On this day, 18 March 1915, Mexican revolutionary Wenceslao Moguel was shot by a firing squad in Halacho, Yucatan, but miraculously survived.
After the defeat of Mexican revolutionary leader Pancho Villa’s forces, Moguel was arrested by constitutionalist military forces in the wave of the subsequent repression.
At 5 PM he was stood in front of a firing squad of nine soldiers with rifles. They opened fire, hitting him eight times, then an officer walked up with a revolver and shot him point blank range in the head in a coup de grace.
But somehow he managed to survive, and after his “executioners” left he made his way to safety. While suffering permanent facial injuries, he lived until the age of 75 and appeared on the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! radio show in 1937 to tell his story, who dubbed him “El Fusilado” (the executed/shot one). British anarchist band Chumbawamba released a song about him in 2008.
More: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9019/wenceslao-moguel-shot https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.1819457841572691/2233171990201272/?type=3
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CoelaCANTh? More like coelaCAN! Scientists once thought that coelacanths went extinct some 70 million years ago during the Cretaceous. Then, one turned up in 1938 when a fisherman caught a living coelacanth off the coast of South Africa. Plot twist: Decade laters, another species of coelacanth was caught.
Did you know? These ancient “fish” are actually more closely related to land animals. Their paired fins are lobelike and have joined bones, like arms and legs. Coelacanths live in deep saltwater environments and can grow up to 6 feet (2 m) long. They have an organ filled with a jelly-like substance located near the front of their heads, a trait found in no other vertebrate.
Scientists think this “rostral organ” helps the coelacanth hunt, allowing it to detect low-frequency electrical signals emitted by prey. What’s more? Unlike most other fish, coelacanths give birth to live young—a fact that remained unknown until 1975, when the Museum’s first coelacanth specimen was dissected and found to be pregnant with five embryos.
Photo 1: A living coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae), wrecklessmarine, CC BY-NC 4.0, iNaturalist
Photo 2: Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, the curator of the East London Museum in South Africa, who discovered the 1938 coelacanth.
Photo 3: From left to right: Ichthyology Curator James Atz, Dr. Charles Rand, Ichthyology Curator C. Lavett Smith, © AMNH Library (circa September 1975)#science #discovery #amazingnature #wildlife #amnh
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Not only is the whale shark (Rhincodon typus) the world’s largest shark—it’s also the world’s largest fish! Growing up to 40 ft (12 m) long and weighing more than 40,000 lbs (18,144 kg), it’s often regarded as a gentle giant. Don’t be alarmed by its colossal mouth: This slow-moving species is a filter feeder, gulping down small marine animals like shrimp and plankton. It can be spotted in warm waters around the world, traveling thousands of miles each year to find food.
Photo: Muhammad syaran, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
#wildlife #animals #ocean #wildlifephotography #amazingnature
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It’s National Panda Day! 🐼 Did you know that giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) can spend up to 16 hours a day eating? Their diet consists almost exclusively of bamboo. In order to get enough nutrients, these bears can chow down on more than 80 lbs (36 kg) of it each day. And their guts are lined with a layer of mucus that protects them from woody splinters during digestion. If you’re wondering where all that waste goes, pandas can poop up to 40 times in a single day, sometimes continuing to defecate even in their sleep!
Unfortunately, the giant panda is a vulnerable species—only a little over 1,800 pandas live in the wild.
Photo: Joachim S. Müller, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, flickr
#wildlife #nature #amazinganimals #amnh
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Have you ever heard of the “luck of the Irish?” ☘️ Well, this deer didn’t have it. Meet the Irish Elk, Megaloceros giganteus. It was originally discovered in bog deposits in Ireland. Once ranging from western Europe to China, this animal went extinct during the Pleistocene some 10,000 years ago. It was one of the largest known species of deer, weighing up to 1,500 pounds (680 kg). Its antlers, which could reach an incredible 13-foot- (4-m-) spread, were used in ritualized combat between males.
Photo: M. Pelczar © AMNH
#paleontology #fossils #history #naturalhistory #museum #amnh
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