You might have thought that Cadbury had taken surrealism as far as it could go in the 1980s with its infamous "Flake" adverts, which for some reason featured shots of an iguana slithering across a telephone while an enticing-looking woman simulated fellatio (with the flake, not the lizard). But how mundane all that seems now following the company's bizarre recent reversals at the hands of m'learned friends.

NATURAL HISTORY

TRAVEL AUSTRALIA

The Lost World: Jurassic Park Steven Spielberg (PG)

Scientists believe they have proved Charles Darwin was right by setting lizards on different evolutionary paths and watching the results. Darwin argued in The Origin of the Species that when organisms colonise a new territory they adapt to its conditions and eventually evolve into a new species.

Michelangelo seems to have got it at least partly right, when in the Sistine Chapel he depicted the snake in the Garden of Eden as having arms.

Joe Royle has been disciplined by the Football Association for calling the referee David Elleray a pterodactyl. The prehistoric reference landed the Everton manager a disrepute charge at the FA yesterday, writes Alan Nixon.

Retro-chic sex idol Jarvis Cocker made perhaps his most complex image statement yet when he was spotted backstage at a Blur gig with a little strappy oblong number draped over his arm. A handbag? So it would seem, but Jarvis's people are denying all knowledge. "Are you sure you don't mean his satchel?" asked his PR representative. The Melody Maker news desk were none the wiser, but helpfully suggested that the phantom handbag might contain Michael Jackson's home phone number.

Perplexity

Doctors are warning people of the dangers of keeping reptiles as pets, after a baby girl developed meningitis following contact with a lizard.

Meet John Lurie, Bill Frisell, Henry Threadgill - jazzmen for whom jazz is a four-letter word. They constitute 'Sharp New America', says Phil Johnson

Endangered habitats

CITY TALK

NICHOLAS SCHOON