Washington, Oct 21 : Geologists from the University of Utah in the US have identified an amazing concentration of dinosaur footprints that they call “a dinosaur dance floor,” located in a wilderness on the Arizona-Utah border where there was a sandy desert oasis 190 million years ago.

The three-quarter-acre site, which includes rare dinosaur tail-drag marks, provides more evidence that there were wet intervals during the Early Jurassic Period, when the US Southwest was covered with a field of sand dunes larger than the Sahara Desert.

Located within the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, the “trampled surface” has more than 1,000 and perhaps thousands of dinosaur tracks, averaging a dozen per square yard in places.

Baghdad, Oct.

Washington, Oct 21: A new research has indicated that the predominant form of mercury found in the blood of marine mammals and fish-eating communities, could be more damaging to seals than has previously been thought.

Published in BioMed Central’s open access journal Environmental Health, the research shows that Methylmercury (MeHg) harms T-lymphocytes, key cells in a seal’s immune system.

Similar results were also found for human lymphocytes.

Mercury exposure is known to occur as a result of man-made pollution and natural events such as volcanic eruptions.

Washington, Oct 21: In a long-term study, scientists have suggested that contrary to popular belief, moderate increases in temperature and increased nitrogen from acid rain actually improves forest productivity, providing there is sufficient moisture. 

The research, which was undertaken for 20 years in the northern hardwood forests of Michigan, was carried out by scientists at Michigan Technological University’s School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science.

The scientists reached a surprising conclusion that moderate increases in temperature and nitrogen from atmospheric pollution actually improve forest productivity.

Washington, Oct 21: In a new study, scientists have figured out the baffling method of propulsion of tiny aquatic snails, which makes them walk on water.

According to a report in National Geographic News, Eric Lauga, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of California, San Diego, led the study.

“How the snails were dragging themselves across a surface that they could not even grip was absolutely perplexing to us,” said Lauga.

“Hanging on to the water’s surface is not the issue for the snails. They are naturally buoyant, because they are so small,” he added.

Even so, the snails need traction to move across the slippery surface.

Missouri (United States), Oct. 21: Republican presidential candidate John McCain has defended his running mate -- Alaska Governor Sarah Palin against attacks from the "feminist left." at a rally in the northern suburb of St. Louis, where Obama drew 100,000 on Saturday.