Bacteria trapped in suspended animation inside salt crystals for 250 million years have been revived and cultured by US scientists. Designated Bacillus 2-9-3, this species is ten times older than the previous oldest revived bacteria. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_978000/978774.stm http://www.wcupa.edu/%5Facademics/sch%5Fcas.bio/faculty/russ/russ.htm
The letter ‘O’ is unchanged in shape since its adoption in the Phoenician alphabet c. 1300BC. Information from Archives (e.e. 1996). Submitted for use in Scholastic’s Modern Marvels.
The fossil of a 1-cm-long (0.25 in) centipede found near Stonehaven, Scotland, UK, by bus driver and amateur palaeontologist Mike Newman(UK) is thought to be 428 million years old and the earliest evidence of a creature living on land rather than in the sea. Formally named Pneumodesmus newmani in 2004, the anthropod had spiracles – primitive air-breathing structures on the outside of its body – making it the oldest air-breathing creature yet to be discovered. Newman made his find on the foreshore of Cowie Harbour
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The record for the oldest Kuchipudi dancer is 59 and was achieved by Anuradha Subramanian (USA) at the Stafford Civic Centre in Houston, Texas, United States, on 2 September 2006. Anuradha Subramanian performed 7 dances, one of which lasted approximately 15-20 minutes. The Ganapathi Kavuthvam, Krishna Sabdam, Varnam, Devi Neeya Thunai, Brindavana Nilabye, Javali Vagalaadi, Bo Shambo Siva Shambo. Kuchipudi is a classical dance form from Andhra Pradesh, a state of South India. Kuchipudi is the name of a small village in the Divi Taluq
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The Holy Koran Mushaf of Othman, owned by the Muslim Board of Uzbekistan, once belonged to Caliph Othman (c.AD 588-656), third successor to the Prophet Mohammed. Only about half of the original 706 pages survive. It is currently in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
The oldest koala ever in captivity was Sarah, who died in 2001 aged 23 years old. Sarah was born in 1978 and lived at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, Queensland, Australia. The average age for a koala is 12 years in the wild and 16 in captivity. The Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary is also the oldest of the type in the world. The sanctuary also boasts the largest number of koalas in captivity, 134 (as of 30 April 2002), and claims to have the first
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A microgram sample of Plutonium-239 was produced using a 60 inch cyclotron at the University of California in Berkeley by a team headed by Glen T. Seabourg in 1941. The sample was stored in a cigar box until 1966 when Glen Seabourg and Emilio Segre presented it to the Museum of History and Technology at the Smithsonian Institute, where it resides today.
The oldest kinkajou (Potos flavus) ever in captivity was Sugar Bear, who lived to be 40 years and 6 months, when he died at Honolulu Zoo, Hawaii, USA in 2003. Sugar Bear’s date of birth was 8 June 1962, however there is no precise date for his death, apart from early 2003. The kinkajou (Indian for ‘Honey Bear’) is a member of the raccoon family, and related to the red panda. It is indigenous to the tropical forests in southern Mexico, Belize and southern Brazil.
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Carroll Basham (USA, b. 31 March 1925) had a kidney transplant operation aged 77 years 185 days on 2 October 2002 at the Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital, San Antonio, Texas, USA. His stepdaughter Nancy Hildenburg donated the kidney.
Madagascar, in the Indian Ocean, became an island around 80-100 million years ago, when it split off from the Indian subcontinent. With an area of 587,041 km² (226,657 miles²), it ranks as the fourth largest island in the world.