Ankylosaurus was an armored dinosaur that lived roughly 67 million years ago, at the very end of the Cretaceous Period. This genus was among the last of the non-avian dinosaurs, living alongside Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, and Edmontosaurus. Its name means "fused lizard"; bones in its skull and other parts of its body were fused, increasing their strength. Ankylosaurus was up to 6.25 m (20.5 feet) long and 1.7 m (5.6 feet) tall, weighing about 4.8–8 tonnes (11,000–18,000 lb). It had a broad, robust body with a wide, low skull. The front parts of the jaws were covered in a beak, with rows of small, leaf-shaped teeth behind it, adapted for a herbivorous diet. It was covered in armor plates for protection against predators, with bony half-rings covering the neck, and had a large club on the end of its tail which may have been used as a weapon. Fossils from a few specimens of Ankylosaurus have been found in various geological formations in western North America, but a complete skeleton has not been discovered.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ankylosaurus
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1885:
American photographer Wilson Bentley took the first known photograph of a snowflake by attaching a bellows camera to a microscope (process pictured). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilson_Bentley
1934:
At least 10,700 people died when an 8.0 magnitude earthquake struck Nepal and the Indian state of Bihar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1934_Nepal%E2%80%93Bihar_earthquake
1951:
Ilse Koch, the wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald and Majdanek concentration camps, was sentenced to life imprisonment by a West German court. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilse_Koch
1962:
The Derveni papyrus, which dates to 340 BC, making it the oldest surviving manuscript in Europe, was discovered in Macedonia, northern Greece. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derveni_papyrus
1975:
Portugal signed the Alvor Agreement with UNITA, the MPLA, and the FNLA, ending the Angolan War of Independence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvor_Agreement
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
obtuse: 1. Intellectually dull or dim-witted. 2. Indirect or circuitous. 3. Of sound, etc.: deadened, muffled, muted. 4. (geometry) Of an angle: greater than 90 degrees but less than 180 degrees. 5. (geometry) Of a triangle: having one obtuse angle. 6. (now chiefly botany, zoology) Not sharp; blunt. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/obtuse
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
If everyone were clothed with integrity, If every heart were just, frank, kindly, The other virtues would be well-nigh useless, Since their chief purpose is to make us bear with patience The injustice of our fellows. --Molière https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Moli%C3%A8re