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TRENTON, N.J. - Elena Slough, documented as the nation's oldest person, died Sunday at the nursing home where her daughter died three days before. She was 114 or 115, according to different sources. Slough died in her sleep at the Victoria Manor Nursing Home, where she and her 90-year-old daughter, Wanda Allen, lived, according to Judy Moudy, a supervisor at the Lower Township facility. The Gerontology Research Group said Slough was born on July 8, 1889, making her 114 years old at the time of her death. But Krista Rickards, director of marketing at Victoria Manor, said Slough's son...

The discovery of the world's oldest genitals proves that little has changed over the last 400 million years - at least for daddy-long-legs. Fossils of harvestmen arachnids (Opiliones) have been found by palaeontologists in an ancient rock at Rhynie near Aberdeen in Scotland. Preserved within a male is a penis two-thirds the length of his body, and on a female there is a long egg-laying organ known as an ovipositor. The organs are remarkably similar to those in modern-day species of harvestmen. Dubbed daddy-long-legs along with crane flies, harvestmen are not formally classified as spiders because they do not spin...

<p>TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- A Japanese woman believed to be the oldest person in the world has turned 116.</p> <p>Born in 1887, when Japan was still in the throes of its conversion from samurai rule to modern democracy, Kamato Hongo was recognized as the world's oldest living person by the Guinness Book of Records after an American woman -- Maude Farris-Luse -- died last March at the age of 115.</p>

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The oldest planet ever detected is nearly 13 billion years old and more than twice the size of Jupiter, locked in orbit around a whirling pulsar and a white dwarf, astronomers said on Thursday. Compared with the relative youth and stability of our own celestial neighborhood, where Earth and the other planets orbit a single 5-billion-year-old star in a quiet neighborhood of the Milky Way, the ancient group that holds the oldest planet has had a boisterous past, scientists said at a NASA (news - web sites) briefing. The old planet is located near the heart of...

Oldest human skulls found By Jonathan Amos BBC News Online science staff Three fossilised skulls unearthed in Ethiopia are said by scientists to be among the most important discoveries ever made in the search for the origin of humans. Herto skull: Dated at between 160,000 and 154,000 years old (Image copyright: David L. Brill) The crania of two adults and a child, all dated to be around 160,000 years old, were pulled out of sediments near a village called Herto in the Afar region in the east of the country. They are described as the oldest known fossils of modern...

Anglo Saxon brooch has oldest writing in English By Paul Stokes (Filed: 07/06/2003) What is believed to be the oldest form of writing in English ever found has been uncovered in an Anglo-Saxon burial ground. It is in the form of four runes representing the letters N, E, I and M scratched on the back of a bronze brooch from around AD650. The six inch cruciform brooch is among one million artefacts recovered from a site at West Heslerton, near Malton, North Yorks, since work began there in 1978. Dominic Powlesland, the archaeologist leading the excavation team, said: "This could...

'Oldest sculpture' found in Morocco By Paul Rincon BBC Science A 400,000-year-old stone object unearthed in Morocco could be the world's oldest attempt at sculpture. The figurine was found 15 metres below ground That is the claim of a prehistoric art specialist who says the ancient rock bears clear signs of modification by humans. The object, which is around six centimetres in length, is shaped like a human figure, with grooves that suggest a neck, arms and legs. On its surface are flakes of a red substance that could be remnants of paint. The object was found 15 metres below...

52-year-old bird is Britain's oldest Ornithologists have found a 52-year-old Manx shearwater which they say is Britain's oldest known bird. They believe the bird, found on Bardsey Island off the Lleyn Peninsula, North Wales, will have flown about five million miles in its lifetime. It was first ringed in May 1957 when it was about six years old. The British Trust for Ornithology say it's a record breaker, reports The Times. It has flown at least 500,000 miles during winter migrations to South America. Add to that its 600-mile feeding flights and experts believe it has already flown more than...

Oldest Swords Found in Turkey By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News March 25, 2003 — The most ancient swords ever found were forged 5,000 years ago in what is today Turkey, according to Italian archaeologists who announced the results of chemical analysis at a recent meeting in Florence. Digging at Arslantepe, a site in the Taurus mountains of southeast Anatolia, Marcella Frangipane, professor at the department of historical science, archaeology and anthropology of antiquities of Rome University, found nine swords dating back to about 3,300 B.C. Blade and hilt were cast in one piece; moreover, three swords were beautifully inlaid with...

World's oldest wheel found in Slovenia, claim archaeologists Archaeologists claim to have unearthed the world's oldest wheel in Slovenia. Experts estimate that the wheel is between 5,100 and 5,350 years old. That makes it just 100 years older than the previous record-holders from Switzerland and southern Germany. The wheel, which is made of ash and oak, has a radius of 70 centimetres and is five centimetres thick. It was found buried beneath an ancient marsh settlement near the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana. Dr Anton Veluscek, from the Archeological Institute at the Slovenian Academy of Arts and Sciences, was part of...

Tuesday, 21 January, 2003, 10:50 GMT'Oldest star chart' found The carvings have been interpreted as a star map By Dr David Whitehouse BBC News Online science editor The oldest image of a star pattern, that of the famous constellation of Orion, has been recognised on an ivory tablet some 32,500 years old. The tiny sliver of mammoth tusk contains a carving of a man-like figure with arms and legs outstretched in the same pose as the stars of Orion. The claim is made by Dr Michael Rappenglueck, formerly of the University of Munich, who is already renowned for his pioneering...

Oldest Section of Great Wall Identified By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News The Great Wall from Space Nov. 11 — The first section of the Great Wall of China was constructed in the central portion of the country around 688 B.C., Chinese archaeologists announced at a recent academic conference in Henan Province. If their claim holds true, the Great Wall is over 400 years older than previously thought. Before the announcement, the first official work on the wall generally was attributed to Emperor Shi Huangdi of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.). At the conference, Xiao Luyang, director of the Institute of...

Oldest, largest primitive village unearthed in north China Xinhuanet 2002-10-28 17:00:53 ¡¡¡¡HOHHOT, Oct. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- A 8,200-year-old village of Xinglongwa Culture was recently discovered in the Aohan Banner, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. ¡¡¡¡The oldest village site so far discovered in China, it is also the largest and most well-preserved, announced the archeologists whose excavation of the Xinglonggou Site near the Xiliao River came to a close Oct. 25. ¡¡¡¡According to Liu Guoxiang, assistant researcher with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 11 house foundations, 10 graves and 12 ash pits were found there. ¡¡¡¡The foundations unearthed are half-underground...

Britain's oldest bird is still going strong Britain's oldest wild bird has reached the age of 50 and is thought to have flown five million miles. Records from the national bird ringing scheme show the Manx shearwater has been flying between the British Isles and South America for half a century. The seabird was discovered in a colony on the island of Bardsey which lies off the Lleyn peninsula in north Wales. The bird has been ringed four times, in 1957, 1961, 1977 and earlier this month. It was thought to be around five years old when ringed for the...