A maggot bather, a spaghetti nasal blower and a woman with more than 700 body piercings all feature in the latest edition of the Guinness Book of World Records.

The 49th edition of the famous records chronicle also includes the world's longest tongue, the oldest vomit and the biggest traffic cone collection.

The book, which has sold more than 95 million copies since its first publication in 1955, is now the world's best-selling copyright book.

A best seller

Elaine Davidson, from Edinburgh, has spent five years gathering 720 piercings all over her body.

Her stomach, breasts, hands, ears, forehead, eyebrows, chin, nose and tongue have all been pierced.

Briton Umar Alvi meanwhile will have serious trouble keeping his tongue in cheek as it stretches a world-beating 5.65 centimetres past his top lip.

David Morgan, from Burford, Oxfordshire, owns the world's largest traffic cone collection.

He has 137 different types of the objects which constitutes two thirds of those ever manufactured.

Jackie Bibby held eight rattlesnakes by their tails in his mouth

Not to be outdone, British academics led by Professor Peter Doyle uncovered the globe's oldest vomit - dating back 160 million years to the time of the dinosaurs - in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.

Other newly-confirmed records include:

• American Jackie Bibby, who held eight rattlesnakes by their tails in his mouth without assistance
• Marco Hort, from Switzerland, who stuffed 210 drinking straws into his mouth and held them there for 10 seconds
• French couple Francois Frenandez and Madeleine Francineau who became the oldest couple to marry at the ages of 96 and 94 respectively
• Briton Christine Martin, who spent 90 minutes bathing in 10 gallons of maggots
• American Kevin Cole who sent a spaghetti strand 19cm after blowing it from his nostril.

Other nuggets of information include that the Czech Republic is the per capita leader in world beer consumption, while Finland holds the same record for coffee.