Wikipedia:Main Page history/2023 October 30b

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Velociraptor skeleton
Velociraptor skeleton

Velociraptor is a genus of small dinosaurs that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous epoch. It was about 1.5 to 2.07 m (4.9 to 6.8 ft) long with a body mass around 14.1 to 19.7 kg (31 to 43 lb). Velociraptor was a bipedal carnivore with feathers, a long tail, and an enlarged sickle-shaped claw on each hindfoot; these claws are thought to have been used to tackle and restrain prey. It is distinguished from other dromaeosaurids by its long and low skull, with an upturned snout. One of the dinosaur genera most familiar to the general public (due to its prominent role in the Jurassic Park films), in actuality it was roughly the size of a turkey, considerably smaller than its depictions in novels and films. It is well known to paleontologists, with more than a dozen described fossil skeletons. One dramatic specimen preserves a Velociraptor locked in combat with a Protoceratops. (Full article...)

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Painting used in the box art of John Company
Painting used in the box art of John Company

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Kalle Rovanperä in June 2022
Kalle Rovanperä

On this day

October 30: Mischief Night

Monument to the Gozo luzzu disaster
Monument to the Gozo luzzu disaster
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Dayanışma by Zühtü Müridoğlu
Dayanışma by Zühtü Müridoğlu

Twenty sculptures were erected in Istanbul in 1973 and 1974 to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of Republic of Turkey on 29 October 1973. The theme of the sculptures was open; the sculptors were not only allowed but encouraged to freely express their own characteristic styles. This was a unique event in the history of modern Turkish sculpture, which had until then mostly only seen commissions for monuments. The Istanbul Municipality intended to erect fifty sculptures, but a lack of funds necessitated that the number of sculptures be reduced to twenty. Only six of the sculptures remain, four of which remain in their original location. (Full list...)

Fumarole mineral

Fumarole minerals are minerals that are deposited by fumarole exhalations. They form when gases and compounds desublimate or precipitate out of condensates, forming mineral deposits. They are mostly associated with volcanoes (as volcanic sublimate or fumarolic sublimate), following deposition from volcanic gas during an eruption or discharge from a volcanic vent or fumarole, but have been encountered on burning coal deposits as well. They can be black or multicoloured and are often unstable upon exposure to the atmosphere. This fumarole formation, formed of acicular crystals of tazieffite (black), was sampled at Mutnovsky, a volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. The image was taken by scanning electron microscope.

Photograph credit: Ppm61

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