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Mounted Peloneustes fossil skeleton

Peloneustes is a genus of pliosaurid plesiosaur from the Middle Jurassic of England, known from the Oxford Clay Formation. Its sole species was originally named Plesiosaurus philarchus by Harry Govier Seeley in 1869 before Richard Lydekker gave it its own genus in 1889. It is known from many specimens, some very complete. It had a total length of 3.5 to 4 metres (11 to 13 ft), and a large, triangular skull elongated into a narrow snout with conical teeth. The two sides of its mandible (lower jaw) were fused into a long symphysis at the front. Its neck was short for a plesiosaur and its limbs were modified into flippers, with the back pair larger than the front. Peloneustes is classified in Thalassophonea with other short-necked pliosaurids. It was well-adapted to aquatic life, using its flippers for swimming, and its skull was reinforced against the stresses of feeding. Peloneustes's long, narrow snout could have been swung through the water to catch fish with its sharp teeth. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Coat of arms of Raphael de Mercatellis

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... that the president of his own party criticized the speed at which members of the Congress of Puebla moved to appoint Sergio Salomón Céspedes as the substitute governor?
... that the luxury passenger steamer Stephen Furness was taken into Royal Navy service during the First World War and was sunk by a U-boat, with the loss of more than 100 lives?
... that Pap of Armenia survived an assassination attempt by Roman legions during a battle, but was later murdered by the Romans during a feast?
... that the Communist Opposition was the most popular slate in the 1931 Czechoslovak municipal election in Unhošť?
... that American professor Emerson Charles Denny co-published the Nelson–Denny Reading Test in 1930, which has parts held at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History?
... that according to Ren Xiaoping, the first reference to a body swap occurs in the Chinese short story "Judge Lu", in which the titular character performs a head transplant on his friend's wife?

In the news

The aircraft involved in the accident

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Constantine II, the last king of Greece, dies at the age of 82.
Supporters of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro invade the National Congress, the Supreme Federal Court, and the Palácio do Planalto.
Michael Smith wins the PDC World Darts Championship.
Croatia adopts the euro and joins the Schengen Area.

On this day

January 18

Marion Barry

474 – The young child Leo II became the sole Byzantine emperor upon the death of his grandfather Leo I.
1535 – Francisco Pizarro founded Ciudad de los Reyes (present-day Lima, Peru) as the capital of the lands he conquered for the Spanish crown.
1788 – The armed tender HMS Supply, the first ship of the First Fleet, arrived at Botany Bay, Australia.
1958 – Willie O'Ree of the Boston Bruins played his first game in the National Hockey League, becoming the first black Canadian to compete in the NHL.
1990 – In a sting operation conducted by the FBI, Marion Barry (pictured), the mayor of Washington, D.C., was arrested for possession of crack cocaine.

Jobst of Moravia (d. 1411)
Jeanne Quinault (d. 1783)
Vinod Kambli (b. 1972)

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Today's featured picture

The Eureka Inn is a hotel in Eureka, California, built in the Elizabethan Tudor Revival architectural style. Opened in 1922, it was purchased in 1960 by Helen Barnum, the matriarch of a successful timber family in the county, before being sold to John Biord after Barnum's death in 1993. In 2004, the inn was closed after tax defaults by its owner, reopening in 2010 after the businessman Libo Zhu purchased and refurbished it. In February 1982, the structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This photograph shows the Eureka Inn's entrance hall as seen in 2020.

Photograph credit: Frank Schulenburg

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