Wikipedia:Main Page history/2022 October 17
From today's featured article
Megalograptus is a genus of eurypterid, an extinct group of aquatic arthropods, containing five species, all based on fossil material found in the United States: M. alveolatus, M. ohioensis (pictured), M. shideleri, M. welchi and M. williamsae. They were predators, with the largest and best-known species, M. ohioensis, growing to 78 centimeters (2 ft 7 in). The two most distinctive features of Megalograptus were its massive and spined forward-facing appendages, and its sharp spike-shaped telson (the last division of the body). Attached beneath the non-venomous telson were a pair of rounded blade-formed lobes which made it capable of grasping. Researchers have been able to infer the coloration that specimens might have possessed in life, believed to be brown and black, with M. ohioensis being darker than the others. Megalograptus lived in near-shore marine environments, where it used its large appendages to capture prey. The predator may have been cannibalistic at times, like many modern chelicerates. (Full article...)
Did you know ...
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- ... that David Cortés (pictured), a member of the Bolivian Chamber of Deputies, was dubbed the "Santa Claus of Potosí"?
- ... that yoga nidra, a state of consciousness "in which Buddhas may access secret knowledge", is being studied for potential treatment of sleep problems?
- ... that Kotaku revised an article about Nintendo Switch emulation after Nintendo complained that the previous version encouraged piracy?
- ... that Collingwood coach Robert Harvey gave Anton Tohill his AFL debut in 2021, having played International Rules Series against Tohill's father in the 1990s?
- ... that in her song "Icy Chain", Saweetie disses PETA, telling them she wears fur?
- ... that University of Exeter lecturer Fu Jia and his coauthors said in 2017 that "uniquely for any hotel in China", Fairmont Beijing has three workers who have learning disabilities?
- ... that Robert Micklewright created the cover art for Nobel Prize winner V. S. Naipaul's first two novels?
- ... that in 1979, the Studio 54 nightclub started serving fruit punch because its owners were arrested?
In the news
- Hurricane Julia (satellite image shown) leaves more than 80 people dead across South and Central America.
- After an explosion damages the Crimean Bridge, Russia attacks many Ukrainian cities with missiles.
- In motor racing, Max Verstappen wins the Formula One World Championship.
- The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to Carolyn Bertozzi, Karl Barry Sharpless, and Morten P. Meldal for their work on click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry.
On this day
October 17: Shemini Atzeret (Judaism, 2022)
- 1604 – German astronomer Johannes Kepler began observations of an exceptionally bright object, now known as Kepler's Supernova, that had appeared in the constellation Ophiuchus.
- 1777 – American Revolutionary War: British general John Burgoyne's Saratoga campaign ended with his surrender to the Americans, later convincing France to enter the war in alliance with the United States.
- 1814 – A wooden beer-fermenting vat in London burst, destroying a second vat and causing a large flood of at least 128,000 imperial gallons (580,000 l; 154,000 US gal) of porter that killed eight people.
- 1964 – Prime Minister Robert Menzies inaugurated the artificial Lake Burley Griffin (pictured) in the centre of the Australian capital Canberra.
- 1992 – Having gone to the wrong house in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for a Halloween party, Japanese exchange student Yoshihito Hattori was shot and killed by the homeowner.
- Childe Hassam (b. 1859)
- Herbert Howells (b. 1892)
- Chuka Umunna (b. 1978)
From today's featured list
Today's featured picture
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The purple roller (Coracias naevius), also known as the rufous-crowned roller, is a medium-sized species of bird in the family Coraciidae widespread in sub-Saharan Africa. Compared with other rollers its colours are rather dull and its voice rather harsh and grating. Its preferred habitat is dry thornveld, where it spends long periods perched at the top of thorn trees or poles, watching for food items such as insects, spiders, scorpions and small lizards on the ground. It rocks to-and-fro about its longitudinal axis during display flights, calling raucously all the while; starting from above the treetops it plummets towards the ground in rolling flight. The species is territorial, and during the breeding season it will drive off other rollers, small hawks, and crows. This purple roller, of the subspecies C. n. mosambicus, was photographed in Etosha National Park, Namibia. Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp
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