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Holotype skeleton of V. ivachnenkoi

Viatkogorgon is a genus of gorgonopsian (a type of therapsid, a group that includes modern mammals) that lived during the Permian Period in what is now Russia. The first fossil was named as V. ivachnenkoi after the paleontologist M. F. Ivakhnenko. It was found at the Kotelnich near the river Vyatka in 1999. The holotype skeleton (pictured) is one of the most complete gorgonopsian specimens known and includes some rarely preserved elements, including gastralia and a sclerotic ring. A larger, less well preserved specimen has also been assigned to this species. The smaller specimen is about 80 cm (31 in) long, including the 14 cm (5.5 in) skull, and may have been a young animal. It was robust with a dog-like stance, high snout, and very large canine teeth. Gorgonopsians would have been relatively fast predators, which killed their prey by delivering slashing bites with their saber-teeth, and this genus may have been adapted for swimming. (Full article...)

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In the news

Pedro Castillo

The United Nations General Assembly adopts a resolution suspending Russia from the UN Human Rights Council.
Protests in Peru against inflation and the policies of President Pedro Castillo (pictured) result in at least nine deaths and the looting of the Supreme Court's offices.
In NCAA Division I basketball, the South Carolina Gamecocks win the women's championship and the Kansas Jayhawks win the men's championship.
Rodrigo Chaves Robles is elected President of Costa Rica.

On this day

April 9: Vimy Ridge Day in Canada (1917); Day of Valor in the Philippines (1942)

Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr

1860 – Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville recorded himself singing "Au clair de la lune" on his phonautograph, producing the oldest known recording of an audible human voice.
1917 – First World War: The Canadian Corps began the first wave of attacks at the Battle of Vimy Ridge in Vimy, France.
1942 – World War II: Japanese forces defeated Allied troops at the Battle of Bataan in the Philippines before beginning to forcibly transfer more than 90,000 prisoners of war to prison camps in the Bataan Death March.
1980 – Iraqi philosopher Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr (pictured) and his sister Amina were executed by the regime of Saddam Hussein.
1999 – President of Niger Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara was shot dead by soldiers in Niamey.

al-Muqtafi (d. 1096)
Charles Proteus Steinmetz (b. 1865)
Nikki Grahame (d. 2021)

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Today's featured picture

Pigeon Point Lighthouse is the tallest lighthouse (tied with Point Arena Light) on the West Coast of the United States, located in San Mateo County, California. It stands on a rocky promontory and has long been a landmark for ships approaching San Francisco Bay from the south. This headland, and hence the lighthouse, took its name from the ship Carrier Pigeon, which was wrecked here in 1853.

Photograph credit: Frank Schulenburg

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