Doctors in Peru have found a “parasitic twin” in the stomach of a three-year-old boy, and plan to surgically remove the tissue.
Dr Carlos Astocondor of the medical team at Las Mercedes Hospital in Chiclayo said the condition occurs in about one of every 500,000 live births. He added that the partially formed foetus weighs a pound and a half and is nine inches long.
Dr Astocondor said the brain, heart, lungs and intestines never developed after the foetus was absorbed by the other foetus inside the mother’s womb. He said it has some hair on the cranium, eyes and some bones.
Eleven per cent admit to office sex
Check the CCTV – eleven per cent of employees surveyed have admitted to having sex in the office, according to a recent survey by leading office design company Maris Interiors. And it’s not just one-off events, seven per cent of those asked claim that this is a practice they indulge in regularly.
When asked if they would ever consider a liaison in the office, 44 per cent of men responded that they would – but only 27 per cent of women thought an office liaison sounded an appealing prospect.
Of those who admitted to “relations” at work, the most popular location was the employee’s own desk (38 per cent), with other settings including the meeting room (14 per cent), the car park (12 per cent), toilets (eight per cent) and the boss’s desk (five per cent).
Tiny footprints in dinosaur nests
Tiny footprints and fossil embryos at the oldest dinosaur nesting site ever found have revealed new details about how these ancient creatures reared their young.
The nests belong to mid-sized dinosaurs from the Early Jurassic Period known as Massospondylus, which grew to four to six metres long as adults. Their eggs, however, are only six centimetres in diameter. The traces left behind show that hatchlings stayed in the nest until they doubled in size, and that the young Massospondylus walked on four legs while young, but then likely stood upright on two legs as adults.
The analysis led by Canadian and South African researchers is based on findings at an excavation in Golden Gate Highlands National Park in South Africa and the fossils date to 190 million years ago.
Doves are slow to taste freedom
A pair of doves seemed to prefer the company of Pope Benedict XVI to the great outdoors yesterday when he had trouble convincing them to take flight in a traditional peace gesture.
The first dove hesitated on the windowsill of the Pope’s Vatican apartment for a long spell before flying off, while the second flew back into the room before flying out again.
“They want to stay in the Pope’s home,” Pope Benedict said, flanked by two children.
The traditional release of doves from the Vatican City State takes place each year at the end of the“peace month” organised by the Catholic Action Rome, a lay group that seeks to promote Catholic influence on all society.