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From today's featured article

Holotype tooth, with a British penny for scale

Siamosaurus is a genus of spinosaurid dinosaur from what is now Thailand in the Early Cretaceous period. The first reported spinosaurid from Asia, it is confidently known only from tooth fossils (example pictured). The type species, Siamosaurus suteethorni (named for Thai palaeontologist Varavudh Suteethorn), was formally described in 1986. In 2009, four teeth from China previously attributed to a pliosaur were provisionally identified as possibly those of Siamosaurus. Siamosaurus's body length is uncertain, but has been estimated at 5.1 to 9.1 metres (17 to 30 feet). The teeth, typically 62.5 millimetres (2.46 inches) long, were conical and had longitudinal grooves and wrinkled enamel. It would have had a long, low snout and robust forelimbs, and possibly a sail down its back. Its teeth are similar to those of other spinosaurids, and it may not be a dinosaur at all. Its teeth were suitable for impaling rather than tearing, and it may have eaten fish, pterosaurs and small dinosaurs. It lived in a semi-arid habitat of floodplains and rivers. (Full article...)

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Stockton Flyer

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... that while it is now considered a classic work of girls' comics, the 1974 manga series The Heart of Thomas was almost cancelled five weeks into serialization due to poor initial reader response?
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... that the judiciary of the Philippines has recognized the legal standing of dolphins?
... that after ice hockey executive Hanson Dowell suspended players on Cape Breton Island, local coal miners threatened to strike in protest?
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In the news

COVID-19 pandemic: Disease; Virus; By location; Impact; Vaccines; Portal

Aircraft involved in the accident

Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 (aircraft pictured), carrying 62 people, crashes north of Jakarta, Indonesia.
Rioters supporting Donald Trump storm the United States Capitol, disrupting certification of the presidential election and forcing Congress to evacuate.
In the United States, the Democratic Party wins control of the Senate, with victories in regular and special Senate elections in Georgia.
Saudi Arabia reopens its border with Qatar, ending a three-year diplomatic crisis.

On this day

January 10

Lucas gusher at the Spindletop oil field

236 – Pope Fabian, said to have been chosen by the Holy Spirit when a dove landed on his head, began his papacy.
1776 – Common Sense, a pamphlet by Thomas Paine denouncing British rule in the Thirteen Colonies, was published.
1901 – The first great gusher (pictured) of the Texas oil boom was discovered in the Spindletop oil field near Beaumont.
1946 – The first session of the United Nations General Assembly convened at the Methodist Central Hall in London with representatives from 51 member states.
1966 – India and Pakistan signed the Tashkent Declaration to end the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.

Husayn ibn Ali (b. 626)
Carl Linnaeus (d. 1778)
Issai Schur (b. 1875; d. 1941)

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Today's featured picture

The Consummation of Empire is the third in a series of five oil-on-canvas paintings entitled The Course of Empire, created by the American artist Thomas Cole between 1833 and 1836. The series, now in the collection of the New-York Historical Society, depicts the growth and fall of an imaginary city, situated at the lower end of a river valley. In this painting, the rural village has become a magnificent city, with colonnaded structures reminiscent of ancient Rome. A victorious hero is crossing a bridge in procession and about to pass under a triumphal arch. The architecture and embellishments illustrate that wealth, power, knowledge, and taste have worked together to reach the summit of human achievement and empire.

Painting credit: Thomas Cole

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