Zoology

Belgian scientists have discovered the oldest ever fossil of the common mouse-eared bat, proving the species already existed more than 33 million years ago.

A 22-year-old woman who has confessed to throwing her infant child down a light shaft in the building where she lives has been given until Friday to prepare her defense by an investigative magistrate who visited her at Alexandra Hospital in Athens, where she is receiving treatment for shock.

A 22-year-old woman who allegedly told the police that she left her newly-born infant in the light shaft of the Athens apartment block where she lives shortly after living birth was receiving treatment for shock in the capital's Alexandra hospital on Wednesday.

A giant fossilised tooth from a prehistoric shark has gone missing from a supposedly secret location at a remote Australian World Heritage site, and wildlife officials want it back.

Bulgaria has agreed to send two lion cubs recently rescued from an illegal zoo in the northern city of Razgrad to a rescue centre for big cats in Holland, run by Four Paws International, an animal rights group announced on Friday.

An international team of veterinarians of the Four Paws Foundation is looking at the lions at the zoo in Razgrad today. The Animal Action is part of an agreement between the organization and the mayor of the municipality, Dr. Valentin Vassilev, to improve the conditions for the animals in the zoo, explained Yavor Gechev of the Four Paws Foundation, quoted by bTV.

NASA has announced some preliminary results from its Twins Study, an effort to study the effects of space travel on human health. The early findings suggest space travel boosts methylation, the process of switching genes on and off.

The customers of a local fishmonger in the city of Agrinio in central Greece could not believe their eyes when they saw a huge shark hanging on a hook outside the shop. Fishermen from Agrinio made the amazing catch some days ago in the Ionian Sea near the island of Kefalonia. The shark, which weighed 300kg was caught in the nets of the fishermen at depth of 500 metres.

Fishermen in the town of Marathopolis in the south western Peloponnese caught a 180kg shark near the isles of Strofades. The fish was nearly 3 metres in length and according to local news-site gargalianoionline.gr, the fishing boat had difficulty hauling the shark on board due to its weight.

The number of reports of animal cruelty in Bulgaria is increasing, reported bTV.

Society is becoming more and more sensitive to aggression against animals but people do not always report to the emergency number 112.