Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2020-08-30/Featured content

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Featured content

Going for the goal

Connor Barth, a placekicker for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, prepares to kick a field goal during the first quarter of the Bucs v. New York Giants National Football League military appreciation game at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., Nov. 8, 2015.

This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from July 26 through August 22. For nominations and nominators, see the featured contents' talk pages.

An Orangutan
A clay tessera bearing a possible depiction of Odaenathus wearing a diadem
Apollo 15 Command Module Pilot Al Worden.
Lesser horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros) with blue metallic identification band on left wing
A football card showing a portrait of Mann in his blue Yanks jersey
Cover of the first issue of Infinity Science Fiction; artwork by Robert Engle
A pilgrim makes a supplication in the direction of the Kaaba, the Muslim qibla, in the Sacred Mosque of Mecca.

Featured articles

19 featured articles were promoted this month.

  • Horseshoe bats (nominated by Enwebb) are bats in the family 'Rhinolophidae'. In addition to the single living genus, Rhinolophus, which has about 106 species, the extinct genus Palaeonycteris has also been recognized. Horseshoe bats are considered small or medium-sized microbats, weighing 4–28 g (0.14–0.99 oz), with forearm lengths of 30–75 mm (1.2–3.0 in) and combined lengths of head and body of 35–110 mm (1.4–4.3 in). Horseshoe bats are relevant to humans in some regions as a source of disease, as food, and traditional medicine. Several species are the natural reservoirs of SARS coronavirus, though masked palm civets were the intermediate hosts through which humans became infected. Some evidence suggests that some species could be the natural reservoir of SARS-CoV-2, which causes coronavirus disease 2019. They are hunted for food in several regions, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, but also Southeast Asia. Some species or their guano are used in traditional medicine in Nepal, India, Vietnam, and Senegal.
  • Siamosaurus (nominated by PaleoGeekSquared) is a genus of spinosaurid dinosaur that lived in what is now Thailand during the Early Cretaceous period (Barremian to Aptian) and is the first reported spinosaurid from Asia. It is confidently known only from tooth fossils; the first were found in the Sao Khua Formation, with more teeth later recovered from the younger Khok Kruat Formation. Like in all spinosaurids, Siamosaurus' teeth were conical, with reduced or absent serrations. This made them suitable for impaling rather than tearing flesh, a trait typically seen in largely piscivorous (fish-eating) animals. Spinosaurids are also known to have consumed pterosaurs and small dinosaurs, and there is fossil evidence of Siamosaurus itself feeding on sauropod dinosaurs, either via scavenging or active hunting. Siamosaurus' role as a partially piscivorous predator may have reduced the prominence of some contemporaneous crocodilians competing for the same food sources. Isotope analysis of the teeth of Siamosaurus and other spinosaurids indicates semiaquatic habits. Siamosaurus lived in a semi-arid habitat of floodplains and meandering rivers, where it coexisted with other dinosaurs, as well as pterosaurs, fishes, turtles, and crocodyliforms.
  • The Treaty of Lutatius (nominated by Gog the Mild) was the agreement of 241 BC between Carthage and Rome which ended the First Punic War after 23 years. Accepting defeat, the Carthaginian Senate ordered their commander on Sicily to negotiate a peace treaty. A treaty was agreed by which Carthage would hand over what it still held of Sicily, relinquish several groups of islands nearby, release all Roman prisoners without ransom, and pay large reparations over 10 years. In 237 BC Carthage prepared an expedition to recover the island of Sardinia, which had been lost to rebels. Cynically, the Romans announced that this an act of war and that their peace terms were the ceding of Sardinia and Corsica and the payment of an additional indemnity; these were added to the treaty as a codicil.

Featured lists

Sigourney Weaver at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con
Vilnius Historic Centre, a World Heritage Site in Lithuania.
Ernst van Dyk has won the Boston Marathon ten times, more than any other athlete.
The 2019 Wikimedian of the Year: Emna Mizouni
Clark Gable in a 1938 publicity still
Brad Pitt at the Washington, D.C premiere of Fury in 2014

20 featured lists were promoted this month.

Featured pictures

20 featured pictures were promoted this month.

Featured topics

Bernardo Strozzi - Claudio Monteverdi (c.1630)

One featured topic was promoted this month.