Wikipedia:Main Page history/2013 November 24

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From today's featured article

The goblin shark is a rare, poorly understood species of deep-sea shark. Sometimes called a "living fossil", it is the only extant representative of the family Mitsukurinidae, a lineage some 125 million years old. This species looks unlike any other shark, with a long flattened snout, highly protrusible jaws containing prominent nail-like teeth, and pink coloration. Its snout is covered with ampullae of Lorenzini that enable it to sense minute electric fields produced by nearby prey, which it can snatch up by rapidly extending its jaws. It is usually three to four meters long (10–13 ft) when mature. Goblin sharks inhabit upper continental slopes, submarine canyons, and seamounts around the world at depths greater than 100 m (330 ft). Various anatomical features, such as its flabby body and small fins, suggest that it is sluggish in nature. This species hunts for teleost fishes, cephalopods, and crustaceans both near the sea floor and in the middle of the water column. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed it as Least Concern, citing its wide distribution and low incidence of accidental capture by deepwater fisheries. (Full article...)

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From Wikipedia's new and recently improved content:

... that the upper parts of the Medieval tower of All Saints Church, Odiham (pictured), were completely rebuilt in the 17th century?
... that growth faults form in the sediments parallel to the margin of a continent and can form a reservoir for oil?
... that the History of Education Society's formation in 1960 brought legitimacy to the academic study of the American history of education?
... that in modern beekeeping, bees don't make their own honeycomb, but build it off the wax foundation?
... that Margarita Levieva's character in the 2011 David Wexler dramedy film The Stand Up was praised for having a complexity beyond that of the expected stereotype?
... that Sourav Ganguly was captain for more Pune Warriors India cricket matches than any other player?
... that Gerry Scott, the production designer for several BBC historical costume dramas, was initially rejected by the BBC "because she was a painter and couldn't draw plans"?

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In the news

Magnus Carlsen (pictured) defeats Viswanathan Anand to win the World Chess Championship.
A roof collapse at a grocery store in Riga, Latvia, kills more than 50 people.
British biochemist and two-time Nobel Prize winner Frederick Sanger dies at the age of 95.
A double suicide bombing at the Iranian embassy in Beirut kills 23 people.
NASA launches the MAVEN probe to Mars.
Fifty people are killed when a Tatarstan Airlines Boeing 737 crashes in Kazan, Russia.
Abdulla Yameen is elected president of the Maldives.
Sachin Tendulkar retires from all forms of cricket.

Recent deaths: Maurice Vachon – Doris Lessing

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On this day...

November 24: Feast day of Vietnamese Martyrs (Roman Catholicism)

1542 – Anglo-Scottish Wars: England captured about 1,200 Scottish prisoners with its victory in the Battle of Solway Moss.
1859 – On the Origin of Species by British naturalist Charles Darwin (pictured) was first published, and sold out its initial print run on the first day.
1863 – American Civil War: As part of the Chattanooga Campaign in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Union forces captured Lookout Mountain, helping them to begin breaking the Confederate siege of the city.
1950 – The "Storm of the Century", a large extratropical cyclone, struck the east coast of the United States before moving northeast.
1974 – A group of paleoanthropologists discovered a 3.2-million-year-old skeleton of an Australopithecus afarensis in the Afar Depression in Ethiopia, nicknaming it "Lucy".

More anniversaries: November 23 – November 24 – November 25

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It is now November 24, 2013 (UTC) – Reload this page

Today's featured picture

A caterpillar from the species Papilio machaon, also known as the Old World Swallowtail. The caterpillar spends the first part of its life with the appearance of a bird dropping, which serves as an effective defense against predators. As the caterpillar grows larger, it becomes green with black and orange markings and becomes capable of releasing a foul smell if disturbed, which deters insects, but not birds.

Photo: Archaeodontosaurus

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