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The Edmontosaurus mummy SMF R 4036 is a dinosaur fossil in the collection of the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt, Germany. It was found in 1910 in Wyoming, United States, in rocks of the Lance Formation that are about 66 million years old. The mummy is ascribed to the species Edmontosaurus annectens. It comprises a nearly complete skeleton found wrapped in skin impressions, a rare case of preservation for which the term dinosaur mummy has been used. It is assumed that the individual died during a drought and the carcass dried out before being carried away by a sudden flood and buried rapidly. Sand filled the body cavity, preserving the three-dimensional shape of the body, and a biofilm on the skin formed a thin crust of clay that preserved the shape of the skin in positive relief (protruding up from the surface). The mummy was found by Charles Sternberg and his sons. It is one of the best-preserved hadrosaurid mummies and the second to be discovered. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

A row of Mathews Flats

... that by 1926, New York City's more than 1,200 Mathews Flats (pictured) would stretch more than four miles (6.4 km) if set side by side?
... that, soon after the American Continental Workers' Association was established, the rise of dictatorships throughout Latin America left it unable to function?
... that in 1996, Guyanese sport shooter Ransford Goodluck captained the first rifle team from the Caribbean to beat a British touring team?
... that a cyber attack on a FIFA insider, traced to the Indian cyber-espionage company Appin, was part of Qatar's campaign to protect its 2022 World Cup hosting rights?
... that a suicide bomber posed for a photograph with a group of tourists in Shibam before blowing himself up?
... that Chris Gordon described joining Hollyoaks as "meeting the family of a partner you really like"?
... that the statue of Joan of Arc in Washington, D.C., is the only equestrian statue of a woman in the city?
... that, when St. Joseph's School for the Deaf was divided by the Hutchinson River Parkway extension, even a tram tunnel could not bind the two halves back together?
... that a 14th-century king of Okinawa may have been Korean?

In the news

Earthquake damage in East Manggarai, Indonesia

A magnitude-7.7 earthquake (damage pictured) strikes off the coast of Flores, Indonesia, causing at least 83 deaths.
Former premier of China Zhu Rongji dies at the age of 97.
A solar eclipse causes totality from Siberia to Iberia.
A ferry capsizes on Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe, leaving at least 97 people dead.
A magnitude-7.4 earthquake strikes Chocó Department, Colombia, leaving at least 319 people dead.

On this day

August 22: Madras Day in Chennai, India (1639)

America's Cup

1485 – At the Battle of Bosworth Field, Lancastrian forces under Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, defeated Yorkist forces under Richard III of England, decisively ending the Wars of the Roses.
1711 – Queen Anne's War: A British attempt to attack Quebec failed when eight ships wrecked on the St. Lawrence River.
1851 – The yacht America won the race for the Cup of One Hundred Sovereigns (trophy pictured), later renamed the America's Cup, near the Isle of Wight, England.
1985 – A fire broke out on British Airtours Flight 28M at Manchester Airport, causing 55 deaths mostly due to smoke inhalation, and leading to changes to make aircraft evacuation more effective.
2003 – Roy Moore, Alabama's chief justice, was suspended after refusing to comply with a U.S. federal court order to remove a rock inscribed with the Ten Commandments from the lobby of the Supreme Court of Alabama building.

John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland (d. 1553)
George Herriman (b. 1880)
Kate Chopin (d. 1904)
Lautaro Martínez (b. 1997)

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Today's featured picture

Claude Debussy (22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He was seen, during his lifetime and afterwards, as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born to a family of modest means, he was admitted at the age of 10 to France's leading music college, the Conservatoire de Paris. He originally studied the piano, but found his vocation in innovative composition, despite the disapproval of the Conservatoire's conservative professors. He took many years to develop his mature style, and was nearly 40 before achieving international fame in 1902 with the only opera he completed, Pelléas et Mélisande. Debussy developed his own style in the use of harmony and orchestral colouring. His works have strongly influenced a wide range of composers, including Béla Bartók, Olivier Messiaen, George Benjamin and the jazz pianist and composer Bill Evans. This photograph of Debussy was taken by the studio of the French photographer Nadar around 1900.

Photograph credit: Nadar; restored by Adam Cuerden

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