A new study by the National Sleep Foundation has claimed that humans are much shorter sleepers than their closest animal relatives. Primate species sleep for 14 to 17 hours per night, while humans need just seven to nine hours of sleep.

Study co-author David Samson said human species is unique from other when it comes to sleep time. A short and high quality sleep is enough for humans, Samson added. The study included about 21 species of primates to create a database of sleeping patterns. Study researchers used statistical techniques to find a species’ position in primate tree.

A US toddler, Jaxon Buell, who was born last year without a fully formed brain, has already celebrated Christmas with Santa. Earlier this month, the wonder boy went to see Santa with his parents.

Earlier, Jaxon’s father posted a picture of the boy sitting on Santa’s lap. Brandon and Brittany Buell, parents of Jaxon, took the 1-year-old boy to meet Santa. Brandon Buell, 30, said it’s about 17 months and Jaxon is doing well. The boy had the best stretch of health family has ever seen him be in, he added.

People who develop shingles may face short-term increased risk of having a stroke or heart attack, finds a new study. The stroke risk is more than double-fold in the first week soon after the shingles diagnosis, said the researchers.

The study findings are based on the observation of heart health in more than 67,000 newly diagnosed shingles patients aged 65 and above. The researchers have also noticed a rise in the risk of heart attack following shingles diagnosis, but not to the extent of stroke risk. The increased risk for both the condition returned to normal within six months.