"Herrera's lizard", after Victorino Herrera, a goatherd who discovered
the first specimen. All known fossils of Herrerasaurus have been
discovered in northwestern Argentina in rocks dated to 231.4 million
years ago. It was a lightly built bipedal carnivore with a long tail and
a relatively small head. Its length is estimated at 3–6 meters
(10–20 ft) and it may have weighed around 210–350 kilograms
(463–772 lb). The type species, Herrerasaurus ischigualastensis, was
described by Osvaldo Reig in 1963 and is the only species assigned to
the genus. Where Herrerasaurus and its close relatives lie on the early
dinosaur evolutionary tree is unclear. For many years, it was known from
very fragmentary remains. However, with the discovery of an almost
complete skeleton and skull in 1988, Herrerasaurus has been classified
as either an early theropod or an early saurischian, with many
researchers treating it at least tentatively as the most primitive
member of Theropoda. It is a member of the Herrerasauridae, a family of
similar genera that were among the earliest of the dinosaurian
evolutionary radiation.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herrerasaurus>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1604:
German astronomer Johannes Kepler observed an exceptionally
bright star, now known as Kepler's Supernova (remnant nebula pictured),
which had suddenly appeared in the constellation Ophiuchus.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler%27s_Supernova>
1943:
The Holocaust: Three days after a successful revolt by inmates,
Sobibor extermination camp in eastern Poland was closed.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobibor_extermination_camp>
1956:
Queen Elizabeth II opened the world's first commercial nuclear
power plant at Calder Hall in Cumbria, England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sellafield>
1992:
Having gone to the wrong house for a Halloween party, Japanese
exchange student Yoshihiro Hattori was shot and killed by the homeowner
in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, US.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshihiro_Hattori>
2010:
Mary MacKillop was canonised to become the only Australian to
be recognised by the Roman Catholic Church as a saint.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_MacKillop>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
sine qua non:
An essential or indispensable element, condition, or ingredient.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sine_qua_non>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The job is to ask questions — it always was — and to ask them
as inexorably as I can. And to face the absence of precise answers with
a certain humility.
--Arthur Miller
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_Miller>
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