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Wilmington, North Carolina once had a thriving Black middle class and an elected interracial government. In 1898 white supremacists used violence to overthrow that government, kill Black residents and drive many others from the city.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
| Gansus Temporal range: Early Cretaceous,
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|---|---|
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| Fossil specimen of G. yumenensis, the Gansu Provincial Museum. | |
Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | Theropoda |
| Clade: | Avialae |
| Family: | †Gansuidae |
| Genus: | †Gansus Hou & Liu, 1984 |
| Type species | |
| †Gansus yumenensis Hou & Liu, 1984
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| Other species | |
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Gansus is a genus of aquatic avialans that lived during the Aptian age of the Early Cretaceous (Aptian-Albian) period in what are now Gansu and Liaoning provinces, western China. The rock layers from which their fossils have been recovered are dated to 120 million years ago.[2] It was first described in 1984 on the basis of an isolated left leg.[3] It is the oldest-known member of the Ornithurae, the group which includes modern birds (Neornithes) and extinct related groups, such as Ichthyornis and Hesperornithes.[3][4]
The genus Gansus originally contained a single species, G. yumenensis.[3] In 2014, new species G. zheni is described,[1] but some researchers consider this species to be a synonym of Iteravis huchzermeyeri.[6] It was about the size of a pigeon and similar in appearance to loons and diving ducks.[7] It had many features common among modern birds, and also retained some basal traits such as its clawed wings.[7]
Gansus was discovered in the form of a single fossil foot in 1981. Five more well-preserved fossils were found in 2003–2004 in mudstone at the site of an ancient lake at Changma, Gansu; the geological stratum in which the fossils were found is the Xiagou Formation. Their bodies had settled in anoxic mud and were soon covered with further extremely fine silty sediments. Without oxygen, their remains resisted decay: these specimens preserved remains of flight feathers and traces of the webbing between their toes.[7] In 2011, there were described nine additional specimens, that supported on the basis of a statistic analysis of the sternum and elements of the legs, the hypothesis that Gansus was a volant bird.[8]
You et al. (2006) concluded that the anatomical characteristics of Gansus were similar to foot-propelled diving birds, such as Hesperornis (from the Cretaceous) and the loons (Gaviidae) and grebes (Podicipedidae).[7] On the other hand, Li et al. (2011) concluded that Gansus showed a more similar morphology to ducks.[8] Two years later, Nudds et al. (2013) showed that the pectoral limb length proportions of Gansus were most similar to swifts and hummingbirds (Apodiformes), while the pelvic limb length proportions fell within the modern birds (Neornithes), showing similarities with grebes (Podicipedidae), albatross (Diomedeidae) and cormorants (Phalacrocoracidae), suggesting that Gansus was both volant and capable of diving to some degree using either foot-propelled or, perhaps, both its wings and its feet for underwater locomotion.[9]
Gansus was described as the oldest known ornithuran. The Ornithurae, however, has been given several very different definitions. In the definition used by You and colleagues (that is, the clade containing all living birds plus Hesperornis and Ichthyornis), Gansus is indeed the oldest known member. However, several birds from the older Yixian Formation and contemporary Jiufotang Formation are considered ornithurans under other definitions. Under any definition, all living birds, including taxa as diverse as ostriches, hummingbirds and eagles, are descended from basal ornithurans, many of which were semi-aquatic. It is now thought possible that all modern birds descended specifically from a semi-aquatic bird similar to Gansus. Thus, while Gansus is not necessarily a direct ancestor of today's birds, it is closely related to such an ancestral species.[7] This hypothesis was corroborated by later phylogenetic studies that included this taxon.[4][10]
Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
Gansus is a genus of aquatic avialans that lived during the Aptian age of the Early Cretaceous (Aptian-Albian) period in what are now Gansu and Liaoning provinces, western China. The rock layers from which their fossils have been recovered are dated to 120 million years ago. It was first described in 1984 on the basis of an isolated left leg. It is the oldest-known member of the Ornithurae, the group which includes modern birds (Neornithes) and extinct related groups, such as Ichthyornis and Hesperornithes.
Mystiornis is an extinct genus of bird which existed in what is now western Siberia, Russia during the early Cretaceous period (Barremian/Aptian age). It is known from an isolated metatarsus found in the Shestakovo-1 locality of southern Western Siberia. It was named by Evgeny N. Kurochkin, Nikita V. Zelenkov, Alexandr O. Averianov and Sergei V. Leshchinskiy in 2011, and the type species is Mystiornis cyrili. While most recent studies place it as an enantiornithean, specifically an avisaurid, the authors note that the placement in both groups is tentative and further material will be required to make a firm decision on placement due to the unusual features of the existing material. Based on the strongly shortened metatarsal II and orientation of throchleae, Mystiornis had diving adaptations similar to that of Gansus and Neogaeornis. It was the size of a thrush.
Iteravis (lit. 'journey bird') is an extinct genus of ornithuromorph bird known from the Early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of what is today the Liaoning Province of China. The genus contains a single species, Iteravis huchzermeyeri, named in honor of the archosaur palaeontologist Dr. Fritz Huchzermeyer, who died shortly before Iteravis was described. The relationships between Iteravis and species of Gansus have been debated, with some researchers arguing for a synonymy between the former and G. zheni, and others recovering a closer relationship between the two genera within the family Gansuidae.
Pneumonic plague is a severe lung infection caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Symptoms include fever, headache, shortness of breath, chest pain, coughing, and coughing up blood. They typically start about three to seven days after exposure. It is one of three forms of plague, the other two being bubonic plague and septicemic plague. The pneumonic form may occur following an initial bubonic or septicemic plague infection. It also may result from breathing in airborne droplets from another person or animal infected with pneumonic plague. The factor that differs among the three forms of plague is the location of infection; in pneumonic plague the infection is in the lungs, in bubonic plague the lymph nodes, and in septicemic plague within the blood. Diagnosis is by testing the blood, sputum, or fluid from a lymph node. While vaccines are being developed, in most countries they are not yet commercially available. Plague is present among rodents in Africa, the Americas, and Asia. The total reported number of cases of all types of plague in 2013 was 783. Pneumonic plague can be prevented by avoiding contact with infected people and animals, and by the use of correctly fitted N95 masks. It is recommended that those infected be isolated from others. Treatment of pneumonic plague consists of antibiotics. Pneumonic plague is more serious and less common than bubonic plague. Left untreated, pneumonic plague is almost always fatal. Some hypothesize that the pneumonic version of the plague was mainly responsible for the Black Death that resulted in approximately 25–50 million deaths in Europe in the 1300s.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Joe Louis.
