Thousands of children have been celebrating after rolling up their sleeves and setting a world record for the biggest finger painting ever created. Their massive canvas, measuring 22,496.5sq ft, is being examined by two adjudicators approved by Guinness World Records. They will decide if it has officially broken the previous mark.

Around 3,000 children and childminders descended on Belfast Zoo for the record bid. The event was organised by the Northern Ireland Child Minding Association as part of its 25th anniversary celebrations.

More than 4,000 children had already contributed to the artwork ahead of the final push at the zoo carpark where the huge painting was stitched together. It features a central image of a house to symbolise the home-based care offered by childminders. Confirmation of the new record is expected in a couple of weeks. The previous record was set in Austria in 2007 and was 699sq ft smaller than the new monster spread.

- Sky news

A golf course groundskeeper recently stumbled onto something unexpected on the greens: A tooth from a 10,000-year-old mammoth. Groundskeeper Patrick Walker found the 10-pound tooth Tuesday when he was on the greens about 30 miles east of Grand Rapids at Morrison Lake Country Club.

The recent high school graduate told The Grand Rapids Press he knew the tooth exposed by recent rains was from an extinct elephant because he paid attention in his science classes.

Research assistant Scott Beld from the University of Michigan's Museum of Paleontology visited the course and confirmed that Walker's find was a mammoth tooth. He also visited the site the tooth was found and discovered bones and a portion of a tusk - fossils that will remain in place pending further study.

www.mlive.com

A giant plant that can gobble up bugs and even rodents has been discovered in Southeast Asia. The carnivorous plant (nepenthes attenboroughii) was found by researchers atop Mt. Victoria, a remote mountain in Palawan, Philippines.

The research team, led by Stewart McPherson of Red Fern Natural History Productions, had learned of the plant in 2000 after a group of Christian missionaries stumbled upon it while trekking up a remote mountain and reported it to a local newspaper.

The pitcher plant is the world's second largest and can grow to more than 4 feet tall, with a pitcher-shaped structure filled with liquid. The plant secretes nectar around its mouth to lure rats, insects and other prey into its trap.

Once an animal has fallen in, enzymes and acids in the fluid break down the carcass of the drowned victim. "All carnivorous plants have evolved to catch insects but the biggest ones, such as this one, can eat rats and frogs," said McPherson. "It's truly remarkable that a plant this big has been undiscovered for so long."

- LiveScience