Noronhomys vespuccii, Vespucci's rodent, was a rat from the islands of Fernando de Noronha off northeastern Brazil. Numerous but fragmentary fossil remains of the extinct species, of uncertain but probably Holocene age, were discovered in 1973 and described in 1999. N. vespuccii was larger than the black rat (Rattus rattus), with high- crowned molars and several ridges on the skull that anchored the chewing muscles. A member of the family Cricetidae and subfamily Sigmodontinae, it shared several distinctive characters with the tribe Oryzomyini. Its close relatives, including Holochilus and Lundomys, are adapted to a semiaquatic lifestyle, spending much of their time in the water, but features of the Noronhomys bones suggest that it lost its semiaquatic lifestyle after arrival at its remote island. Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci may have seen it on a visit to Fernando de Noronha in 1503.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noronhomys

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1799:

French soldiers uncovered the Rosetta Stone in Fort Julien, near the Egyptian port city of Rashid. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_Stone

1959:

Five hundred thousand American steelworkers went on strike, closing nearly every steel mill in the country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel_strike_of_1959

1983:

Armenian extremist organization ASALA bombed the Turkish Airlines check-in counter at Orly Airport, killing 8 and injuring 55, as part of its campaign for the recognition of and reparations for the Armenian Genocide. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Orly_Airport_attack

2009:

Caspian Airlines Flight 7908 crashed in northwestern Iran, killing all 168 people aboard. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caspian_Airlines_Flight_7908

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

kombu: Edible kelp (“a type of brown seaweed”) (from the class Phaeophyceae) used in East Asian cuisine. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kombu

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Every expression of human mental life can be understood as a kind of language, and this understanding, in the manner of a true method, everywhere raises new questions.   --Walter Benjamin https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walter_Benjamin