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From today's featured articleParanthodon was a stegosaurian dinosaur that lived in present-day South Africa between 139 and 131 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous. Discovered in 1845, it was one of the first stegosaurians found. The only remains of the genus, a partial skull, isolated teeth, and fragments of vertebrae, were found in the Kirkwood Formation. British paleontologist Richard Owen initially identified the fragments as those of the pareiasaur Anthodon. After remaining untouched for years in the British Museum of Natural History, the partial skull was identified by South African paleontologist Robert Broom as belonging to a different genus; he named the specimen Palaeoscincus africanus. Several years later, Hungarian paleontologist Franz Nopcsa, unaware of Broom's new name, similarly concluded that it represented a new taxon, and named it Paranthodon owenii. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek para (near) with the genus name Anthodon, to represent the initial referral of the remains. (Full article...)
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Minnesota is a state situated in the Midwestern United States, carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the 32nd state on May 11, 1858. While the state's residents are primarily white and northern European, substantial influxes of African, Asian and Hispanic immigrants have joined the descendants of European immigrants and of the original Native American inhabitants. Nearly 60 percent of Minnesota's residents live in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, known as the Twin Cities. The remainder of the state, often referred to as Greater Minnesota, consists of western prairies now given over to intensive agriculture; eastern deciduous forests, also heavily farmed and settled; and the less-populated northern taiga. The state, known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes", is known for its moderate-to-progressive politics and social policies, its civic involvement and its high voter turnout. This picture is a depiction of the historical coat of arms of Minnesota, illustrated by American engraver Henry Mitchell as part of State Arms of the Union, published in 1876 by Louis Prang. The escutcheon features a Native American riding on horseback in the background, while a farmer ploughs a field in the foreground, with his rifle resting on a stump nearby; these represent the state's peoples and industries. The French motto below the shield reads L'Étoile du Nord, meaning 'The Star of the North'. Illustration credit: Henry Mitchell; restored by Andrew Shiva
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