Weird Science/World's Deepest Known Animal: Worm That Lives Under Almost a Mile of Rock

Researchers dubbed it "Halicephalobus mephisto," from the Greek for “he who loves not the light.”G.Borgone/Ghent University, Belgium

When it comes to indestructible species, the cockroach is a kitten compared with the nematode. Nematode worms thrive in desert, mountain, and ocean environments. Nematodes aboard the space shuttle Columbia even survived after the spacecraft disintegrated during reentry in 2003. Now Belgian biologist Gaetan Borgonie has discovered a new species of nematode in a rock fracture nearly
a mile underground, where no other animal has ever been found.
Earth’s first few miles of bedrock teem with life, but scientists had long assumed that only simple, single-celled organisms could survive there. Borgonie teamed with Tullis Onstott of Princeton University to prove that assumption wrong. For a year they made intermittent descents to sample the Beatrix gold mine in South Africa, funded by their own savings. Finally, in late 2008, Borgonie looked into a microscope and saw a worm with a broken tail squirming across the slide. “I became an ICU nurse, looking every few hours to make sure she was still alive,” he says. “She laid 12 eggs before dying.”
Now they plan to expand their expedition to find other animals lurking in the depths.
(DISCOVERY NEWS)

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NASA announces world’s biggest-ever rocket to take man to Mars and beyond

With the curtain coming down on the Space Shuttle Program, NASA has set its sights on the future with the announcement of a heavy-lift launch vehicle that is designed to take man beyond the moon to explore near-Earth asteroids, Mars and its moons, and beyond. Dubbed the Space Launch System (SLS) its configuration harks back to the Saturn V rocket-based systems employed to propel Apollo astronauts to the moon but also incorporates technology developed in the Shuttle Program.
The SLS will use a liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propulsion system, which will include the RS-25D/E from the Space Shuttle Program for the core stage and the Saturn V-derived J-2X rocket engine for the upper stage. However, initial development flights will also use solid rocket boosters. The SLS will have an initial lift capacity of 70 metric tons (154,324 lbs), which NASA points out is roughly the weight of 40 SUVs. An evolved SLS will then see lift capacity increased to 130 metric tons (286,600 lbs), which by NASA's logic would be roughly the weight of 75 SUVs.
The initial SLS will weigh 2,500 metric tons (5.5 million pounds) and stand taller than the Statue of Liberty, at 97.5 m (320 ft) high. At liftoff it will generate 8.4 million pounds of thrust, which is 10 percent more than the Saturn V. The subsequent evolved SLS will weigh 2,950 metric tons (6.5 million pounds) and stand 122 m (400 ft) high. At liftoff it will generate 9.2 million pounds of thrust, which is 20 percent more than the Saturn V at liftoff.

NASA says the SLS's architecture provides a launch vehicle that can be adapted to suit different missions through the use of different core stage, upper stage, and first-stage booster combinations. This flexibility is designed to allow it to more economically carry the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, as well as cargo, equipment and science experiments to as low as Earth's orbit and as far as Mars and beyond. While NASA is looking to save money by having private companies ferry astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), the SLS will also serve as a backup for commercial and international partner transportation services to the ISS.
The SLS was unveiled by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and several members of Congress on Wednesday, with Bolden saying, "President Obama challenged us to be bold and dream big, and that's exactly what we are doing at NASA. While I was proud to fly on the space shuttle, tomorrow's explorers will now dream of one day walking on Mars."
Dreaming big is fine, but with an estimated cost of US$18 billion just for the next five years and the U.S. Government constantly modifying NASA's budget, it remains to be seen whether NASA will be able to make its dream reality. NASA stresses that the SLS architecture benefits from significantly reduced development and operations costs as it leverages existing capabilities resulting from the Space Shuttle and Constellation Programs. NASA says the early developmental flights may take advantage of existing solid boosters and other existing hardware, while a competition will be held to develop the boosters.
"NASA has been making steady progress toward realizing the president's goal of deep space exploration, while doing so in a more affordable way," NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said. "We have been driving down the costs on the Space Launch System and Orion contracts by adopting new ways of doing business and project hundreds of millions of dollars of savings each year."
The first SLS unmanned developmental flight is targeted for the end of 2017 with the first manned flight penciled in for 2021. NASA then aims to follow up with a manned mission to a nearby asteroid around 2025 and one to Mars in the 2030s.

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Weird News/Giant Crocodile Captured in Philippines

Hunters in the south Philippines captured alive a one-ton saltwater crocodile.

Hunters and villagers in the south Philippines captured alive a one-ton saltwater crocodile this week. The 21-foot male croc was captured along a creek in Bunawan township in Agusan del Sur province. Captured after a three week hunt, the massive crocodile killed a water buffalo in an attack witnessed by several village residents. (AP Photo)

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Sc/Lasers Could Be Used to Control Rain, Scientists Say

Lasers could help cause rain, scientists now suggest. The finding may give bone-dry regions of the world much-needed moisture, scientists say.

A laser beam (red) and the cloud of generated particles (illuminated by an auxiliary green laser, which makes each particle shine) in a cloud chamber Photo credit: J.P. Wolf / University of Geneva.

Rainclouds form when airborne pockets of tiny particles condense water vapor around them. With enough of these cloud seeds, you get clouds and then rain.

A number of techniques have long existed to control rain by seeding the atmosphere with small particles of compounds such as dry ice and silver iodide that raindrops can grow around. However, "weather modification techniques have raised quite a lot of skepticism," said physicist Jérôme Kasparian, at the University of Geneva.

This controversy is due to questions of the effectiveness of such cloud seeding. The techniques spread chemicals quite widely, so given the variability of the atmosphere, it can be very difficult to judge how they may have actually affected the atmosphere, Kasparian explained.

Instead, Kasparian and his colleagues now reveal control over moisture using lasers. In experiments with infrared lasers over the Rhone River in Geneva employing a variety of temperatures, humidity levels and other atmospheric conditions, the scientists discovered that beams could trigger the growth of micron-sized water droplets even at a relatively low humidity of 70 percent, though not yet droplets large enough for rain.

"At such humidity, condensation does not occur in natural conditions, where 100 percent relative humidity is necessary," Kasparian told LiveScience.

The secret of these beams lies in how they cause chemicals such as nitric acid — which can serve as cloud seeds — to form in the air. These particles prefer to associate with water molecules, acting as a kind of glue that keeps droplets together in relatively dry conditions that would ordinarily cause them to evaporate away.

The fact that researchers can point their lasers at a well-controlled target and at well-defined times allows comparisons to see just how effective the lasers really are at controlling moisture, unlike current weather modification techniques, Kasparian said.

"We are still far from laser-induced rainmaking," Kasparian said. Lasers can generate watery particles and allow them to grow, "but their size is currently limited to a few microns," he said. "They should be 10 to 100 times larger to produce actual rain."

"Provided the above-mentioned challenges are overcome, rainmaking would not need airborne laser systems," Kasparian said. "The type of lasers we are using can reach working distances of several kilometers, so that the atmosphere can be activated using ground-based lasers."

Kasparian sees no advantage in using lasers in conjunction with other cloud-seeding techniques.

"In fact, producing too many particles can even be counter-productive, since these particles would then compete with each other to condense the moisture available in the atmosphere," he said. "As a result of this competition, each droplet would be restricted to small diameters, insufficient to become raindrops, which fall down to the ground."

One concern regarding such weather control is whether or not one area could use lasers to effectively steal moisture that might ordinarily drift to other areas that need it.

"Let me mention that the laser can condense only a small fraction of the moisture from the air, so that the risk that one country takes all the resource from an air mass is not as serious as what happens with surface water, where it is technically possible to pump most of the water from a river before it crosses a border," Kasparian said.

The scientists detailed their findings online Aug. 30 in the journal Nature Communications.

SOURCE| LiveScience

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Real or Fake? 8 Bizarre Hybrid Animals

Polar-Grizzly Mix 

Credit: Wiki Commons 

What happens when you cross a polar bear with a grizzly bear? Turns out, the babies sport a mix of features, such as partially hollow hairs. This mating story began in 2004 when a female brown bear gave birth to two brown-polar bear hybrids at the Osnabruck Zoo in Germany. The cubs were transported to another zoo to see what would happen if they were raised without the intervening of either their polar-bear or grizzly-bear parents. When scientists examined the offspring, they found the bears had long necks and visible tails similar to polar bears and small shoulder humps like brown bears. Some features showed a mix between the parents: For instance, the soles of the hybrids' feet were partly covered in hair. (Polar bears have hair-covered feet while grizzlies have hairless soles.) And the hair on the hybrids' back was hollow, but with smaller hollow regions than in hair of polar bears. The male hybrid, however, turned out to be sterile. The results were published in 2009 in the journal Der Zoologische Garten. BOTTOM LINE:REAL

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Humanzee 

Credit: Luc Sesselle / Stock.XCHNG 

The Humanzee never came to life. But it could have. A few years ago, scientists critical of the proliferation of freaky lab experiments applied for a patent to crossbreed a human with a chimp. They were denied and would never have carried out the procedure, anyway, they said. Too bad: The little mutant could have had an easy life in Hollywood. BOTTOM LINE: FAKE

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Mules and Hinnies
Credit: Dreamstime 

A cross between a male donkey and female horse will produce a mule. A hinny is the offspring of a stallion (male horse) and a jenny (female donkey). Mules and hinnies are usually sterile, according to the Honolulu zoo. Mules have traits from both mom and dad, with ears that are longer than a horse's but the same shape, and combination hair — with coarse mane hair and a tail more horse-like. And the animal makes a sound that's a combination of the horse's whinny and the grunting of the wind-down of a bray, according to the American Donkey and Mule Society. BOTTOM LINE: REAL

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Wholphins 

Credit: Wiki Commons 

The first captive wholphin, Keikaimalu, was born in 1985. The hybrid animal, whose name means "the peaceful sea," is a cross between an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) mother and a false killer whale (Pseudorca crassidens) father. While there are many instances of hybrid species, most are sterile and can't produce offspring. Keikaimalu has given birth to three calves, with one living for nine years and another surviving for just days, according to news reports. The surviving calf was born in 2005. The wholphins display characteristics that are intermediate of both parents. The coloration is similar to that of Keikaimalu's false killer whale father (black with a gray stomach), while the rostrum has a blunted bottle shape and 66 teeth. Bottlenose dolphins have 88 teeth, and false killer whales have 88 teeth, according to Sea Life Park in Hawaii, where the wholphins reside. BOTTOM LINE: REAL

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Part-Dog, Part-Human?

News of a dog-human hybrid circulated the Web in 2009, along with a photo of what was supposedly a part-dog-part-woman nursing the bizarre offspring. The news story suggested Israeli scientists had crossed a Labrador retriever with a human, and apparently, out popped the trans-species litter, er, babies. While the cross between such distant species is considered genetically impossible, the story sparked some debate over the consequences of genetic manipulation. The dog-human photo wasn't doctored, and was actually of a sculpture by artist Patricia Piccinini, from her 2003 exhibition "We Are Family." BOTTOM LINE: FAKE

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Humpless Llama 

Credit: Charles Q. Choi 

A humpless camel was born in 1998 at the Camel Reproduction Center in Dubai. The odd-looking camel, now referred to as a "cama," was the cross between a male camel and a female llama. Because of the big difference in size between the two mates, the interbreeding usually involves artificial insemination. Like its mother, the little one (dubbed Rama) had no hump and cloven hooves, according to news reports. Its short ears and long tail came from dad. BOTTOM LINE: REAL

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Hybrid Salamanders 

Credit: Bruce Delgado / Bureau of Land Management 

In the middle of the 20th century, local fishermen who relied on baby salamanders as bait introduced the barred tiger salamander to California water bodies. These newbies came into contact with the native California tiger salamanders, and over time the two species mated. "To give you a sense of the difference between these two species, they are about as closely related as humans and chimpanzees," said Ben Fitzpatrick of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, in a press statement. The resulting hybrid offspring were a surprise, because they not only survived but thrived. Research has mostly shown that animal hybrids aren't as "fit" as other animals. The results were published in 2007 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. BOTTOM LINE: REAL

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Ligers and Tigons 

Lions and tigers don't typically brush shoulders in the wild since they live in different areas. But in captivity, that's another story. The cats are closely related and so can interbreed. A liger is the result of breeding a male lion to a tigress, while a tigon results from a male tiger mating with a lioness. Since lions and tigers do not exist in the same areas, this is not something that happens in the wild. These feline hybrids suffer from many birth defects and usually die young, according to Big Cat Rescue, a non-profit educational sanctuary in Tampa, Fla. And since ligers are usually larger than either parent, the heft puts the tigress at great risk in carrying the young and may require C-section deliveries, according to the organization. BOTTOM LINE: REAL

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SOURCE: LIVESCIENCE

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Top 10 Scariest Sea Creatures

Dangers in the Deep

On land during the day, we humans rule. Or at least we're considered top predators, and with our feet on the ground, we're in our element.

In the sea, sans a boat, forget about it. We're too slow, too encumbered with gear, and often too stupid to be much more than prey. What's to worry about down there? Plenty!

Yes, this list is subjective, but it's based on research aimed at finding the creatures of the deep that conjure the most compelling combination of frightening personas, actual aggression and/or real pain or death to humans. More often than not, pain and death from sea creatures is avoidable, especially in the case of two on this list that inflict most of their damage in home aquariums and restaurants.

Before we continue, a nod to venerable contenders that aren't on the list: killer whales (there are few confirmed attacks, accept by those in captivity), octopuses (yes, they've been known to attack), sea cucumbers (who'da thunk?) and piranhas (which actually live only in freshwater, and whose deadly attacks on people are pure myth).

10. Box Jellyfish

Credit: Anders Garm

These gelatinous creatures are flat-out deadly. 

While no official tallies exist, anecdotal evidence suggest dozens of people and perhaps more than 100 or more die each year from the many species of box jellyfish that exist in all oceans.

Some 20 to 40 people die from stings by box jellyfish annually in the Philippines alone, according to the U.S. National Science Foundation. "But because death certificates are not required in many countries within the range of box jellyfish, worldwide fatalities from box jellyfish may be seriously underestimated," the NSF states.

One Australian box jellyfish can have dozens of tentacles, each up to 15 feet long, with enough toxin to kill 60 people. The sting of a Chironex fleckeri box jellyfish can kill a person in less than three minutes. Species of box jelly fish in Hawaii, Florida and other U.S. locations are known to induce heart failure.

Honorable mention goes to the Portuguese man-of-war, a jellyfish with a sting said to be as painful as a lightning strike — though it's not clear how many people are actually able to make that comparison.

9. Tiger sharks

Credit: Klaus Jost

Yeah, yeah, the great white shark gets all the attention. But reality is tiger sharks kill more people. And few things (other than snakes) automatically terrify people more than sharks.

Tiger sharks will eat anything: fish, seals, birds, squid, small sharks, dolphins, license plates and pieces of old tires, according to NOAA. They can grow more than 18 feet long and weigh a ton. Take that, Jaws!

Tiger sharks are found in many tropical and temperate waters, and they are especially common around islands in the central Pacific. For the record: Great whites do attack more people each year, on average.

Oh, and a little detail that explains why sharks aren't No. 1 on this list: The number of people attacked by sharks worldwide each year — a few dozen — is roughly equal to the number killedby lightning just in the United States. Only four people around the world died from shark attacks last year.

8. stonefish

Photo Credit: William Leo Smith, AMNH

This one nearly tops the list for two reasons: It's the most venomous fish in the world, and it's a master of disguise, hiding in plain sight on the seafloor, looking like any other rock.

The stonefish doesn't attack, but you don't want to step on it. Its spines are used as defense against sharks and other predators. The venom can cause temporary paralysis and death if not treated.

7. pufferfish

Credit: © Briankieft | Dreamstime.com

You don't even have to be near water for this creature to kill you. The pufferfish, also known as a blowfish, packs tetrodotoxin — stronger than cyanide. Specially trained Japanese chefs prepare safe parts of the fish as a delicacy, but every now and then a diner dies.

The puffer, named for its ability to suck in water and swell to twice normal size, could end up saving people: a drug made from the puffer's toxin has been tested for treatment of withdrawal symptoms from drugs like heroin.

6. sea snakes 

Credit: Leslie Babonis

The innate human fear of snakes propels these slithering swimmers to the list. However, the truth is that while sea snakes out-venom their terrestrial counterparts, they're highly reclusive and so not much of a threat.

5. Lionfish

Credit: Oregon State University

Popular in home aquariums, these docile fish sport a striking fan of venomous spines.

Although not fatal to humans, the spines deliver a painful sting that can cause headaches, vomiting, and respiratory distress, according to NOAA. The worst of the pain typically lasts only for about an hour, but some people report pain and tingling sensations for weeks.

Lionfish are not aggressive. So the fact is home aquarium owners are more likely to be stung by lionfish than divers or fishermen.

4. Saltwater crocs

Credit: Oscar Baldomero.

Saltwater crocs have earned a reputation as one of the wild kingdom’s most ferocious predators.

They can grow more than 20 feet long and weigh 3,000 pounds, and they have been known to hunt a wide range of prey, including monkeys, kangaroos, buffalo and even sharks.

Relying on purely brute strength, they are capable of dragging down water buffaloes and have occasionally victimized humans. Using an attack method known as the “death roll,” crocodiles kill their prey by latching on with their jaws and then taking down the dinner with a powerful, twisting roll. The technique is also employed to break apart large animals

 3. stingray

credit: Mark Aplet, Dreamstime.com

Just the name practically qualifies these creatures for this list. And the death of "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin by stingray in 2006 certainly solidified the reputation of these shark cousins as dangerous beasts.

The tail of of a stingray is capped with a roughly 8-inch spear made of the same stuff that makes up shark scales, known as dermal denticles. The spear, which stiffens when the stingray feels threatened, is serrated like a steak knife and packs a venom that can be deadly to predators.

"The venom itself is a largely protein-based toxin that causes great pain in mammals and may also alter heart rate and respiration," according to the Mote Marine Laboratory.

Stingrays don't typically attack humans, however.

2. sea lions

Really? Sea lions? Yes, because they're very territorial.

They’re considered cute, trainable and are major attractions at zoos, but have been known to bite people.

In California, a spate of vicious sea lion attacks reported at Manhattan beach, Newport beach and San Francisco back in 2006 led to growing concern among caretakers and scientists. Some researchers suspect the sea lions may have eaten fish contaminated by toxic algae, which may explain the uncharacteristic behavior.

The city of San Diego warns on its web site “Like all wild animals, seals and sea lions are unpredictable and can become aggressive quickly. They have sharp teeth and may bite, particularly if cornered or harassed.”

1. morays

Credit: John E. Randall, Bishop Museum.

Snakelike body, protruding snout and wide jaws. These primitive creatures just look like death. They're fish, by the way, and they can be up to 8 feet long.

A bite from their razor-sharp teeth and powerful, locking jaws will produce ragged wounds that are prone to infection from the bacteria inside the eels’ mouths, according to NOAA. The good news: If morays bite out of fear or by accident (especially when foraging for food), they will usually release their grip and let you go.

They tend to hide in crevices and holes during the day, then hunt at night. They'll eat any fish or other creature they can catch.

Some expert advice, from NOAA, on how to avoid being bitten by one: Keep your hands out of submerged, rocky holes and crevices. Oh, and avoid this common diver gaffe that leads to many moray eel bites: Don't feed them!

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Top 10 Strangest Things in Space

1. Antimatter

Credit: Penn State U. /NASA-MSFC

Like Superman's alter-ego, Bizzaro, the particles making up normal matter also have opposite versions of themselves. An electron has a negative charge, for example, but its antimatter equivalent, the positron, is positive. Matter and antimatter annihilate each other when they collide and their mass is converted into pure energy by Einstein's equation E=mc2. Some futuristic spacecraft designs incorporate anti-matter engines.

2 . Mini-Black Holes

Credit: NASA-MSFC

If a radical new "braneworld" theory of gravity is correct, then scattered throughout our solar system are thousands of tiny black holes, each about the size of an atomic nucleus. Unlike their larger brethren, these mini-black holes are primordial leftovers from the Big Bang and affect space-time differently because of their close association with a fifth dimension.

3. Cosmic Microwave Background

Credit: NASA/WMAP Science Team

Also known as the CMB, this radiation is a primordial leftover from the Big Bang that birthed the universe. It was first detected during the 1960s as a radio noise that seemed to emanate from everywhere in space. The CMB is regarded as one of the best pieces of evidence for the theoretical Big Bang. Recent precise measurements by the WMAP project place the CMB temperature at -455 degrees Fahrenheit (-270 Celsius).

4. Dark Matter

Credit: Andrey Kravtsov

Scientists think it makes up the bulk of matter in the universe, but it can neither be seen nor detected directly using current technologies. Candidates range from light-weight neutrinos to invisible black holes. Some scientists question whether dark matter is even real, and suggest that the mysteries it was conjured to solve could be explained by a better understanding of gravity.

5. Exoplanets

Credit: ESO

Until about the early 1990s, the only known planets in the universe were the familiar ones in our solar system. Astronomers have since identified more than 500 extrasolar planets (as of November 2010). They range from gargantuan gas worlds whose masses are just shy of being stars to small, rocky ones orbiting dim, red dwarfs. Searches for a second Earth, however, are still ongoing. Astronomers generally believe that better technology is likely to eventually reveal worlds similar to our own.

6. Gravity Waves

Credit: Henze/NASA

Gravity waves are distortions in the fabric of space-time predicted by Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. The gravitational waves travel at the speed of light, but they are so weak that scientists expect to detect only those created during colossal cosmic events, such as black hole mergers like the one shown above. LIGO and LISA are two detectors designed to spot the elusive waves.

7. Galactic Cannibalism

Credit: F. Summers/C. Mihos/L. Hemquist

Like life on Earth, galaxies can "eat" each other and evolve over time. The Milky Way's neighbor, Andromeda, is currently dining on one of its satellites. More than a dozen star clusters are scattered throughout Andromeda, the cosmic remains of past meals. The image above is from a simulation of Andromeda and our galaxy colliding, an event that will take place in about 3 billion years.

8. Neutrinos

Credit: Jeff Miller/NSF/U. of Wisconsin-Madison

Neutrinos are electrically neutral, virtually mass-less elementary particles that can pass through miles of lead unhindered. Some are passing through your body as you read this. These "phantom" particles are produced in the inner fires of burning, healthy stars as well as in the supernova explosions of dying stars. Detectors are being embedded underground, beneath the sea, or into a large chunk of ice as part of IceCube, a neutrino-detecting project.

9.Quasars

Credit: NASA-MSFC

These bright beacons shine to us from the edges of the visible universe and are reminders to scientists of our universe's chaotic infancy. Quasars release more energy than hundreds of galaxies combined. The general consensus is that they aremonstrous black holes in the hearts of distant galaxies. This image is of quasar 3C 273, photographed in 1979.

10. Vacuum Energy

Credit: NASA-JSC-ES&IA

Quantum physics tells us that contrary to appearances, empty space is a bubbling brew of "virtual" subatomic particles that are constantly being created and destroyed. The fleeting particles endow every cubic centimeter of space with a certain energy that, according to general relativity, produces an anti-gravitational force that pushes space apart. Nobody knows what's really causing the accelerated expansion of the universe, however.

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Weird Science/Walking cactus discovered in China

Scientists have discovered what researchers are calling the missing link in China. The strange-looking walking cactus is thought to be the link between worm-like creatures and arthropods like spiders.

Walking cactus: An illustration showing the walking cactus; the missing link between lobopodians and arthropods.  credit: Jianni Liu/AFP/Newscom

Fossils of a 10-legged wormy creature that lived 520 million years ago may fill an important gap in the history of the evolution of insects, spiders and crustaceans.

The so-called walking cactus belongs to a group of extinct worm-like creatures called lobopodians that are thought to have given rise to arthropods. Spiders and other arthropods have segmented bodies and jointed limbs covered in a hardened shell.

Before the discovery of the walking cactus, Diania cactiformis, all lobopodian remains had soft bodies and soft limbs, said Jianni Liu, the lead researcher who is affiliated with Northwest University in China and Freie University in Germany.

"Walking cactus is very important because it is sort of a missing link from lobopodians to arthropods," Liu told LiveScience. "Scientists have always suspected that arthropods evolved from somewhere amongst lobopodians, but until now we didn't have a single fossil you could point at and say that is the first one with jointed legs. And this is what walking cactus shows."

Leggy find

Liu and other researchers described the extinct creature based on three complete fossils and 30 partial ones discovered in Yunnan Province in southern China. The walking cactus had a body divided into nine segments with 10 pairs of hardened, jointed legs, and it measured about 2.4 inches (6 centimeters) long.

It's not clear how the leggy worm made its living. It could have used its tube-like mouth called a proboscis to suck tiny things from the mud, or it may have used its spiny front legs to grab prey, Liu said.

Clues to arthropod evolution are preserved in modern-day velvet worms, which are considered the only living relative to all arthropods. Once mistaken for slugs, these land-dwelling worms are almost entirely soft-bodied except for hardened claws and jaws.

Where spiders, insects and others came from

The discovery of the walking cactus helps fill in the evolutionary history between the velvet worms and modern arthropods, which, in terms of numbers and diversity, are the most dominant group of animals on the planet, according to Graham Budd, a professor of paleobiology at Uppsala University in Sweden, who was not involved in the current study.

The walking cactus is the first and only case of hardened, jointed limbs built for walking appearing in a creature that is not recognizable as an arthropod, Budd said.

But Budd is not convinced that, as the researchers argue, the walking cactus's hardened legs were passed directly down to modern arthropods.

"I am not persuaded that it is a direct ancestor or as closely related to living arthropods as they suggest," he told LiveScience. "I would like to see more evidence; the great thing is a lot more material keeps coming up."

For instance, it is possible that the walking cactus is less closely related to modern arthropods, and that hardened legs evolved multiple times. It is also possible that the bodies of primitive arthropods hardened before their legs did, Budd said.

New fossils, particularly from China, have helped clarify the evolutionary history of arthropods, and in the last decade or so, scientists have come to more consensus regarding that history, he added.

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10 Biggest Bugs on Earth

Appreciation for nature is easy when it comes to the cute, the little, the non-threatening creatures...but what about the massive insects and arachnids on these pages, many of which are endangered or threatened: How would you feel facing down a spider the size of a dinner plate or an 8-inch-long beetle?

Giant Weta

New Zealand's giant weta gets its name from the Maori word for "god of bad looks" -- and it's not hard to see why.

The giant weta could hardly be called pretty but it has a fascinating history: Scientists believe this species shared its land with dinosaurs, and had no local predators until European settlers introduced rats to the island.

Though there are more than 70 weta species on the island, 16 of them are endangered or threatened, and the country's Department of Conservation is hard at work trying to save them.

The giant weta is one of the world's heaviest insects: They can grow as long as three inches and weigh up to 1.5 ounces -- check out the tomato in the background for a size comparison.

Stag Beetle

The three-inch-long male stag beetle may be most easily recognized by its spiky front antlers -- also known as mandibles -- which are a key part of courtship rituals and wrestling matches; you'd have more to fear from the slightly smaller females, though, which don't have the giant spikes but do have a more fearsome bite.

The beetles thrive on dead wood, but its numbers appear to be dwindling: Researchers point to the long maturation time -- 4 years from larvae to adult -- and "the over-zealous tidying of dead timber and stumps," according to ARKive.

Goliath Beetle

It's hard to get a real sense of how massive the Goliath beetle is from this picture, although the smaller bugs around it can help with the scale.

These beetles are just one member of the 30,000-strong scarab family, which has roamed the Earth for 300 million years, and reportedly holds the record for world's heaviest insect: One topped out at 4.5 inches long and 3.5 ounces.

Giant Walking Stick

Not all giant bugs are outfitted with terrifyingly sharp jaws and a suit of external armor: The giant walking stick looks practically dainty next to these plus-sized beetles. Or at least, it would look that way if you could spot it -- these insects are some of the most successful hiders in the world, with bodies that very closely match the trees and branches where they live.

Female walking sticks are often larger than the males, and have been known to reach as long as 21 inches when measured from toe to toe. You'll find them almost worldwide, in tropical regions and some temperate zones, where they take shelter under plants during the day and feast on leaves at night.

Queen Alexandra Birdwing Butterfly

When it comes to insects, butterflies are the kind many find beautiful on a grand scale -- which is a good thing for the Queen Alexandra Birdwing, because their wingspan can reach as much as one foot across.

The brightly colored males and more subdued females are found in rainforests and are native to New Guinea, but habitat destruction has left them endangered. Their diet -- they thrive on pipeline plant, which is poisonous to most other creatures -- adds to their allure.

Titan Beetle

The Latin name of this beetle pretty much says it all: Titanus giganteus.

Not only is it big for a beetle -- it's the most massive member of its species, longhorn beetles, and the longest beetle found so far in the Amazon rainforest -- it's just plain huge, with adults reaching as long as 8 inches in length. That's longer than some Chihuahuas, the Natural History Museum points out, to put this length in perspective.

Wikipedia claims that the larvae of the titan beetle have never been seen in person, but that "boreholes thought to be created by titan beetle larvae seem to fit a grub over two inches wide and perhaps as much as one foot long."

Dung Beetle

Though the dung beetle doesn't have the size advantage of some of the other beetles and bugs on this list, it overpowers them in one key weigh: It's gifted with Hulk-type strength.

While larger animals can carry more weight overall, they can't carry as much proportional weight; the dung beetle can move items with a mass that's 1,141 times heavier than itself. (To borrow an example, this would the equivalent of a human pulling 180,000 pounds, or "six full double-decker buses").

But why are they so strong? Researchers explained that males need to be tough enough to fight off rivals who would try to pull them out of the holes they go into in order to mate with females.

Giant Water Bug

It's not unusual for water bugs to be mistaken for cockroaches -- but at four inches long, the giant water bugs are noticeably bigger. These bugs thrive near slow-moving water where they can eat tadpoles and small fish (and survive on crickets when in captivity).

The small, round sacs on the back of this male water bug are eggs; the female water bug lays them on his back, secreting a gluey liquid to attach them, and the male carries them until they hatch.

Atlas Moth

The Atlas moth, so called for either the mythological Greek giant of the same name or the wing patterns that look like maps, has the biggest wing surface of the moth family (many have more than 62 square inches of wing, though they don't have the widest wingspan).

The Atlas lives primarily in Southeast Asia, where residents rely on its silk. Instead of spinning one endless strand, the moth's silk comes out in broken pieces, but it's also considered a sturdier substance.

Goliath Bird-Eating Spider

We'll expand the category of "bug" to include this massive arachnid, the Goliath bird-eating spider, which -- though it's the size of a dinner plate -- is relatively harmless to humans.

But it's not so harmless if you're a frog, lizard, small snake, or -- yes -- baby bird: The toothless spider incapacitates its victim by using the venom in its fangs, and then spits digestive juices onto the prey so that it can "slurp up its meal," says Extreme Science. "All that's left when the spider has finished its meal is bones, skin, fur, and/or feathers."

Source: Animal Planet

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Sc/Earth Had Two Moons, New Model Suggests

Earth may have once had two moons, but one was destroyed in a slow-motion collision that left our current lunar orb lumpier on one side than the other, scientists say.

Astronomers have long been puzzled by the differences between the side of the moon that always faces Earth—the near side—and the side that always faces away, the far side. The topography of the near side is relatively low and flat, while that of the far side is high and mountainous with a much thicker crust.

According to a new computer model, this discrepancy can be explained if a smaller "companion moon" collided with our moon's far side early in its history. Such a collision would have left the far side splattered with especially hard rocky material that now forms the current lunar highlands.

For the theory to work, the smaller moon must have crashed into the larger one at about 4,400 miles (7,081 kilometers) an hour.

"This is the slowest possible collision the two massive bodies could have if they fell into each other’s gravity," explained study co-author Erik Asphaug, a planetary scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC).

At this relatively slow speed, the far-side collision wouldn’t have been energetic enough to melt rock or carve out a crater. But it would have been forceful enough to plaster material from the smaller moon onto the larger moon.

"It's like a car crash, where you have crumpled bumpers but you don't melt the cars as they're colliding," Asphaug said. "This is the same kind of phenomenon."

The new theory, by Asphaug and UCSC postdoctoral researcher Martin Jutzi, is detailed in the current issue of the journal Nature.

According to their model, the two moons coexisted peacefully for about 80 million years, each in its own stable orbit. The moons were the same color and composition, but one was about three times larger than the other, Asphaug said.

"Our moon looked like a big dinner plate in the sky ... and when it set, there was this other moon trailing it by about 60 degrees," he said.

This brief period of lunar harmony was shattered, according to the model, when natural gravitational interactions with Earth caused both moons to drift farther away from our planet. The sun's gravitational tug then destabilized the smaller moon’s orbit and caused it to fall into its larger sibling.

Though not very energetic, the collision would have ejected trillions of tons of lunar debris into space, obscuring both moons for several days.

"When the dust cleared, you had one moon that might have looked similar to our moon today," Asphaug said.

For up to a million years after the event, Earth would have been bombarded by moon bits of various sizes, the biggest of which could have been as much as 62 miles (100 kilometers) across.

"You'd have meteors raining down all over the sky for a long period of time," Asphaug said, though there probably would have been no life yet on Earth to witness the spectacular sky shows.

Lunar Smashup Opens Up "Cool Problems"

Astronomer Jeffrey Taylor of the University of Hawaii said the new moon theory is very interesting and worth further investigation.

Asphaug and Jutzi's model not only accounts for the moon's asymmetry, Taylor said, but the findings also explain the fates of the smaller, companion satellites that another theory predicts should have formed alongside our moon.

One of the leading theories for how our moon formed is that it was born after a Mars-size planet crashed into Earth shortly after the solar system's formation about 4.5 billion years ago.

Scientists think the earlier smashup created a ring of molten rock debris around Earth, which eventually coalesced into several bodies, including our current moon.)

But "if that's the case, what happened [to the smaller moons]? This is one thing that could have happened to them," said Taylor, who was not involved in the study.

The new theory isn't without its problems, however. For example, it doesn't explain why the lumpy far side of our moon shows a high concentration of aluminum, Taylor said.

If the two moons had formed from the same material, as is assumed, the companion moon—and its splatterings—should have been low in aluminum, like our own moon's interior.

However, this problem could be resolved by future lunar studies, Taylor said, and it's not a serious enough reason to dismiss the theory.

"If anything," he said, "it just opens up more cool problems to work on."

Credit: National Geographic News

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Sc/ Pitch black: The mystery of a darkest planet ever seen

Darkest planet ever discovered is a gas giant but reflects only 1 percent of the light falling on it. Scientists speculate an unknown chemical or gas is absorbing light.

An alien world blacker than coal, the darkest planet known, has been discovered in the galaxy.

The distant exoplanet TrES-2b, shown here in an artist's conception, reflects less than one percent of the light that falls on it, making it blacker than any planet or moon in our solar system. CREDIT:

David A. Aguilar (CfA)/Space.com

The world in question is a giant the size of Jupiter known as TrES-2b. NASA's Kepler spacecraft detected it lurking around the yellow sun-like star GSC 03549-02811 some 750 light years away in the direction of the constellation Draco.

The researchers found this gas giant reflects less than 1 percent of the sunlight falling on it, making it darker than any planet or moon seen up to now. [The Strangest Alien Planets]

"It's just ridiculous how dark this planet is, how alien it is compared to anything we have in our solar system," study lead-author David Kipping, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told SPACE.com. "It's darker than the blackest lump of coal, than dark acrylic paint you might paint with. It's bizarre how this huge planet became so absorbent of all the light that hits it."

Whereas Jupiter has clouds streaking it white and red, reflecting more than a third of the sunlight reaching it, TrES-2b apparently lacks reflective clouds, super-heated as its atmosphere is to more than 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (980 degrees Celsius) by a star just 3.1 million miles (5 million kilometers) away from it.

"However, it's not completely pitch black," co-author David Spiegel of Princeton University said in a statement. "It's so hot that it emits a faint red glow, much like a burning ember or the coils on an electric stove."

The researchers propose that light-absorbing chemicals such as vaporized sodium and potassium or gaseous titanium oxide in the planet's atmosphere could help explain why it is so dark. Still, none of these can fully explain why the world is as stealthily cloaked as it is.

"It's a mystery as to what's causing it to be so dark," Kipping said. "There's a good chance it's a chemical we haven't even thought of yet."

The astronomers think TrES-2b is tidally locked like our moon, such that one side of the planet always faces the star. This would lead it to change phases as it orbits its star just as our moon waxes and wanes from new to crescent to full, causing the total brightness of the star plus the planet to vary slightly over time.

"By combining the impressive precision from Kepler with observations of over 50 orbits, we detected the smallest-ever change in brightness from an exoplanet — just 6 parts per million," said Kipping. "In other words, Kepler was able to directly detect visible light coming from the planet itself."

These extremely small fluctuations in light proved that TrES-2b is incredibly dark. A more reflective world would have shown larger brightness variations as its phase changed.

Although TrES-2b currently is the darkest known planet, similar worlds around other stars undoubtedly await discovery, the researchers said. For now, it reinforces the idea that our solar system may not be as typical as we once thought, with an extraordinary variety of worlds potentially filling our galaxy.

Additional investigation of the more than 1,200 prospective worlds that Kepler has detected could turn up other unusually dark planets. The spacecraft, which launched in March 2009, is planned to run until at least November 2012.

"If Kepler gets an extended mission as we're hoping, it would be a huge boost to this kind of research," Kipping said.

Kipping and Spiegel detailed their findings in a study accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Credit:  Charles Q. Choi, Space.com

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