Did you know that not all male birds lose their reproductive organs during evolution? Some of which that still possess penises are ducks, especially mallards. The organs are usually 1.25 cm in length with some reaching 40 com in length.

The odd thing about these organs is that they are rather conflated with twists, pouches and dead ends. Quite interestingly, female ducks have also evolved "maze-like" vaginal tracks.

To understand the rationale behind this, you must be aware first how the social setup of ducks work. Male mallards usually rape females in a violent act which results at times with drowning and injuries. This occurs especially when female ducks arrive in a new and unknown breeding ground.

The females, on the other hand, fight back by preventing successful fertilization. Yale University reproductive biologist Patricia Brennan in Connecticut explained,

Females are trying to remain in control of which male sires her offspring. Because they have already established a pair bond when they arrive to the breeding grounds, they may be trying to avoid having their eggs fertilised by a male of unknown quality, that tries to pursue forced copulations.

The study began when Brennan became curious with the duck's male reproductive organ. Seeing how queer it looks like, she became curious as to how the vaginal track of the female ducks will look like. Brennan added that researchers have always assumed that the duck vagina would be just like other avian vaginas: a simple tube folded upon itself.

University of Western Australia evolutionary biologist Leigh Simmons in Perth commented that this study implies the complexity of sexual selection. She added,

It sounds kind of counter-intuitive, but if a female can resist insemination by a forced copulation, the end product is good quality offspring. This is because males that can successfully circumvent the female defence mechanisms are more likely to sire offspring, and pass that advantage on to their own young.

Wet weather could make this autumn the best season ever for West Nile Virus (and, of course, the worst season for people suffering from it). The Department of Public Health says that West Nile-positive mosquitoes have been identified in 17 Connecticut cities and towns: Bridgeport, Danbury, Darien, East Haven, Glastonbury, Greenwich, Hartford, Killingworth, Milford, New Haven, Newington, Norwalk, Southington, Stamford, Stratford, West Haven and Wethersfield.

People infected with this virus may experience fever, headache, body aches, nausea, vomiting or a skin rash. A rarer but more severe form of the illness attacks the nervous system causing neck stiffness, disorientation, loss of consciousness, tremors, muscle weakness, and paralysis.

People above 50 years of age are more likely to suffer the more severe health consequences. Last year, six Connecticut residents were diagnosed with West Nile infections with one fatality.

West Nile Virus, of the family Flaviviridae, is found in both tropical and temperate regions. It mainly infects birds, but can also infect horses, cats, bats, chipmunks, skunks, squirrels, and domestic rabbits. In humans, the disease is mainly spread by infected mosquitoes.

Fifty years ago, dinosaur tracks had the power to stop construction projects. When state workers found dinosaur footprints on Rocky Hill, Connecticut dating back to 180 million years ago, all work stopped. Armed security were even called in to guard the 2,000 dinosaur tracks and eventually, Rocky Hill became Dinosaur State Park.

Last month, new dinosaur footprints were discovered in an area which has been set aside for a new health care facility, but paleontological history did not repeat itself this time. Last week, an expert hired by the Public Works Commission declared the tracks insignificant thus paving the way for the construction to begin.

The quality of the footprints were declared inferior to those found on Rocky Hill because the expert says they are set on shale. Shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clay and mud. Unlike prints set on harder stone, the newly discovered shale prints break easily.

However, not everyone agrees with the decision. "The state treats tracks as if the giant reptiles were still making them," says Hartford Courant, "The dinosaurs who made the latest set of tracks apparently lived in a bad part of town - the reptilian equivalent of a ghetto."

The Dinosaur State Park in Connecticut is one of the largest dinosaur track sites in North America featuring early Jurassic fossil tracks made some 200 million years ago.

The Hudson Canyon, a sub-sea landscape 100 miles of the New Jersey-New York coast, has now been fully mapped. A four-year study has produced detailed readings of the undersea region the size of Connecticut, and well, to state the obvious, it's huge folks. It's like a state-sized undersea Grand Canyon.

According to scientists, the maps will allow them to confirm many things, including whether or not methane gas trapped in frozen sediment below the sea floor is escaping and contributing to global warming.

Others are also looking into possibilities for tapping into the methane deposits. Harvesting the methane and turning it into a potential energy source. The scientists are also also interested in finding out if sudden methane gas releases from deposits in the canyon could spark undersea landslides and cause a tsunami to hit New York-New Jersey coast. Though that is a pretty extreme effect that a canyon landslide could produce, a more likely cause for concern is that the landslides could destroy the undersea phone cables that handle most of the outside communication of the US.

Peter Rona, the Rutgers University Professor who led the team that made the maps had this to say: "This region, the Hudson Canyon, is on the doorstep of one of the largest metropolitan areas of the world, and it is an exploration frontier."

Sea-lab 2021 anyone?