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From today's featured article

Myotis alcathoe, the Alcathoe bat, is a small European bat. First described in 2001 from specimens taken from Greece and Hungary, its known distribution has expanded to include parts of Western and Central Europe, Spain, Italy, the Balkans, Sweden, and Azerbaijan. It is similar to the whiskered bat (M. mystacinus), but its brown fur is distinctive, and DNA sequencing has shown it to be a separate species. M. alcathoe has a forearm length of 30.8 to 34.6 mm (1.21 to 1.36 in) and a body mass of 3.5 to 5.5 g (0.12 to 0.19 oz). The fur is brown on the wings, usually reddish-brown on the upperparts, and brown below, but more grayish in juveniles. It has a very high-pitched echolocation call, with a frequency that falls from 120 kHz to about 43 kHz at the end of the call. Usually found in old-growth deciduous forest near water, it forages high in the canopy and above water, mostly for flies. It roosts in cavities high in trees. The species is considered at risk in Catalonia, Germany and parts of Switzerland due to its rarity and vulnerability to habitat loss. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Miami Railway Station

... that in 1889, a US company built the Miami Railway Station (pictured) in Canada, now a National Historic Site and museum?
... that the aged, hernia-afflicted Alecu Filipescu-Vulpea reportedly ran in the Wallachian princely election only to hamper other candidates?
... that AllMusic thought Phil Collins' "Two Worlds", featured in Disney's 1999 animated movie Tarzan, "eerily echo[ed]" the worldbeats of former Genesis bandmate Peter Gabriel?
... that the only player strike in Japanese professional baseball history occurred during the 2004 Nippon Professional Baseball realignment and lasted for two days?
... that Julian Radcliffe is the founder of the world's largest private database of lost and stolen art?
... that the 1887 book Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising presents 177 biographies of African American men, many of whom were born as slaves?
... that judge William Henry Daniels committed suicide in 1897, three years after being dismissed for not taking an oath of allegiance to the Provisional Government of Hawaii?
... that Paludititan is a Romanian island dwarf?

In the news

The Leekfrith torcs

Scientists announce the discovery of possible microfossils within rocks dated between 3.77 and 4.28 billion years old from Northern Quebec, Canada, potentially making them the oldest known fossils of life on Earth.
The discovery of the Leekfrith torcs (pictured), believed to be the oldest Iron Age gold jewellery found in Britain, is announced.
Moonlight wins Best Picture and La La Land wins in six categories at the Academy Awards.
The Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army captures Al-Bab from ISIL.
Astronomers announce that the star TRAPPIST-1 hosts seven exoplanets, some orbiting in its habitable zone.

On this day...

March 5: Learn From Lei Feng Day in China; St Piran's Day in Cornwall, United Kingdom

Boston Massacre engraving by Paul Revere

1496 – King Henry VII of England issued letters patent to John Cabot and his sons, authorising them to explore unknown lands.
1770 – British soldiers fired into a crowd in Boston, Massachusetts, killing five civilians (engraving pictured).
1943 – The Gloster Meteor, the first operational jet fighter for the Allied Powers, made its maiden flight.
1960 – Cuban photographer Alberto Korda took his iconic photograph of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara.
1999 – Paul Okalik was elected as the first premier of the Canadian territory of Nunavut.

Elaine Paige (b. 1948) • Anna Akhmatova (d. 1966)

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Today's featured picture

The hemicycle of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, during a plenary session in 2014. Based on the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community, the European Parliament serves together with the Council of the European Union and the European Commission to exercise the legislative function of the European Union. Members have been directly elected since 1979.

Photograph: David Iliff

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