From today's featured article
|
The dire wolf (Canis dirus, "fearsome dog") was a prehistoric carnivore of the Western Hemisphere in the late Pleistocene Epoch (125,000–10,000 years ago). The extinct species probably evolved from Armbruster's wolf (Canis armbrusteri). The dire wolf was about the same size as the Yukon and Northwestern wolves, the largest modern gray wolves (Canis lupus). Its skull and dentition matched those of the gray wolf, but its teeth were larger with greater shearing ability, and its bite force at the canine tooth was the strongest of any known Canis species. These adaptations allowed it to hunt, probably in packs, for Late Pleistocene megaherbivores. In North America it competed with the sabre-toothed cat for prey including horses, sloths, mastodons, bison, and camels. Dire wolf remains have been found across a broad range of habitats including the plains, grasslands, and some forested mountain areas of North America, and in the arid savannah of South America. The largest collection of dire wolf fossils comes from the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles; its latest remains date from 9,440 years ago. (Full article...)
|
Did you know...
|
 Lamborghini Asterion
|
|
|
In the news
|
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
- Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani, the first woman to receive the Fields Medal, dies at the age of 40.
- Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese pro-democracy activist, political prisoner and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, dies at the age of 61.
- Former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (pictured) is sentenced to nearly ten years in prison over the Operation Car Wash corruption scandal.
- A giant iceberg, covering approximately 5,800 km2 (2,200 sq mi), breaks away from the Larsen C Ice Shelf in Antarctica.
- After covering 450 kilometres (280 mi), the Turkish March for Justice concludes in Istanbul at a rally attended by hundreds of thousands of people.
|
On this day...
|
July 17: Feast day of the Scillitan Martyrs (Roman Catholic Church); Marine Day in Japan (2017); Constitution Day in South Korea (1948)
 RMS Carpathia
- 1453 – The Battle of Castillon, the last conflict of the Hundred Years' War, ended with the English losing all landholdings in France, except Calais.
- 1771 – Dene men, acting as guides to Samuel Hearne on his exploration of the Coppermine River in present-day Nunavut, Canada, massacred a group of about 20 Copper Inuit.
- 1918 – RMS Carpathia (pictured), which had rescued the survivors of the RMS Titanic sinking, was itself sunk by a German U-boat.
- 1944 – Two ships laden with ammunition for World War II exploded at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in Port Chicago, California, killing 320 sailors and civilians, and injuring more than 400 others.
- 1992 – Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the Manchester Metrolink, the first modern street running light rail system in the United Kingdom.
Sverker II of Sweden (d. 1210) · Berenice Abbott (b. 1898) · Tatiana Nikolaevna (d. 1918)
|
|
