A 67-million-year-old snake fossil has been found, eating baby dinosaurs.

Scientists have found a 67 million-year-old fossil of a snake coiled around dinosaur eggs and a hatchling. This is the first evidence of snakes eating dinosaurs.

“It’s a stunning, once-in-a-lifetime find,” said paleontologist Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago, who was not involved in the study. “We’ve caught one of the rarest moments in the fossil record, which is prey and predator, together.”

Geologist Dhanajay Mohabey of the Indian Geological Survey first unearthed the fossil 26 years ago in a rocky, limestone outcropping in the northwestern Indian village of Dholi Dungri. He thought all the bones at the site were those of dinosaur hatchlings.

But in 2001, University of Michigan paleontologist Jeff Wilson, took a second look at the fossils. The team then recognized they had actually found a snake coiled around a broken egg, with a hatchling and two other eggs nearby. The findings appeared Mar. 1 in Public Library of Science Biology.

The newly discovered species of snake, Sanajeh indicus, measures about 11.5 feet long. The hatchlings, part of a group called titanosaurs, measured about a foot and a half long. Titanosaurs were the largest animal to ever walk on land, with adults that could reach up to 100 feet long.

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The earliest evidence of humans in India has been found, dating back more than 74,000 years, about 15,000 years earlier than previously thought.

Newly discovered archaeological sites in southern and northern India have revealed how people lived before and after the colossal Toba volcanic eruption 74,000 years ago, according to Press Trust of India (PTI) on Tuesday.

The international and multidisciplinary research team, led by Oxford University in collaboration with Indian institutions, has uncovered what it calls ‘Pompeii-like excavations’ beneath the Toba ash.

The seven-year project examines the environment that humans lived in, their stone tools, as well as the plants and animal bones of the time.

“This suggests that human populations were present in India prior to 74,000 years ago, or about 15,000 years earlier than expected based on some genetic clocks,” said project director Michael Petraglia, Senior Research Fellow in the School of Archaeology at the University of Oxford.

The team has concluded that many forms of life survived he super-eruption, contrary to other research which has suggested significant animal extinctions and genetic bottlenecks.

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Restoration work has begun on the Thirumalai Naicker Palace, a 17th century building in India.

The Archaeological Survey of India has taken up preliminary work to restore an intact 17th century palace in south Tamil Nadu, the Thirumalai Naicker Palace, in this temple town. The ASI has also recommended that the palace be included in the tentative list of UNESCO’s world heritage sites.

The Srivilliputhur palace was declared a protected monument in 1921, but since the local district courts were functioning in the palace, it could not be reclaimed till the courts vacated the premises. The palace is spread over 15,000 sq.ft. and has two halls — the bigger one about 3,600 sq. ft and a smaller one of approximately 2,100 sq.ft and a few smaller rooms.

The ASI is investigating literature from 1623 to find any reference to the palace. A seal of the Queen on the ceiling of the main hall names the place as “Thirumal Naik’s Hall, Srivilliputhur Taluk Cutchery. Decorated in the jubilee year 1887 – of Her Most Gracious Majesty, Victoria, The Empress of India.” A second English writing, of a much later era, commemorates the death of eight persons from the village in World War 1: “From this village 52 men went to the Great War 1914-1919. Of those 8 gave up their lives.”

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Sadly, the last speaker of Bo, an ancient language, has died in India.

Professor Abbi – who runs the Vanishing Voices of the Great Andamanese (Voga) website – explained: “After the death of her parents, Boa was the last Bo speaker for 30 to 40 years.

“She was often very lonely and had to learn an Andamanese version of Hindi in order to communicate with people.

“But throughout her life she had a very good sense of humour and her smile and full-throated laughter were infectious.”

She said that Boa Sr’s death was a loss for intellectuals wanting to study more about the origins of ancient languages, because they had lost “a vital piece of the jigsaw”.

“It is generally believed that all Andamanese languages might be the last representatives of those languages which go back to pre-Neolithic times,” Professor Abbi said.

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Rudyard Kipling’s house in India is going to be turned into a museum, but the famous author will not be mentioned anywhere in the building because of political sensitivities.

“If we tried to convert it into a Kipling museum simply because Kipling was born there, that would ruffle quite a few feathers. In the political storm, you may find that the conservation effort would be set aside,” said Mukund Gorashkar, who is in charge of the project for the JSW Foundation, which plans to start the renovation work next month. Kipling was born in 1865 in the Dean’s bungalow in the grounds of the JJ School of Art in the bustling Victorian heart of the then Bombay. His father, John Lockwood Kipling, was the school’s first dean.

Kipling described the location of the bungalow in his poem To the City of Bombay. His experiences there formed the template for the character he created in his novel Kim – a white boy who is indistinguishable from the Indian children around him.

Mr Gorashkar said the municipal government officials with whom he had dealt since the project began had reprimanded him whenever he referred to the building as the Kipling house, and insisted that it be called the Dean’s house.

Sharad Keskar, Chairman of the Kipling Society, explained: “You have a fairly ignorant officialdom in India, who don’t know much about Kipling apart from that he was an imperialist or part of the Raj. Officially he’s still persona non grata. I think that is changing, but it’s rather a slow change.” The light green timber building, with its vast, airy rooms, and elegant gothic lattice work, is in urgent need of restoration after suffering severe water and termite damage while it was left empty between 2000 until 2007.

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