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.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achelousaurus>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1956:
British physician and suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams
was arrested in connection with the death of Edith Alice Morrell.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bodkin_Adams>
1983:
The Jules Rimet Trophy, awarded to the winner of the FIFA World
Cup, was stolen from the offices of the Brazilian Football
Confederation.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Cup_Trophy>
1997:
Titanic, the second-highest-grossing film of all time, with a
worldwide total of more than US$1.8 billion, was released in the United
States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanic_%281997_film%29>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
scut:
1. (obsolete) A hare; (hunting, also figurative) a hare as the game in a
hunt.
2. A short, erect tail, as of a hare, rabbit, or deer.
3. (by extension) The buttocks or rump; also, the female pudenda, the
vulva. […]
4. (chiefly Ireland, colloquial) A contemptible person. […]
5. (also attributively) Distasteful work; drudgery; specifically
(medicine, slang) some menial procedure left for a doctor or medical
student to complete, sometimes for training purposes.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/scut>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Oh cold, cold, rigid, dreadful Death, set up thine altar here,
and dress it with such terrors as thou hast at thy command: for this is
thy dominion! But of the loved, revered, and honoured head, thou canst
not turn one hair to thy dread purposes, or make one feature odious. It
is not that the hand is heavy and will fall down when released; it is
not that the heart and pulse are still; but that the hand was open,
generous, and true; the heart brave, warm, and tender; and the pulse a
man’s. Strike, Shadow, strike! And see his good deeds springing from
the wound, to sow the world with life immortal!
--A Christmas Carol
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol>