Scientists at Oregon State University and London's Natural History Museum have announced the discovery of 100-million-year-old remains of a gecko, pushing back the known life history of geckos 40 million years.

A tiny foot, toes and part of a tail were found entombed in amber — fossilized resin or tree sap. The rest of the lizard was missing, perhaps eaten by a predator or scavenger eons ago in the tropical forests of what is now Myanmar.

What's left of the gecko, however, is remarkably preserved. Researchers say they can still see the tiny lamellae, or sticky toe hairs, that allow geckos — then and now — to cling to surfaces and even run upside down across ceilings.

There are more than 1,200 species of gecko in the world today, mostly in warm or tropical regions. Most species are relatively small, the largest growing no more than 16 inches.

Judging by the number of lamellae on the ancient gecko's toe pads, scientists estimated it to be a 1-inch-long juvenile who would have grown to a foot as an adult. The specimen represents a new genus and species, and has been dubbed Cretaceogekko after the Lower Cretaceous period in which it lived.

VERBATIM

"There's always going to be a spore on the grassy knoll."

— Vahid Majidi, head of the FBI's weapons of mass destruction unit, on why the case against suspected (and now-deceased) anthrax mailer Bruce Ivins will never completely satisfy everyone

BRAIN SWEAT

I am thinking of a number between 99 and 999.

1. The number is below 500.

2. It is a square number.

3. It is a cube number.

4. The first and last digits are 5, 7 or 9.

One of the first three statements is a lie. What is the number?

PRIME NUMBERS

10 million — Estimated minimum mass, in number of times greater than the sun, required to form a galaxy

$15,000 — Reported new price (beginning Nov. 1) for a standard purportedly hypoallergenic cat sold by Lifestyle Pets/Allerca, a Delaware-based company (up from $5,950)

20 — Estimated percentage of world's food grown in urban areas, often using untreated sewage water

Sources: Louis Strigari et al., UC Irvine; The Scientist; New Scientist

BRAIN SWEAT ANSWER

The first statement is false. The only square and cube number between 99 and 999 whose first and last digits are 5, 7 or 9 is 729.

'TRUE FACTS'

The first two moon landings occurred in places with distinctly different names: the Sea of Tranquility and the Ocean of Storms.

BLOGOSPHERE

Fungifest

fungifest.com

The site is a self-described harbinger of mycological news, events, foods and other trivia. In other words, it is meant for mushroom lovers.

QUIRKS OF NATURE

Chocolate, avocado, onions, tomato leaves and dried beans can all be toxic to birds.

SURELY YOU'RE JOKING

Did you hear about the chemist who was reading a book about helium and couldn't put it down?

OUR IGNOBEL HISTORY

Country music is known to dwell upon the human condition, usually bad issues like marital discord, alcohol abuse and alienation from work. Oh sure, there are songs about love, but often it's lost love.

Steven Stack of Wayne State University in Michigan and James Gundlach of Auburn University in Alabama wondered if the effects of all those downer tunes were psychologically quantifiable. The resulting paper, published in 1992: "The effect of country music on suicide."

Examining statistics from 49 cities, Stack and Gundlach found that the greater percentage of radio time devoted to country music in a place, the higher the percentage of suicide among whites. The black suicide rate was apparently unaffected.

For their chart-busting work, Stack and Gundlach received the 2004 Ig Nobel Prize in medicine.

(Stack has gone on to investigate connections between suicide and other forms of music. His conclusions: Opera and heavy-metal lovers are more accepting of suicide; blues fans are not.)

ANTHROPOLOGY 101

The Maltese once thought that if a pregnant woman longed for something she could not have, her baby would develop a birthmark. To minimize this unwanted consequence, mothers were encouraged to touch their buttocks at such moments, thus encouraging the birthmark to appear on the baby's rear end, where it would be less noticeable.

WHERE IN THE WORLD ANSWER

In north-central Kazakhstan, the Nura River connects a series of ponds and lakes. In the west (left side of image) is Lake Tengiz, a salt lake with no outlet and fluctuating depth. In the east are the Korgaljinski (or Kourgaldzhin) lakes, a network of freshwater lakes mixed with marshland. These lakes are home to hundreds of plant and bird species; the area may be the world's most northern site for nesting flamingos.

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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