Ancient buttons reveal new theory on beach skeletons

Historians have shed new light on four skeletons found buried near a beach – by studying their buttons.

They believe the four men, found in the 1990s buried near Croyde, North Devon, probably drowned in a shipwreck. But clues from the skeletons and their buttons suggest they were probably not seamen but wealthy passengers or merchantmen.

The new information about the skeletons has just been published by the Devon Archaeological Society.

A report by Tim Gent, of Exeter Archaeology, says the burials were discovered between 1996 and 1998 at Saunton Down End.

Two of the skeletons were found with finely decorated pewter buttons. This suggests they would have benefited from relatively elevated positions in life, says the report.

Bone buttons found with the two other skeletons suggest they were somewhat lower on the social scale.

Charlotte Coles, from Exeter Archaeology, studied three of the skeletons and concluded that two of the men were aged between 35 and 40 years when they died. The third, the tallest man at 6ft, was aged 25-30.

She said in the report: "If these were naval seamen, or men who spent a great deal of time at sea, more severe trauma or illness might be expected, with falls, breaks and infection being very common among sailors."READ MORE AND SEE AT BARNSTAPLE MUSEUM ENGLAND

Feelings of loneliness appear to be partially down to your genes

New research suggests that it's not just the social situation you're in, but also the genes you're born with that affect your likelihood of feeling lonely.

While environmental factors definitely play a bigger role, a new study of more than 10,000 people has shown that loneliness can be partly hereditary too.

As loneliness feeds into all kinds of physical and mental health problems, and is a significant factor in early deaths, scientists are keen to understand more about where it comes from so that we can get better at preventing it.

Specifically, the team was interested in understanding if there could be a genetic risk factor for loneliness.

"We want to know why, genetically speaking, one person is more likely than another to feel lonely, even in the same situation," said lead researcher, psychiatrist Abraham Palmer, from the University of California, San Diego.

"For two people with the same number of close friends and family, one might see their social structure as adequate while the other doesn't," he added. "And that's what we mean by 'genetic predisposition to loneliness'."

The researchers pored through a longitudinal health study in the US of 10,760 people aged 50 and older to try and spot links between genetics and loneliness.read more

Pee of newt and poo of bat – bat identification from droppings and DNA

Droppings, faeces, dung, poo – call it what you will these are a mainstay in the ecologists fieldcraft for id’ing species, and bats are no different.

Finding bat droppings within barns and lofts, at bat access points and under cracks and holes in trees is a good initial indicator of bat presence at a site. Knowing they are bat droppings is relatively easy, as although they look very similar to mouse droppings, when crushed they easily break down to a fine powder, made of insect carapaces.

You can sometimes determine the species or group of bat species present, purely from their droppings. Until recently this has been fairly tough, relying predominantly on how the droppings look….their colour, size, shape and texture.

Pipistrelle droppings are usually very small and regularly oval shaped, but by eye you can’t tell the difference in droppings between the three different species. Brown long-eared bat droppings are usually longer and twisted, but can often break up at the twists to look like smaller droppings. Serotine droppings are usually ‘bullet’ shaped.

However, there can be substantial differences between droppings from individual bats of the same species, with the diet playing the greatest role.

Brave souls have endeavoured to determine bat species by dissecting bat droppings using a microscope, and using the insect fragments that remain to determine what the -read more

Billions of 'super-fleas' with massive penises are expected to invade homes across Cornwall and beyond this autumn.

The new breed of so called super-fleas, which are far bigger than 'normal' fleas, are expected to come out of hibernation early this year.

The flea has a penis which is two-and-a-half times the length of its body - the largest genitalia relative to size of any bug on earth.

Conditions for flea breeding have been perfect with a mild summer and the right amount of rain and damp weather.

The new flea breed is believed to have come from Europe over the past few years.read more

Massive crater under small Scottish town could be the crash site of the first meteorite to hit the British Isles

The exact landing site of the first meteorite to hit the British Isles has been a mystery for years.

Now a scientist claims to have discovered its exact location.

Palaeontologist Dr Mike Simms believes he has found the 25 mile-wide impact crater under the small town of Lairg in northern Scotland.For years scientists have been studying green rock fragments found sandwiched between 1.2 billion-year-old sandstone near Ullapool, 30 miles to the west of Lairg.

For decades this layer was thought to be a volcanic mudflow until, in 2008, geologists from Oxford and Aberdeen proved that it had actually been formed by a giant meteorite impact.read more

black toenail.

no not a character from some old comedy film but part of my body i hate .years ago i managed to drop a pallet of a heavy weight on my foot and since then i toe has looked like this .

something odd in my neighbourhood .

they say you are never too far from the weird and wonderful in the world and i discover one this phenomenon the other day whilst walking my jack russell-mitzi -around my local estate.whilst walking along glebe meadows ,holsworthy,devon i spotted a duck standing by the gate and a cat sitting beside it i managed too talk to the owner who told me the duck was a 10 month year old indian runner duck who was quite tame as liked sitting by the fire and escorting the postman to the gate.