Swine Flu in Cats, Bigfoot Sightings, T. Rex Ancestor: Buzz Week in Review
by Claudine ZapNov 6, 2009
Interspecies swine flu, the buzz on Bigfoot, and a really, really old fossil. All these stories and more for your Buzz Week in Review.
Please don't sneeze on your pet
It's enough that you have to worry about you and your kids catching swine flu this season. But now you also have to be concerned for … your cat. That's right. Your furry friend can catch it, from you. At least that's the case for a 13-year-old feline in Iowa diagnosed with H1N1 after its two owners both came down with the flu. The cat was treated at a veterinary hospital after appearing lethargic, losing its appetite and having trouble breathing. All three have recovered. Although this is the first documented case, consider it a cautionary tale. While searches on "swine flu symptoms" were up this week almost 400%, lookups on "swine flu in cats" also increased. (Read up on how to protect pets from the swine flu.)
Bigfoot gets big buzz
Bigfoot: It's a riddle wrapped in a mystery, or something like that. But is it an enigma because it doesn't exist (say it isn't so!) or because we haven't had the technology to properly document the evidence? Members of Sasquatch Watch are definitely in the latter camp. And a group of intrepid Bigfoot hunters were on the move in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia, armed with all the gee-whiz gadgets needed to prove, for sure, without ambiguity, definitely, that Bigfoot exists. Maybe.
Although some suspicious footprints were preserved with plaster of Paris in areas where there have been previous so-called sightings of the beast, un-fun skeptics are unsure if this is the real deal. But enthusiasts of the furry biped have already helped launch big buzz on the Web. Searches on "latest bigfoot sightings" shot up over 100%. Amateur sleuths also sought out "real bigfoot pictures," "bigfoot evidence," and "bigfoot research organization."
Tyrannosaurus Rex has ancestors
We knew T. rex was old and big, but that he had family? This comes as a surprise. Here's the story: Thanks to CT scans, a newly identified dinosaur Proceratosaurus has been named as the oldest known T. rex. That dates the tyrannosauroid group back
to 170 million years, older than any other known fossil, according to Scientific American. But here's the thing: While the bigger, badder T. rex lived 65 to 99 million years ago, the Jursassic-Era cousin was still a meat eater, but way smaller, measuring just 10 feet. But it was just as ferocious, with four knife-like teeth and a pointy horn jutting from its nose. Of course, all these gigunda-saurs were the earliest ancestors of birds, like the ones we eat. Take that, dinos.
Also buzzing…
•Sarah Palin's book spawned a publishing bonanza.
•The movie "Precious" opened to rave reviews and lots of buzz.
•Jon Stewart takes on Glenn Beck.
