The remains of a Balaur bondoc, a relative of the Velociraptor, has been found in Romania. It is the first-meat-eating dinosaur to be describe which live in Europe during the final 60 million years of the dinosaurs.

“Balaur might be one of the largest predators in this ecosystem because not even a big tooth has been found in Romania after over a hundred years of research,” paleontologist Zoltan Csiki of the University of Bucharest in Romania said in a press release. Csiki is the lead researcher of the discovery announced Aug. 30 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The new dinosaur was about 6 to 7 feet long. It had functional big toes with large claws — presumably for slashing prey — in addition to a claw on the second toe that is typical of the group of dinosaurs. Its feet and legs were short and stocky, with bones fused together, and large muscle attachment areas on its pelvis, indicating the dinosaur was built for strength over speed. Its hands were atrophied, so Balaur likely used its feet rather than its hands to grasp prey.

“Its anatomy shows that it probably hunted in a different way than its less stocky relatives,” said paleontologist Stephan Brusatte of Columbia University in a press release. “Compared to Velociraptor, Balaur was probably more of a kick boxer than a sprinter, and it might have been able to take down larger animals than itself, as many carnivores do today.”

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Archaeologists in Turkey have unearthed two obsidian blades used as bronze age surgical tools and skulls showing evidence of scarring.

What makes you think they were used for surgery?

We have found traces of cuts on skulls in a nearby graveyard. Out of around 700 skulls, 14 have these marks. They could only have been cut with a very sharp tool. At this time, 4000 years ago or more, it could only have been an obsidian blade. The cut marks show that a blade was used to make a rectangular opening all the way through the skull. We know that patients lived at least two to three years after the surgery, because the skull has tried to close the wound.

Have you uncovered any clues to why this surgery was performed?

There seem to be three main reasons. The first is to relieve the pressure of a brain haemorrhage; we found traces of blood on the inside of some of the skulls. The second is to treat patients with brain cancer, as we can see pressure traces from the cancer inside some of the skulls. And the final reason was to treat head injuries, which seem to have been quite common. The people of Ikiztepe got their copper from mines in the local mountains, and we think they had to fight other local people for access to it.

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The famous Magna Carta, which has been lying in a sealed box containing helium, will soon be moved to a new box filled with Argon.

The very first Magna Carta dates to 1215, when English barons forced King John to write down the traditional rights and liberties of the country’s free persons. A copy of the Magna Carta signed by King Edward I in 1297 currently resides within a helium-filled casement at the National Archives Building in Washington. But the medieval document is scheduled for a temporary removal in 2011 so it can be re-measured for a new case filled with argon.

Researchers worried that helium atoms, which are relatively small, could escape from the case holding the Magna Carta, leaving the 713-year-old animal skin parchment susceptible to degradation. Those fears proved unfounded, but the National Archives has chosen to preserve the parchment in another inert gas, argon, whose larger atoms have proven easier to contain.

“Argon is used to displace oxygen and any moisture that may be remaining in the encasement area, to preserve the document and minimize degradation,” said Mark Luce, an engineer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

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A mitochondrial DNA study of cave bears suggest that cavemen hunted them to extinction.

Now an international team of scientists analyzing DNA in 17 newly identified fossils of cave bears has revealed the decline started 50,000 years ago, “much earlier than previously suggested, at a time when no major climate change was taking place, but which does coincide with the start of human expansion,” said researcher Aurora Grandal-D’Anglade at the University of Coruña in Spain.

The scientists compared 59 DNA sequences from cave bear mitochondria – the powerhouses within their cells – with 40 modern and fossil DNA samples from brown bears (Ursus arctos) to find out why the former went extinct while the latter did not.

Their findings suggest that cave bear genetic diversity – a clue to how many there were – began declining 50,000 years ago. Other fossil evidence reveals they ceased to be abundant in Central Europe roughly 35,000 years ago. (Diversity of genes can provide indirect evidence for the number of breeding individuals, because with more bears mating more genes are thrown into the mix, and vice versa.)

“This can be attributed to increasing human expansion and the resulting competition between humans and bears for land and shelter,” Grandal-D’Anglade explained.

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The remains of two 5,000-year-old villages have been found in Mongolia.

he archaeologistsin north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region found the ruins in Hamin’aile Village, of Horqin Left-wing Middle Banner (County).

The remains were identified in the spring as possibly originating from Hongshan Culture, dating back 5,000 years, said Ji Ping, a researcher at the Institute of Cultural and Historical Relics and Archaeology of Inner Mongolia.

About 1,200 square meters had been excavated out of an estimated 200,000 square meters, and homes and tombs had been discovered, said Ji, reports Xinhua.Pitted earthenware, such as jars and pots, were also found, which was the first time that have been unearthed in the prehistoric ruins in northeast China,” he said.

“We have also found bones of deer and rodent animals, on which we suppose they lived by hunting,” he added.

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