Atrociraptor is a genus of dromaeosaurid dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous in what is now Alberta, Canada. The first specimen was discovered in 1995 by the fossil collector Wayne Marshall in the Horseshoe Canyon Formation. In 2004, this became the holotype of the new genus and species Atrociraptor marshalli; the generic name is Latin for 'savage robber'. It is estimated to have measured 1.8 to 2 m (5.9 to 6.6 ft) in length and weighed 15 kg (33 lb). It would have had a large sickle-claw on the second toe and pennaceous feathers. Atrociraptor has a deeper face and more strongly backwards-inclined teeth than its contemporary relatives. It is thought to have been specialised for attacking larger prey due to its deep snout. Studies suggest dromaeosaurids used their sickle-claws to restrain prey while dismembering them with the mouth. Atrociraptor dates from around 72.2 to 71.5 million years ago; it survived for more than 2 million years and across a wide geographic area.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrociraptor> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1532: Spanish conquest of Peru: Conquistador Francisco Pizarro orchestrated a surprise attack in Cajamarca, capturing the Inca emperor, Atahualpa. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cajamarca> 1914: World War I: Austro-Hungarian forces launched an assault against Serbian defensive positions at the Kolubara river, beginning the Battle of Kolubara. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kolubara> 1944: World War II: Operation Queen commenced with one of the heaviest Allied tactical bombings of the war, attacking German targets in the Rur valley. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Queen> 1959: The Sound of Music, a musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein based on The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, opened on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sound_of_Music> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: twinge: 1. (intransitive) 2. To have a sudden, pinching or sharp pain in a specific part of the body, like a twitch. 3. (obsolete except UK, dialectal) To pull and twist. 4. (transitive, obsolete) 5. (except UK, dialectal) To pull and twist (someone or something); to pinch, to tweak, to twitch, to wring. 6. To affect or torment (someone, their mind, or part of their body) with one or more sudden, pinching or sharp pains; to irritate. 7. (figurative) To prick or stimulate (one's conscience). 8. A sudden, pinching or sharp pain in a specific part of the body, especially one lasting for a short time. 9. (rare, also figurative) A turn, a twist. 10. (figurative) 11. A sudden, sharp feeling of an emotional or mental nature, as of guilt or sadness; a pang, a paroxysm, a throe; also, a prick of the conscience. 12. A sudden, sharp occurrence of something; a nip. 13. (UK, dialectal) Synonym of earwig (“insect of the order Dermaptera”) 14. (obsolete) An act of pulling and twisting; a pinch, a tweak, a twitch. <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/twinge> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day: Authoritarian, paralyzing, circular, occasionally elliptical, stock phrases, also jocularly referred to as nuggets of wisdom, are malignant plague, one of the very worst ever to ravage the earth. We say to the confused, Know thyself, as if knowing yourself was not the fifth and most difficult of human arithmetical operations, we say to the apathetic, Where there’s a will, there’s a way, as if the brute realities of the world did not amuse themselves each day by turning that phrase on its head, we say to the indecisive, Begin at the beginning, as if that beginning were the clearly visible point of a loosely wound thread and that all we had to do was to keep pulling until we reached the other end, and as if, between the former and the latter, we had held in our hands a smooth, continuous thread with no knots to untie, no snarled to untangle, a complete impossibility in the life of a skien, or indeed, if we may be permitted on more stock phrase, in the skien of life. … These are the delusions of the pure and unprepared, the beginning is never the clear, precise end of a thread, the beginning is a long, painfully slow process that requires time and patience in order to find out in which direction it is heading, a process that feels its way along the path ahead like a blind man, the beginning is just the beginning, what came before is nigh on worthless. --José Saramago <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Saramago> _______________________________________________ Wikipedia Daily Article mailing list. To unsubscribe write to: [email protected] Questions or comments? Contact [email protected]
