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From today's featured article

Durrell's vontsira (Salanoia durrelli) is a Madagascan mammal in the family Eupleridae of the order Carnivora. It is most closely related to the brown-tailed mongoose (Salanoia concolor), with which it forms the genus Salanoia. The two are genetically similar, but morphologically distinct, leading scientists to recognize them as separate species. The animal was first known to science after an individual was observed in 2004, and S. durrelli was described as a new species in 2010. A small, reddish-brown carnivore, Salanoia durrelli is characterized by broad feet with prominent pads, reddish-buff underparts, and broad, robust teeth, among other differences from the brown-tailed mongoose. In the only two weighed specimens, the body masses were 600 and 675 g (21.2 and 23.8 oz). S. durrelli is a marsh-dwelling animal that may feed on crustaceans and mollusks. It is found only in the Lac Alaotra area, a threatened ecosystem, and may also be endangered by competition with introduced species. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Print made with the Bodleian Plate

... that the Bodleian Plate is among the earliest depictions of the College of William & Mary's campus, including the President's House?
... that the Romani people in Poland were persecuted alongside the Jews in the Holocaust?
... that actress Rebecca Dayan developed a love for acting while being raised in a hotel?
... that an artwork featured at Singapore's Marina South Pier MRT station was commissioned for the country's 50th year of independence?
... that Asfaw Yemiru's school educated over 120,000 Ethiopian students?
... that the 51st Defense Battalion, formed during World War II, was the first African-American unit in the United States Marine Corps?
... that Kaʻelepulu Pond, formerly a 200-to-400-acre (81 to 162 ha) Hawaiian fish pond, is now about 95 acres (38 ha) and polluted after having been partially filled in for a housing development?
... that Brazil has extended its FM broadcasting band to allow more AM radio stations to migrate to FM?

In the news

Ganymede

The Juno spacecraft performs a flyby of Jupiter's moon Ganymede (pictured).
Using a compromised encrypted device network, a multinational sting operation results in hundreds of arrests and the seizure of several tons of illegal drugs.
Two trains collide in Sindh, Pakistan, killing at least 63 people.
At the British Academy Television Awards, Save Me Too wins Best Drama and Inside No. 9 wins Best Scripted Comedy.
Waddani, led by Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, wins the most seats in the Somaliland parliamentary election.

On this day

June 12: Dia dos Namorados in Brazil; Independence Day in the Philippines (1898); Queen's Official Birthday in Tuvalu and the United Kingdom (2021); Loving Day in the United States (1967)

Turkish irregulars in Phocaea

1240 – The Disputation of Paris, in which four rabbis defended the Talmud against Nicholas Donin's accusations of blasphemy, began in the court of King Louis IX.
1775 – Thomas Gage, the governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, offered a general pardon to colonists who remained loyal to Britain.
1914 – As part of the Ottoman Empire's policies of ethnic cleansing, Turkish irregulars (examples pictured) began a six-day massacre of the predominantly Greek town of Phocaea.
1963 – African-American civil-rights activist Medgar Evers was murdered by Ku Klux Klan member Byron De La Beckwith.

Thomas Farnaby (d. 1647)
Egon Schiele (b. 1890)
Milorad Petrović (d. 1981)

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Today's featured picture

The common blackbird (Turdus merula) is a species of true thrush, in the family Turdidae. It breeds in Europe, Asiatic Russia, and North Africa, and has a number of subspecies across its wide range; a few of the Asian subspecies are sometimes considered to be full species. Depending on latitude, the common blackbird may be resident, partially migratory, or fully migratory. This female northwestern African blackbird (T. m. mauritanicus) was photographed in the Souss-Massa National Park, Morocco. This small, dark subspecies breeds in central and northern Morocco, coastal Algeria and northern Tunisia.

Photograph credit: Charles James Sharp

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