Wikipedia:Main Page history/2018 August 19

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From today's featured article

Oxalaia, a spinosaurid dinosaur, lived in what is now Brazil during the Late Cretaceous, sometime between 93.9 and 100.5 million years ago. The genus name comes from Oxalá, an African deity. Oxalaia's only known fossils, a partial snout and upper jaw bone, were found in 1999 in the Alcântara Formation. At an estimated 12 to 14 metres (39 to 46 feet) in length, it is the largest carnivorous dinosaur discovered from Brazilian fossils. The African genus Spinosaurus was its closest relative. Oxalaia bore two replacement teeth in each socket (similarly to sharks) and a very ornamented secondary palate, features which are not known in other theropod or spinosaurid dinosaurs. Its habitat was tropical and heavily forested, surrounded by dry regions. Since Oxalaia's skull and teeth resembled those of modern crocodilians, it may have largely hunted fish. Fossil evidence suggests spinosaurids also occasionally preyed on other animals such as small dinosaurs and pterosaurs. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Clay model of the statue of John of Nepomuk

... that Matthias Rauchmiller, the son of a butcher, designed both the Plague Column in Vienna and the oldest statue on Prague's Charles Bridge (clay model pictured)?
... that the first screening of Venom and Eternity ended early following director Isidore Isou's attempt after the first scenes to play only its soundtrack to a darkened theatre?
... that Ensign Robert Duncan was the first person to shoot down a Mitsubishi A6M Zero with a Grumman F6F Hellcat?
... that the Redneck Fishing Tournament has seen thousands of Asian carp caught by its participants without the use of fishing poles?
... that Telfair Hodgson was the original financial backer and first managing editor of The Sewanee Review, the oldest continuously published literary quarterly in the United States?
... that a pair of yellow "dolphin-like creatures" from a 7th-century hanging bowl finds its closest parallel in manuscript art?
... that Eric Rose performed the first successful paediatric heart transplant?
... that flying fox teeth are used as currency on Makira?

In the news

Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Former Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee (pictured) dies at the age of 93.
American soul singer and songwriter Aretha Franklin dies at the age of 76.
In Afghanistan, hundreds are killed as the Taliban seize most of the strategic city of Ghazni for four days.
A portion of the Ponte Morandi motorway bridge in Genoa, Italy, collapses, killing at least 41 people.
NASA's Parker Solar Probe is launched to study the Sun's outer corona.

On this day

August 19

Fire damage at Cinema Rex

1745 – Bonnie Prince Charlie raised the Jacobite standard at Glenfinnan in the Scottish Highlands to begin the Jacobite rising of 1745.
1964 – Over 17,000 fans saw the Beatles on the opening date of the group's first nationwide U.S. tour.
1978 – The Cinema Rex in Abadan, Iran, was set on fire (damage pictured), leading to the death of at least 420 people.
1991 – A Hasidic man accidentally struck two Guyanese immigrant children with his car in the Crown Heights neighborhood of New York City, initiating three days of rioting.
2005 – Thunderstorms in southern Ontario, Canada, spawned at least three tornadoes that caused over C$500 million in damage.

Edward Boscawen (b. 1711) · Gustave Caillebotte (b. 1848) · Linus Pauling (d. 1994)

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Today's featured picture

The Broderie Room at the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, during the winter flower show of 2015. The Broderie Room is located in the south part of the east wing. The garden is modelled after the formal gardens of French chateaux during the reign of Louis XIV, and is a popular setting for wedding ceremonies and photo shoots. The room opened in 1939 and was originally called the Cloister Garden; it was renamed the Broderie Room in 1966.

Photograph: Dllu

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