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From today's featured article

Achelousaurus was a ceratopsid dinosaur that lived about 74.2 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous. The first fossils of the genus were collected from the Two Medicine Formation in the U.S. state of Montana in 1987. Mainly known from skull material, Achelousaurus was about 6 m (20 ft) long, with a weight of about 3 tonnes (3.3 short tons). It had a large head with a hooked beak, and a bony neck-frill with a pair of long, curved spikes. In the places where other centrosaurines often had horns, Achelousaurus had bosses (roundish protuberances) above the eyes and on the snout that may have been used in fights and for display. It has been suggested that Achelousaurus was a transitional form between Einiosaurus (which had spikes but no bosses) and Pachyrhinosaurus (which had larger bosses), though this is debated. As a ceratopsian, Achelousaurus would have been a herbivore. It appears to have had a high metabolic rate, though lower than that of modern mammals and birds. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

1933 Majestic Radio

... that Majestic Radios (model pictured) were so highly regarded in 1929 that the Graf Zeppelin's navigator bought one when his airship landed in the U.S. to take back to Germany?
... that journalist Bill Fitsell was reportedly scared of driving since he covered accidents?
... that the 1921 book The Meaning of Relativity represents Albert Einstein's only attempt to provide an overview of general relativity that was both comprehensive and accessible to non-specialists?
... that Claudia Chamorro Barrios married on the birthday of her assassinated father?
... that "Mit Ernst, o Menschenkinder", a 1642 Advent hymn, includes a call to penitence that John the Baptist took from the prophet Isaiah?
... that future U.S. Navy rear admiral Oral Swigart competed as a wrestler at the 1920 Summer Olympics?
... that the Dachau camp trial was one of 489 Dachau trials, the majority of which were held within the confines of the concentration camp itself?
... that on occasion, Stewart Friesen runs NASCAR and dirt on the same day?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic: Disease; Virus; By location; Impact; Vaccines; Portal

Chang'e 5

The Chang'e 5 (illustration shown) sample-return mission returns lunar material to Earth.
Nana Akufo-Addo is re-elected for a second term as President of Ghana.
In motorsport, Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia win the World Rally Championship, while Hyundai win the manufacturers' title.
Hayabusa2 successfully returns samples collected from asteroid 162173 Ryugu to Earth.

On this day

December 19

Frontispiece to A Christmas Carol

1843 – A Christmas Carol (illustration pictured), a novella by Charles Dickens about the miser Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation after being visited by ghosts, was first published.
1956 – British physician and suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams was arrested in connection with the death of Edith Alice Morrell.
1983 – The Jules Rimet Trophy, awarded to the winner of the FIFA World Cup, was stolen from the offices of the Brazilian Football Confederation.
1997 – Titanic, the third-highest-grossing film of all time, with a worldwide total of more than US$1.8 billion, was released in the United States.

Pope Urban V (d. 1370)
Mary Livermore (b. 1820)
Jake Gyllenhaal (b. 1980)

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Today's featured picture

NGC 6357 is a diffuse nebula in the constellation Scorpius. This composite image of the nebula contains X-ray data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the ROSAT telescope (purple), infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope (orange), and optical data from the SuperCosmos Sky Survey (blue). Radiation from hot, young stars is energizing the cooler gas in the clouds that surround them. Often known as the Lobster Nebula, the astronomical object has also been termed the Madokami Nebula by fans of the anime Madoka Magica due to its supposed resemblance to the main character. Scientists at the Midcourse Space Experiment prefer the name War and Peace Nebula, because the bright, western part resembles a dove, while the eastern part looks like a skull in infrared images.

Photograph credit: NASA

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