Paraceratherium was a hornless rhinoceros, and one of the largest
terrestrial mammals that has ever existed. The genus lived during most
of the Oligocene epoch (34–23 million years ago); its remains have
been found across Eurasia between China and the Balkans. Its weight is
estimated to have been 15 to 20 tonnes (33,000 to 44,000 lb); the
shoulder height was about 4.8 metres (15.7 feet), and the length about
7.4 metres (24.3 feet). The legs were long and pillar-like. The long
neck supported a skull that was about 1.3 metres (4.3 ft) long. It had
large, tusk-like incisors and a nasal incision that suggests it had a
prehensile upper lip or trunk. The lifestyle of Paraceratherium may have
been similar to that of large mammals such as elephants and modern
rhinoceroses. It was a browser, eating mainly leaves, soft plants, and
shrubs. It lived in habitats ranging from arid deserts with scattered
trees to subtropical forests.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraceratherium>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1959:
Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, one of the best selling and most
critically acclaimed jazz recordings of all time, was released.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kind_of_Blue>
1969:
Hurricane Camille struck the Mississippi coast of the United
States, killing 259 people and causing $1.42 billion in damages.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Camille>
1999:
A 7.6 Mw earthquake struck northwestern Turkey, killing more
than 17,000 people and leaving approximately half a million people
homeless.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_%C4%B0zmit_earthquake>
2009:
A turbine at Russia's Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam in Khakassia
broke apart violently, flooding the power station, causing widespread
power failures and killing 75 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Sayano-Shushenskaya_power_station_accident>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
fatberg:
A large accumulation of fat and discarded toiletries which clogs sewers.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fatberg>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Religion now had to have its compartment, almost its social
place. The frontier had ceased to exist. And the religions it had bred
were beginning slowly to die. In the old days, when men, often of little
education, had needed only to declare themselves ministers, people would
have seen themselves reflected in the expounders of the Word. This
quality of homespun would have made the religions appear creations of a
community, personal and close and inviolable. Now a certain distance was
needed.
--V. S. Naipaul
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/V._S._Naipaul>