The giant mouse lemurs (genus Mirza) are primates native to Madagascar, like all other lemurs. The two described species, the northern (pictured) and Coquerel's giant mouse lemurs, are found in the western dry deciduous forests, Sambirano valley and Sahamalaza Peninsula. In 1870, British zoologist John Edward Gray assigned them to Mirza, but the classification was not widely accepted until the 1990s, following the revival of the genus by American paleoanthropologist Ian Tattersall in 1982. Giant mouse lemurs weigh approximately 300 g (11 oz) and have a long, bushy tail. They sleep in nests during the day and forage alone at night for fruit, tree gum, insects, and small vertebrates. The northern species has the largest testicles relative to body size of any living primate. Predators of giant mouse lemurs include the Madagascar buzzard, Madagascar owl, fossa, and narrow-striped mongoose. Both Mirza species are endangered due to habitat destruction and hunting.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_mouse_lemur
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1713:
With no living male heirs, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, issued the Pragmatic Sanction, which allowed daughters to inherit the Habsburg hereditary possessions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_VI,_Holy_Roman_Emperor
1903:
Anti-Jewish riots broke out in Kishinev, the capital of Bessarabia Governorate, causing the death of nearly 50 Jews and focusing worldwide attention on the persecution of Jews in Russia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kishinev_pogrom
1984:
"Advance Australia Fair", written by Scottish-born composer Peter Dodds McCormick, officially replaced "God Save the Queen" as Australia's national anthem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_Australia_Fair
1995:
A truck bomb destroyed much of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building (damage pictured) in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, killing 168 people and injuring more than 680 others. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
Bronx cheer: (US, idiomatic) Synonym of raspberry (“a sound intended to resemble flatulence made by blowing air out of the mouth while the tongue is protruding from and pressed against the lips, used humorously or to express disdain or scorn”). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Bronx_cheer
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Language is not a handmaiden to perception; it is perception; it gives shape to what would otherwise be inert and dead. The shaping power of language cannot be avoided. We cannot choose to distance ourselves from it. We can only choose to employ it in one way rather than another. --Stanley Fish https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stanley_Fish