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Sunda colugo, a living
relative of Dermotherium

Dermotherium is a genus of fossil mammals closely related to the living colugos, a small group of gliding mammals from Southeast Asia. The two species are known from Thailand; D. major from the late Eocene, based on a fragment of the lower jaw, and D. chimaera from the late Oligocene from three jaw fragments and two molars. Another upper molar from the early Oligocene of Pakistan may be from a putative D. chimaera. The animals probably lived in forested environments, like living colugos, but whether they could glide is unknown. The fossil teeth differ from those of living colugo species (example pictured), and they lack their comblike dental features involving the lower incisors, canines, and third premolars. The fossil species differ from each other in their tooth structure. The front part of the lower chewing teeth, the trigonid, is broader in D. chimaera than in D. major. (Full article...)

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In the news

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (pictured) becomes the first woman and first African appointed Director-General of the World Trade Organization.
Former President of Argentina Carlos Menem dies at the age of 90.
Former President of the United States Donald Trump is acquitted by the Senate in his second impeachment trial.
Mario Draghi becomes Prime Minister of Italy, leading a national unity government after the resignation of Giuseppe Conte.

On this day

February 16: Shrove Tuesday / Mardi Gras (Western Christianity, 2021); Day of the Shining Star in North Korea; Elizabeth Peratrovich Day in Alaska

Act of Independence of Lithuania

1249 – Louis IX of France dispatched André de Longjumeau as his ambassador to the Mongol Empire.
1918 – The Council of Lithuania signed the Act of Independence (pictured), proclaiming the restoration of an independent Lithuania.
1936 – The Popular Front, a coalition of left-wing parties, came to power in the Spanish general election, a factor in the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War five months later.
1961 – The DuSable Museum, the first museum dedicated to the study and conservation of African American history, culture, and art, was chartered.
1996 – Eleven people died in a train collision in Silver Spring, Maryland, leading to the creation of comprehensive U.S. federal rules for the design of passenger cars.

Mary the Younger (d. 902)
The Weeknd (b. 1990)
Mary Amdur (d. 1998)

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Today's featured picture

Rosalind Pitt-Rivers (4 March 1907 – 14 January 1990) was a British biochemist, whose research focused mainly on the thyroid gland. In 1954, she was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. She was made a fellow of Bedford College, London, in 1973, an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1983, and an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1986.

Photograph credit: National Institute for Medical Research; restored by Adam Cuerden

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