Wikipedia:Main Page history/2021 February 26

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From today's featured article

The marsh rice rat (O. palustris), a similar species to O. gorgasi

Oryzomys gorgasi, also known as Gorgas's rice rat, is a rodent in the genus Oryzomys of the family Cricetidae. First collected as a living animal in 1967, it is known from only a few localities, including a freshwater swamp in the lowlands of northwestern Colombia and a mangrove islet in northwestern Venezuela. An extinct form from the island of Curaçao off Venezuela has been described as a separate species, O. curasoae, but does not differ morphologically from mainland populations. It is a medium-sized, brownish species with large, semiaquatically specialized feet. It differs from other Oryzomys species in several features of its skull. Its diet includes crustaceans, insects, and plant material. The species is listed as "Endangered" by the IUCN due to destruction of its habitat and competition with the introduced black rat. (This article is part of a featured topic: Oryzomys.)

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Did you know ...

Wilhelm Knabe

... that Wilhelm Knabe (pictured), a co-founder of the Greens in Germany and a "green" mayor of Mülheim, participated in Fridays For Future with the slogan "Opa For Future"?
... that the 1960 film The Purple Gang has an introduction by Congressman James Roosevelt, son of Franklin D. Roosevelt?
... that the common-law wife of the ninth vice president of the United States was Julia Chinn, an enslaved woman?
... that while Gerry House worked at Kentucky radio station WCBR, the owner, a pastor, asked him whether he wanted to donate his salary?
... that the first cookbook edited by Maria Guarnaschelli helped introduce American cooks to Indian cuisine?
... that 17q12 microdeletion syndrome, an underdiagnosed genetic disorder, is thought to be a major genetic risk factor for autism and schizophrenia?
... that Lee M. Hollander pioneered the translation of the works of the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard into English?
... that the 2010 Football League Two play-off Final at Wembley Stadium was won by a pub team from Essex?

In the news

Naomi Osaka and Novak Djokovic

In tennis, Naomi Osaka wins the women's singles and Novak Djokovic wins the men's singles at the Australian Open (both winners pictured).
Porfirije is enthroned as the 46th Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
NASA's Perseverance rover, carrying the Ingenuity helicopter, successfully lands on Mars.
A winter storm in North America leaves at least 70 people dead and several million others without electricity or clean water.

On this day

February 26: Purim (Judaism, 2021)

Napoleon leaving Elba

747 BC – According to Ptolemy, the reign of the Babylonian king Nabonassar began, marking a new era characterized by the systematic maintenance of chronologically precise historical records.
1815 – Napoleon escaped from the Italian island of Elba (depicted), to which he had been exiled after the signing of the Treaty of Fontainebleau a year earlier.
1995 – Barings Bank, the oldest merchant bank in London, was declared insolvent after its head derivatives trader in Singapore, Nick Leeson, lost £827 million while making unauthorised trades on futures contracts.
2013 – A hot air balloon crashed near Luxor, Egypt, killing 19 people in the deadliest ballooning disaster in history.

Fatima bint al-Ahmar (d. 1349)
Kenneth Edgeworth (b. 1880)
Howard Hanson (d. 1981)

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From today's featured list

Sydenham Hill Wood

London Wildlife Trust, founded in 1981, is the local nature conservation charity for Greater London. It is one of 46 members of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts (known as The Wildlife Trusts), each of which is a local nature-conservation charity for its area. The trust aims to protect London's wildlife and wild spaces, and it manages over 40 nature reserves in Greater London. The trust's oldest reserves include Sydenham Hill Wood (pictured), which was managed by Southwark Wildlife Group before 1982 and was thus already a trust reserve at that date. The campaign to save Gunnersbury Triangle began that same year, succeeding in 1983 when a public inquiry ruled that the site could not be developed because of its value for nature. The trust has some 50 members of staff and 500 volunteers who work together on activities such as water management, chalk grassland restoration, helping people with special needs, and giving children an opportunity to go pond-dipping. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The Malagasy giant chameleon (Furcifer oustaleti) is a large species of chameleon, endemic to Madagascar. As well as the insects and small vertebrates on which the species feeds, it sometimes consumes fruit. It has been observed drawing fruit-bearing twigs closer with its forelimbs, a degree of food manipulation unusual in reptiles. This juvenile Malagasy giant chameleon was photographed at night in Montagne d'Ambre National Park.

Photograph credit: Charles James Sharp

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