Deer, crocodiles and even a human are just some of the odd meals engulfed by pythons. How do they gorge on such giant fare? Python snakes don’t dislocate their jaws (a common myth), but instead rely on the springiness of the tissues connecting their jawbones. 

Unlike in mammals, python snakes have a lower jawbone that is split into two parts that move independently of each other; and they are not connected by a bone in the front. In addition, the so-called quadrate bone that attaches the lower jaw to the skull is not rigidly attached in snakes, giving a python lots of wiggle room for devouring enormous prey.

“The two mandibles are not joined at the front by a rigid symphysis, as ours are, but by an elastic ligament that allows them to spread apart,” Patrick Gregory, a biology professor at the University of Victoria in Australia, told Live

Most major groups of animals — including arthropods, molluscs and worms — first appear in the fossil record during the Cambrian explosion, 541 million years ago. But according to a paper published today in Nature¹, sponge fossils from northwestern Canada could be 350 million years older, significantly pushing back the date of Earth’s earliest-known animals.

The ancient discovery is igniting debate among palaeontologists, who have long contested when complex animal life first evolved.

“If I’m right, animals emerged long, long before the first appearance of traditional animal fossils,” says study author Elizabeth Turner, a sedimentary geologist at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Canada. “That would mean there’s a deep back history of animals that just didn’t get preserved very well.”

Weird and

“I serendipitously came across a few very rare

Pet owners in the country appear to be doing everything they can to keep their animals cool in the sweltering summer weather.

Temperatures have climbed to the high 30s in many regions, putting dogs and cats, in particular, at risk of danger if they are left alone at home.

A 29-year-old office worker who lives in Yongsan, central Seoul, said he bought a marble mat and a cooling pillow for his two dogs. He also put ice packs under the sofa and in other parts of the house where the dogs like to be.

“When I come home, I always see one of them sleeping on the marble mat, which makes me happy,” the person surnamed Jeong said. “I also put out both water and iced water for them to drink.”

Others said they leave the air conditioning on when they go to work.

“It’s so hot that it feels

Health officials in Colorado on Thursday urged residents to be cautious around local wildlife after lab reports confirmed the presence of plague in animals and fleas from six counties.

The warning comes after a 10-year-old resident recently died from complications of the disease, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. The state’s last plague-related death was in 2015, the Denver Post reports. 

“We are so sad for the loss of this young Coloradan and our deepest condolences go to the family,” Dr. Jennifer House, of the health department, said of the child’s death in early July.  “Public Health is doing an epidemiological investigation and wants Coloradans to know that while this disease is very rare, it does occur sometimes, and to seek medical care if you have symptoms.”

Plague is a broad disease that spreads through a variety of animals, including rodents, flies and humans. The

In the north-east Spanish region of Catalonia, an enormous bull called Pedro is poking his head over a barn door to look at some sheep. He’ll stay there for two hours if the sanctuary volunteers let him; he’ll have to be tempted away with treats so that the sheep can be let out to graze. Pedro knows the routine; he’s been here since he was a calf, when he was bottle-fed by volunteers. He lives a charmed life – he is fed, he roams, he watches sheep, he sleeps; and when he dies, it will be of natural causes.

“He’s enormous!” I say to Olivia Gómez de Zamora, a veterinary assistant from Madrid who spends a lot of time coaxing Pedro from the barn.

Gómez de Zamora tells me this type of cattle is bred for its milk.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – A Lowcountry family is suing a private, Charleston-area animal exhibit after an animal allegedly bit their child’s finger to the bone in June 2020.

The lawsuit alleges the plaintiffs, Candise Gore and her child, paid a fee to Charleston Sloth and Exotics, LLC—the successor to Charleston Anteaters and Exotics—in exchange for “viewing, petting, feeding and interacting with the animals.

The lawsuit claims the plaintiffs were not given any instructions on how to handle or feed the animals, nor were they warned the animals would bite. The lawsuit states “suddenly and without warning, the sloth bit the [child’s] finger cutting through the skin and reaching the bone, causing immense pain and discomfort.”

The plaintiffs are seeking an undetermined amount of money for the injury.

The owners of Charleston Sloth and Exotics, Heather and Henry Galvin, are both listed in the lawsuit.

Heather Galvin said the sloth did

vehicle reached temperature of 96 degrees

BREVARD COUNTY • PALM BAY, FLORIDA – Palm Bay Police officials arrested 20-year-old Makayla Harper and 26-year-old Holly Ellison for cruelty to animals and confinement of animals without food or water.

On Tuesday afternoon, officers received a complaint that two dogs were left in an unattended vehicle that was not running and had the windows slightly cracked open.

Palm Bay Police arrived at the Bluffs Condos off US-1 and observed the vehicle with two dogs inside who were in desperate need of care.

Officers were

An Ohio-based watchdog organization, Stop Animal Exploitation Now, called on WSU President Kirk Schulz to launch a full investigation into the university’s animal research programs in a letter sent to him on June 29. 

The letter includes retractions of three WSU journal articles and three non-compliance reports sent to the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare by Christopher Keane, WSU vice president for research. 

SAEN alleges that WSU research staff falsified and fabricated data, fatally overdosed animals, and failed to follow approved protocols and administer pain relief, according to the letter.  

“Washington State University staff is clearly utterly unqualified for their positions,” SAEN Executive Director Michael Budkie wrote in the letter.

SAEN routinely obtains reports from OLAW concerning the use and treatment of research animals at every registered research facility in the U.S. Budkie said he reads all of them. 

SAEN filed complaints against WSU in