Did you know?: Early flying dinosaur hunted slippery fish!

Prior to this, paleontologists believed microraptors, which were about the size of a modern day hawk, lived in trees where they preyed exclusively on small birds and mammals about the size of squirrels.

Microraptor, a small flying dinosaur was a complete hunter, able to swoop down and pickup fish as well as its previously known prey of birds and tree dwelling mammals, a University of Alberta led research has revealed.
U of A paleontology graduate student Scott Persons said that new evidence of Microrpator`s hunting ability came from fossilized remains in China.

“We were very fortunate that this Microraptor was found in volcanic ash and its stomach content of fish was easily identified,” he stated.
Prior to this, paleontologists believed microraptors, which were about the size of a modern day hawk, lived in trees where they preyed exclusively on small birds and mammals about the size of squirrels.

“Now we know that Microraptor operated in varied terrain and had a varied diet. It took advantage of a variety of prey in the wet, forested environment that was China during the early Cretaceous period, 120 million years ago,” said Persons.

Further analysis of the fossil revealed that its teeth were adapted to catching slippery, wiggling prey like fish. Dinosaur researchers have established that most meat eaters had teeth with serrations on both sides that like a steak knife helped the predator saw through meat.
But the Microraptor`s teeth are serrated on just one side and its teeth are angled forwards.“Microraptor seems adapted to impale fish on its teeth. With reduced serrations the prey wouldn`t tear itself apart while it struggled,” said Persons.

“Microraptor could simply raise its head back, the fish would slip off the teeth and be swallowed whole, no fuss no muss,” he added.Persons likens the Microraptor`s wing configuration to a bi-plane. “It had long feathers on its forearms, hind legs and tail. It was capable of short, controlled flights,” he said
This is the first evidence of a flying raptor, a member of the Dromaeosaur family of dinosaurs to successfully prey on fish.

Rajnikanth in brand new avatar in 'Kochadaiyaan'!

The initial posters of the upcoming Tamil film Kochadaiyaan has just been released and it comes with a welcome surprise for the millions of fans of the southern superstar Rajnikanth. He is trying a classic literary story for the first time and here he will be seen in a much awaited double role, playing the part of both the father and the son. The new look of the superstar was revealed in an exclusive posted by movie critic and trade analyst Taran Aadarsh who tweeted “Xclusive pic from Kochadaiyaan”.

This Tamil period drama has been written by ace director KS Ravikumar and is directed by Soundarya Ashwin, the daughter of Rajnikanth. In a recent media event, Ravikumar was all praises about the upcoming film. He said, “I and Rajini like the movie very much. Soundarya has done a fabulous job in direction. There is a lot of strain involved in post production, and all efforts have paid us off very well." While he has claimed responsibility for story, direction, screenplay and supervision, the kudos for the extraordinary special effects go to Soundarya. According to rumors, the state of the art motion capture technology has been used to create the special effects.

The plot of the story revolves round a father son duo. The father is named Kochadaiyaan. He is a brave and resourceful lieutenant who is also a close confidante of a local ruler. His son is Rana who is actually more powerful than his father, but his wild energy needs to be tamed by the father. The dynamics between the two consist of a large part of the story, though it is Kochadaiyaan who dominates the story. Actress dancer Shobhana plays opposite Rajnikanth as the father while rumors that Deepika Padukone will be seen opposite the superstar as the son has now been confirmed. Apart from these, Jackie Shroff, R Sarathkumar, Rukmini Vijaykumar and Nassar will also be appearing in the film. The music has been composed by A R Rahman.

The film has highlighted the great acting capabilities as well as the artistic performance of Rajnikanth. Daughter Soundarya thinks that this is the best movie of the superstar’s career. Ravikumar has added in support of her, "The film has come out really well. It is prone to be a crowd favorite. I am sure that everyone will watch it more than just one time."

China realises India's maritime, aerospace capabilities: Lora Saalman!

China is fully aware about India's maritime and aerospace capabilities and is also monitoring the Indo-US relations albeit with a certain amount of "suspicion", an expert on Sino-India relations said here.

"China realises and recognises that India has made advances and has indigenous capabilities in maritime and aerospace arena," said Lora Saalman, associate, Nuclear Policy Programme at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Centre for Global Policy in Beijing.

Saalman was delivering a talk on 'Fractured Mirrors: Chinese Views of India Deterrence' at the Administrative Staff College of India here last evening organised by the US Consulate General Hyderabad.

She said Chinese are closely looking at the US-Indo relationship, adding "There is an argument on a side in China that India's relationship with US allows it to maintain a smaller (nuclear) arsenal."

"The focus has been on India-US relations in the last one decade (after the visit of Clinton and lifting of US sanctions on India). This kind of movement for greater engagement between the two countries (India-US) has been seen with certain amount of suspicion within China on what is the US and India's intention behind this," she said.

"When it comes to views on India's nuclear deterrence, domestic discourse (in China) becomes more fractious. A survey of Chinese sources uncovers over ten terms used to describe India's deterrence posture that reflect three primary shifts from defensive to offensive, regional to global and denial to control," she added.

Tradus.com offers best price of Rs. 16,399 for Micromax A116 Canvas HD

 The e-commerce portals in India are offering huge discounts on Micromax’s flagship phone A 116 Canvas HD Android smartphone.

E-commerce portal ‘tradus.com’ is offering a discount of almost 14% on this model of Micromax. Tradus.com is selling it at Rs. 16,399 as special offer whereas the manufacturer’s present MRP is 19,000.

The portal is offering free shipping, cash on delivery, original bill, manufactures warranty and 0% EMI options as well. The delivery time mentioned by the portal is up to 3 to 5 working days.

Micromax A116 HD sports a 5 inch HD IPS capacitive display running on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS. The mobile is powered by 1.2 GHz Quad core MediaTek processor and an 8 megapixels camera with Auto focus and LED flash and also 2 megapixels front camera.

As the trend in e-commerce is, other portals are also offering around 10% to 12 % discount on this model. It is available on many e-commerce portal and is achieving good success.