WATERLOO, Ontario (Reuters) - BlackBerry Ltd signaled on Tuesday that a licensing deal, or even an outright sale of the company, was still a possibility, pleasing shareholders still reeling from the disappointing debut for its new line of smartphones.

Chief Executive Thorsten Heins, responding to a question about whether he was looking into strategic alternatives, said he is open to all options that create value for shareholders. He emphasized that the company has so far focused on creating value through the launch of its new devices powered by an all-new BlackBerry 10 operating system.

"This is a long-term transition for the company, but I can assure you that we're pushing very hard," Heins said at the company's annual shareholder meeting. "BlackBerry will pursue every opportunity to create value for shareholders."

His remarks that BlackBerry was also open to any and all licensing opportunities, sent shares higher in morning trading.

John Goldsmith, deputy head of equities at Montrusco Bolton, which owns more than 1.5 million BlackBerry shares, believes that BlackBerry may well be pressed into striking such a deal.

"I think they're on a very short leash," said Goldsmith, referring to BlackBerry's management. "I wouldn't be surprised if within the next two quarters there is a definitive announcement with regard to other options that this company could be looking at whether that's putting itself for sale or some other option."

The company's stock had dropped more than 30 percent after it posted disappointing second-quarter results in late June and forecast an operating loss in the current quarter.

A bigger concern for investors, was the fact that it sold fewer-than-expected BlackBerry 10 devices in their first full quarter on the market, offering little evidence that it could quickly win back market share from Apple Inc's iPhone, Samsung's Galaxy devices, and other phones powered by Google's Android operating system.

Even so, some investors believe many other companies would relish the prospect of getting their hands on the new platform.

"I can see why this guy is confident," said Ross Healy, a portfolio manager with MacNicol & Associates, whose clients own BlackBerry shares. "He is talking about partnerships and being open to talks and I don't think you say that unless you've really had a talk or two with interested parties - and that gives you some confidence."

At the meeting, held at BlackBerry's home base in Waterloo, Ontario, Heins conceded that BlackBerry has a tough road ahead as it attempts to turn around its fortunes, but he insisted it was on the right track.

Heins said BlackBerry was already seeing small signs of market-share gains in the top-end of the ultra-competitive smartphone market.

"Before you go into any strategic option, I think you have to create value. And the value of the company 15 months ago was way less than what it is today," he said.

CLOCK TICKING

Despite the company's confident tone, many investors agree that the clock is ticking for BlackBerry, which is caught in a squeeze on both the high- and low-ends of the smartphone market.

BlackBerry 10 devices hit store shelves this year just as the high-end smartphone segment had begun to show some signs of saturation. Last week, Samsung reported results that fell shy of expectations, while Apple earlier this year reported its first quarterly profit decline in more than a decade.

On the mid- to low end, competition is growing intense, with Chinese manufacturers such as Huawei Technologies and ZTE gaining ground.

Even so, BlackBerry said it remains determined to stick to its plan and is not re-thinking its strategy in any manner.

"We as a board remain completely supportive of management," said the company's chair, Barbara Stymiest, adding that she was confident the turnaround plan would succeed.

Shareholders voted on Tuesday to elect all the company's director nominees to its board. They also approved the plan to change the company's name to BlackBerry Ltd from Research In Motion Ltd, a move that had been announced in January.

BlackBerry shares closed almost 1 percent higher at $9.64 on the Nasdaq on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Euan Rocha, additional reporting by Peter Henderson; Writing by Cameron French; editing by Frank McGurty and Gunna Dickson)

Noel Kututwa, an Amnesty director for Africa, said the organization documented clear partisan support for President Robert Mugabe by top security commanders along with "systematic raids and arbitrary arrests" targeting human rights and democracy activists.

Kututwa said politically motivated arrests on flimsy charges served to keep political activists tied up in the courts, paralyze them with legal costs and instill fear of being detained in the nation's notorious jails and police cells. He said such arrests were "explicitly forbidden" under a new constitution overwhelmingly accepted in a referendum in March that demands an end to bias by the security services and guarantees freedom of expression and free political activities.

"Government agencies remain actively hostile to civil society," Kututwa said.

He called on security forces to respect and protect fundamental freedoms.

Mugabe proclaimed the July 31 poll despite calls by regional mediators for a delay to allow the completion of democratic reforms and a clean-up of chaotic voters' lists. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has been in a shaky coalition with Mugabe since the last violent and disputed polls in 2008.

Tsvangirai's party has called for an extension of the voter registration that closed on Tuesday, leaving tens of thousands of new potential electors off their district voting lists, known as the voters' roll.

An independent research group said Friday preliminary voters' lists for July 31 compared against the results of a national population census last August indicated as many as two million potential voters under the age of 30 were eligible for registration in the past month. Only a small proportion of these were likely to have actually been registered.

"There are well over 1 million people on the roll who are either deceased or have departed" from their districts, said the Harare-based Research and Advocacy Unit.

It said it found voters' rolls in 63 of 210 districts known as parliamentary constituencies had more voters than the inhabitants who were counted in the official population census.

The state election commission said in June it had removed more than 300,000 dead people from the lists used in 2008 that contained 5.7 million names.

In past elections, polling officials have been accused of vote rigging by using flawed voters' lists.

In a routine travel advisory to its nationals in Zimbabwe, the British government on Friday urged them in the run-up to elections "to avoid associating with any activity that could be construed as political."

"Political tensions remain. You should avoid all demonstrations and rallies. In the past, the authorities have used force to suppress demonstrations," it said.

It asked Britons living in Zimbabwe to review their personal security arrangements, make sure travel documents are up to date and "have a contingency plan in case you need to leave at short notice."

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"Secretary Napolitano's departure from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) offers a new opportunity to restore the integrity of U.S. immigration laws.

"Over the past four and a half years, Sec. Napolitano has served the Obama administration's political objective of dismantling U.S. immigration enforcement at the expense of her sworn obligation to carry out the laws of this nation and protect the security of the homeland. Under her watch, the Obama administration's policy of selective enforcement not only undermined the integrity of our immigration laws, but the Legislative Branch's constitutional authority to make our laws.

"Sec. Napolitano's refusal to enforce numerous immigration laws undermined the very premise of the agency she headed. Just 18 months into her tenure, she lost the confidence of the career law enforcement professionals serving in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) bureau who openly criticized policies that prevented them from enforcing the nation's immigration laws.

"In appointing a successor, President Obama must choose someone who can command the confidence of the people who enforce our immigration laws and restore the trust of the American people. As numerous members of Congress have pointed out including leading members of the president's own party the American public does not trust DHS to enforce our immigration laws at the border, in the interior of the country, or in the workplace.

"It is now up to the United States Senate to dutifully exercise its constitutional role of advice and consent to ensure that whoever is appointed to replace her is committed to carrying out the laws enacted by Congress. The confirmation process for Sec. Napolitano's successor must include explicit commitments that all immigration laws will be faithfully, fairly, and uniformly applied, not just those that suit the administration's political aims."

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One likely problem here is that Samsungs massive marketing spending has started eating into its profitability;partly because Samsung is spending so heavily to advertise it. This marketing blitz is damaging smaller vendors likeand HTC, blighting their spring product launches.

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The overall growth slowdown in demand is now looking likea real threat to phone vendors. IDC shockedthe industry in June by declaring that European smartphone growth had plunged to just 12% during Q1 2013. Europe still makes up more than 20% of global high-end phone sales, so this is putting a damper on the entire industry. There is obviously now concern that European smartphone growth may have slipped further during the spring quarter.

Nokia and Apples numbers for the spring quarter are going to be scrutinized intensely. Nokias cheap 500-series Lumia phones may have dodged the high-end slowdown, but there is reason to suspect that the 900-series tanked during the spring quarter, dragging down the ASP of Nokias smartphone unit. Apple was already struggling with sluggish volume growth of its borderline boring iPhone 5 during the March quarter.

The iPhone sales figure in the June quarter is going to tell us a lotaboutthe state of thehigh-end smartphone market did the Galaxy S 4 launch suck the oxygen out of the crowdedroom?

This article was

Scherzer worked into the seventh inning to become the first pitcher in 27 years to get off to a 13-0 start, leading the Detroit Tigers to a 6-2 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday night.

Alex Avila hit a three-run homer and Victor Martinez belted a solo shot as Detroit beat Toronto for the eighth time in 10 meetings.

The Tigers were angry at Colby Rasmus after he knocked Detroit second baseman Omar Infante out of the game with a hard slide in the fourth.

"We're really mad about that slide," Scherzer said. "That's a very dirty play in my book. When you watch it on replay, his spikes are up, he's sliding late."

After he was hit by a pitch from Scherzer, Rasmus slid hard into Infante on Rajai Davis' grounder to shortstop, breaking up the potential double play. Rasmus' right leg caught Infante on the left shin, sending him to the ground in pain.

Infante, who was replaced by Ramon Santiago, needed help walking off the field but X-rays were negative. Tigers manager Jim Leyland said Infante would not play Thursday.

Scherzer said Rasmus deserved to be suspended for injuring Infante, whom he called "a critical reason why we've been good this year."

"That's something where, if we were to retaliate on him, we get suspended but it's really him who should be suspended for making a slide like that," Scherzer said. "He slid way too late. I understand him playing the game hard but that's not a clean play and we didn't like that."

Blue Jays manager John Gibbons declined to comment, saying he didn't want to "inflame" the situation. As for Rasmus, he denied sliding any differently than normal.

"I go in hard every time," Rasmus said. "My intention is never to hurt anybody or nothing like that. I was taught that early in this game and that's how I play it. I didn't mean for nothing bad to happen. But it's no different than any time I ever come in."

Then both benches and bullpens emptied after Tigers outfielder Torii Hunter took exception to being hit by a high pitch from reliever Todd Redmond in the sixth.

"Trust me, it's nothing against Redmond," Hunter said. "It was all Rasmus sliding late with his spikes up."

Hunter took a few steps toward the mound and gestured at Redmond after being hit on the left shoulder. Plate umpire Mike Estabrook quickly steered Hunter away and he was wrapped up by teammate Prince Fielder.

"That's the only way I can vent and I wanted to vent," Hunter said.

No punches were thrown, and the relievers from both teams were pointed back to their bullpens before reaching the infield.

All four umpires huddled and, before play resumed, Estabrook warned both benches.

Scherzer (13-0) allowed two runs and seven hits, struck out eight and walked one in 6 1-3 innings. He's the first pitcher to begin the season with 13 wins and no losses since Roger Clemens won his first 14 decisions for the Boston Red Sox in 1986.

"It might not have been vintage Max but he was really good," Leyland said.

Scherzer also improved to 4-0 with a 1.78 ERA in six career starts against the Blue Jays. He has 139 strikeouts this season, second only to Texas' Yu Darvish among AL starters.

"We're confident when he's on the mound and we're excited to see him get this 13th win," Hunter said.

Bruce Rondon got two outs in the seventh, Drew Smyly pitched the eighth and Joaquin Benoit finished for the Tigers.

The Blue Jays dropped to 3-7 since matching a team record with an 11-game winning streak.

Detroit slugger Miguel Cabrera, who left Tuesday's game in the ninth with a sore lower back, started and batted third but was replaced by Don Kelly in the ninth. Cabrera, who came in with a major league-leading .368 batting average, went 1 for 4 with a walk.

Leyland said Cabrera's back was still bothering him, possibly because of consecutive road series on turf in Tampa Bay and Toronto. He also said Cabrera would get the day off Thursday.

"We've been on turf now for six straight days," Leyland said. "Guys aren't used to that."

The Tigers took advantage of two miscues to score four runs in the second. Fielder was credited with a single when pitcher Josh Johnson couldn't handle his comebacker and Martinez reached on an error by second baseman Emilio Bonifacio before Jhonny Peralta hit an RBI single.

With two outs, Avila drove a 3-2 pitch over the wall in left for his sixth homer.

"We definitely didn't help ourselves there," Gibbons said. "Against the better pitchers, you fall behind like that, it's an uphill battle."

Hunter reached on an error by Johnson to begin the third and scored on a base hit by Martinez, who made it 6-0 when he connected for his seventh homer leading off the fifth.

Johnson (1-3) allowed six runs, one earned, and seven hits in five innings.

Toronto's Mark DeRosa hit a two-out triple in the second but was stranded when center fielder Austin Jackson made a leaping catch at the wall to retire J.P. Arencibia.

"Austin had the opportunity to go up like Michael Jordan and he got up," an appreciative Hunter said.

The Blue Jays broke through against Scherzer in the sixth when Rasmus and Maicer Izturis hit RBI singles.

"They hit some balls hard but I was able to keep it on the ground and keep them to singles and minimize the damage," Scherzer said.

Adam Lind returned to Toronto's lineup after missing two games with a sore back, while catcher Arencibia started after sitting out Tuesday's game with a sore right shoulder.

NOTES: Scherzer threw 113 pitches, 79 strikes. ... Toronto slugger Edwin Encarnacion (left hamstring) missed his third straight game. ... Blue Jays RHP Sergio Santos (right triceps) began a rehab assignment in the Gulf Coast League, giving up one hit and striking out two in one scoreless inning. ... Tigers OF Matt Tuiasosopo (strained left rib cage muscle) began a rehab assignment at Triple-A Toledo. Starting at DH, he went 1 for 1 with two walks and was hit by a pitch. ... Rock star Alice Cooper threw out the first pitch.

Because Snowden's U.S. passport has been revoked, the logistics of him departing are complicated. Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia have made asylum offers over the past two days, but the three countries haven't indicated they would help Snowden by issuing a travel document, which he would need to leave Russia.

The former NSA systems analyst, who is charged with violating U.S. espionage laws, is believed to be stuck in the transit area of Moscow's main international airport after arriving June 23 from Hong Kong.

Russia doesn't appear willing to help him leave the airport, with Kremlin spokesman Alexei Pavlov saying Saturday the issue of Snowden's travel documents is "not our business." On Monday, President Vladimir Putin said Snowden would be offered asylum in Russia if he stopped leaking U.S. secrets. Snowden then withdrew his Russian asylum bid, a Russian official said.

While President Barack Obama has publicly displayed a relaxed attitude toward Snowden's movements, saying last month that he wouldn't be "scrambling jets" to capture him, other senior U.S. officials have used unusually harsh language that they want him back.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said China had "unquestionably" damaged its relationship with Washington for not returning Snowden, who recently turned 30, from semi-autonomous Hong Kong while he was still there.

"The Chinese have emphasized the importance of building mutual trust," Carney said last month. "We think that they have dealt that effort a serious setback. If we cannot count on them to honor their legal extradition obligations, then there is a problem."

China may be reluctant to further complicate its relationship with the U.S. by allowing Snowden back in Hong Kong, even if only as a transfer point to Latin America.

Snowden has asked for asylum in more than 20 countries and many have turned him down. WikiLeaks, which has been helping Snowden, said Friday he had submitted asylum applications to six new countries, which the secret-spilling website declined to identify "due to attempted U.S. interference."

The asylum offers from Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia came after leftist South American leaders gathered to denounce the rerouting of Bolivian President Evo Morales' plane over Europe amid reports that the fugitive American was aboard.

Spain says it had been warned along with other European countries that Snowden was aboard the Bolivian presidential plane, an acknowledgement the manhunt for the fugitive leaker had something to do with the plane's unexpected diversion to Austria. It is unclear whether Washington warned Madrid about the Bolivian president's plane.

On Saturday, Morales offered asylum to Snowden, but didn't say if Bolivia had received a request from him.

"I want to tell those Europeans and North Americans that as a just protest we now will give asylum to that North American who is persecuted by his compatriots," Morales said during an appearance in the indigenous town of Chipaya.

U.S. officials have declined to comment on the grounding of Morales' plane. They said they won't give details about their conversations with European countries, except to say that they have stated Washington's general position that it wants Snowden back.

Snowden, who on Saturday afternoon wasn't on an Interpol list of people for whom international arrest warrants have been issued, had booked a seat on a Havana-bound flight on June 24, but never made it.

Direct Havana flights, operated by Aeroflot from Moscow's main airport five times a week, are the easiest option of reaching Latin America from Moscow. But the Moscow-Havana's travel path passes over mainland U.S., raising the chances of it being grounded. There are other routes, but there is no assurance he'd have free passage.

___

AP writer Carlos Valdez contributed to this report from La Paz, Bolivia.

In particular, populations of(Hexactinellida) animals previously believed to grow and reproduce very slowly have tripled between 2007 and 2011, allowing them to completely take over the seafloor.

"The shelf broke off, split into tiny pieces and was gone in a couple of weeks," said lead researcher Claudio Richter, a biologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany. "Now the benthos, which we believed would take decades or centuries to move and change, is transforming quickly in just a matter of years." []

Nobody knows what lived beneath the floating ice shelf before it disappeared. But scientists think the seafloor communities were very poor because animals could only get food when strong currents brought it in, said Richter, who likens the thick ice shelf to a large balcony attached to a house or building, blocking the sun, which gives organisms at the base of the marine food chain energy.

"If you have a balcony that extends really far out, you would have a difficult time growing vegetables beneath it," Richter told LiveScience.

Life beneath the ice shelf

In 1995, rapidly warming waters in Antarctica's Weddell Sea caused thein a stunning display. In the aftermath, sunlight bathed the surface waters, allowing phytoplankton and ice algae, fed by photosynthesis, to grow. This food supply eventually trickled down to the seafloor, helping sponges, sea squirts and other animals thrive.

In 2007, scientists aboard the ice-breakingvisited the area beneath the former ice shelf using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). Though they only went down about 980 feet (300 meters), they discovered communities of deep-sea invertebrates that are normally found at depths of 3,300 feet (1,000 m) or more.

In addition, they also saw occasional small glass sponges and large populations of fast-growing sea squirts, which dominated the seafloor.

Richter and his colleagues returned to the area in 2011 and maneuvered their ROV over the original area surveyed in 2007. They found that the seafloor changed dramatically in just four years: Predatory species such as sea stars were scarce in both surveys, but glass sponges had taken over the seafloor. The pioneering species of sea squirts had all but disappeared.

In fact, despite average temperatures of 28.4 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 2 degrees Celsius) and relatively low food supplies, "the sponges are now three times more numerous and two times as big as before," Richter said. What's even more astounding, he adds, is that satellite images show the area was only productive (in terms of phytoplankton and ) for two out of the four years between the two surveys.

What the future holds

In contrast to what the team observed, some research has previously suggested that hexactinellid species live long, slow lives. One study found that populations of glass sponges in 's McMurdo Sound showed no growth or reproduction over a 10-year period. Other research suggests the animals have a very slow metabolism, allowing them to live for 10,000 years or more. However, scientists have also observed fast growth and reproduction in previously nongrowing settlements of glass sponges.

The new findings, taken together with other work, suggest that Antarctic glass sponges that have endured arrested growth for decades can undergo booming periods that allow them to quickly colonize new areas. At this point, it's unclear what triggers this change. "It's a complex issue," Richter said. "It's difficult to predict the evolution of how things develop, but for now, the sponges seem to be gaining pace."

Just how the glass sponge dominance will affect the rest of the Antarctic seafloor is anybody's guess, Richter notes. The animals are known to provide a habitat and build a framework for other species of fish and invertebrates, so it's possible that the Antarctic seafloor will experience an upsurge of activity as more ice shelves melt. If this is the case, the glass sponges will be on the winning end of climate change.

But at the same time, predators, such as the king crabs that are already , could move in and wreak havoc on the sponge populations.

"There are still many unknowns, so it's very difficult to predict the future," Richter said. "The only thing we can predict is that things will happen very quickly."

The new research was detailed today (July 11) in the journal Current Biology.

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Stevens, 36, has spent the past six years as head coach of Butler University and will replace Doc Rivers, who was released from his Boston contract nine days ago to take charge of Los Angeles Clippers in exchange for a future draft pick.

"Brad and I share a lot of the same values," Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge said in a statement. "Though he is young, I see Brad as a great leader who leads with impeccable character and a strong work ethic.

"His teams always play hard and execute on both ends of the court. Brad is a coach who has already enjoyed lots of success, and I look forward to working with him towards Banner 18."

Stevens led Butler University to two national championship games against Duke and Connecticut, never winning fewer than 22 games.

He led the Bulldogs to a 166-49 record, including a 12-5 record in the NCAA men's basketball championship, and became the youngest coach to reach the Final Four since Bob Knight in 1973.

"Our family is thrilled for the opportunity given to us by the leadership of the Boston Celtics, but it is emotional to leave a place that we have called home for the past 13 years," Stevens said in a statement release by Butler University.

"We truly love Butler University and Indianapolis, and are very thankful to have had the opportunity to celebrate so many wonderful things together. What makes Butler truly unique is the people that we have been so blessed to work with."

'BUTLER WAY'

Butler president James M. Danko said: "In keeping with The Butler Way, Brad has given his talent to our university with exceptional generosity, integrity, and humility.

"We have done everything we can to keep Brad here at Butler; however, the Celtics team has offered Brad and his family a unique opportunity with which no university can compete."

Stevens will take over a Celtics team that finished third in the Atlantic Division last season with a 41-40 mark after winning the crown five years in a row and lost to the New York Knicks in the first round of the playoffs.

During Rivers' nine seasons at the helm, Boston went 416-305 in the regular season and 59-47 in the postseason, winning a NBA championship in 2008.

Though they enjoyed a long run of success after they assembled a 'Big Three' when they acquired center Kevin Garnett and shooting guard Ray Allen to join forward Paul Pierce, the nucleus of the team has been dismantled over the past two years.

Allen left Boston to join the NBA champion Miami Heat last season and both Garnett and Pierce are expected to join the Brooklyn Nets in a block-buster multiple trade later this month with the Celtics set to gain several players along with three first-round draft picks.

(Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by Greg Stutchbury)

The Austrian parachutist known as "Fearless Felix" reached 843.6 mph, according to the official numbers released Monday. That's equivalent to Mach 1.25, or 1.25 times the speed of sound.

His top speed initially was estimated last October at 834 mph, or Mach 1.24.

Either way, he became the first human to break the sound barrier with only his body. He wore a pressurized suit and jumped from a capsule hoisted by a giant helium balloon over New Mexico.

Baumgartner was supersonic for a half-minute "quite remarkable," according to Brian Utley, the official record-keeping official who was present for the Oct. 14 feat. His heart rate remained below 185 beats a minute, and his breathing was fairly steady.

The leap was from an altitude of 127,852 feet. That's 248 feet lower than original estimates.

"He jumped from a little bit lower, but he actually went a little bit faster, which was pretty exciting," said Art Thompson, technical project director for the Red Bull-sponsored project.

"It's fun for us to see reaching Mach speeds and proving out a lot of the safety systems," Thompson said in a phone interview from his aerospace company in Lancaster, Calif.

Thompson said everything pretty much unfolded as anticipated, with no surprises in the final report. The updated records were provided by Utley, official observer for the National Aeronautic Association's contest and records board. Utley was in Roswell, N.M., for Baumgartner's grand finale jump.

In the foreword of the 71-page report, Baumgartner said he never imagined how many people would share in his dream to make a supersonic free fall from so high.

Some 52 million people watched You Tube's live stream of the exploit.

The scientific and engineering experts who helped bring him back alive "broke boundaries in their own fields just as surely as I broke the sound barrier," Baumgartner wrote.

Baumgartner shattered the previous record for a free fall plunge, made by Joe Kittinger, an Air Force officer, in 1960. Kittinger did not quite reach supersonic speed during his jump from 19.5 miles up.

The strange bedfellows were a beat-up young amphibian seeking shelter and a sleeping cynodont, considered a distant ancestor of mammals, researchers say.

The burrow was unearthed from what is today South Africa's Karoo Basin, which would have been part of the ancient supercontinentat the start of the Triassic Period. Using high-energy X-rays from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in France, scientists were able to see through the lair and look at its contents without destroying it. []

The scans first revealed the skull of acalled Thrinaxodon. As the X-ray progressed, scientists realized the animal was sharing its grave with an amphibian dubbed Broomistega.

"While discovering the results we were amazed by the quality of the images, but the real excitement came when we discovered a second set of teeth completely different from that of the mammal-like reptile," study researcher Vincent Fernandez of Wits University, South Africa, said in a statement. "It was really something else."

The world these animals lived in was still recovering from the massat the end of the Permian era that wiped out most of life on Earth. It was a time marked by pronounced climatic warming and monsoons. To survive this hostile environment, many animals, including the , learned how to dig out burrows to take shelter, researchers say.

Thrinaxodon not only adapted a burrowing behavior but also went into periods of dormancy, called aestivation, which helped it survive, researchers say. Many fossils of the species have been found in a curled-up position.

"This state of torpor explains why the amphibian was not chased out of the burrow," Bruce Rubidge, another Wits University researcher, said in a statement.

As for the amphibian, the scans revealed it was a juvenile with several broken ribs that showed signs of healing, suggesting it had survived for some time after receiving a crippling injury. This animal was mostly aquatic and had no burrowing abilities of its own. Researchers think that in its handicapped state, the amphibian gingerly crawled into the burrow seeking protection without disturbing the dormant Thrinaxodon inside.

The researchers eliminated the possibility that the animals were in a predator-prey tussle at the time of death since there were no tooth-marks on the bones. The scientists also don't think it's likely that these two species would have cohabitated under normal circumstances.

"Burrow-sharing by different species exists in the modern world, but it corresponds to a specific pattern," Fernandez explained in a statement. "For example, a small visitor is not going to disturb the host. A large visitor can be accepted by the host if it provides some help, like predator vigilance. But neither of these patterns corresponds to what we have discovered in this fossilized burrow."

The peaceful coexistence of these two animals ended when a suddenrushed into the burrow, likely burying the creatures alive and preserving them together in the sediments for 250 million years. The small diameter of the tunnel also rules out the possibility that the Broomistegawas randomly washed into the mammal-like reptile's lair when the flood hit, the researchers say.

The research was detailed online June 21 in the journal .

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