title: T.A.T.u.

text: Before production of t.A.T.u. began, the pair were in a group named Neposedi. Both Lena Katina and Julia Volkova were part of the band, along with members Sergey Lazarev and Vlad Topalov. Katina was also in a band named "Avenue" between 1994 and 1997. It was reported that Volkova was banned from being in Neposedi, amid claims she was misbehaving and disrupting other members in the group, along with being accused of smoking, swearing and drinking. However, Neposedi denied the claims and said that Volkova aged out of the group.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: t.A.T.u. were formed in 1999 by Ivan Shapovalov and his friend/business partner Alexander Voitinskiy, who developed plans to create a musical project in Russia. With this idea in mind, Shapovalov and Voitinskiy organized auditions in Moscow in early 1999 for teenage female vocalists. By the end of auditioning, the partners narrowed their search down to ten girls, including the members that finally became t.A.T.u., Lena Katina and Julia Volkova. Lena and Julia knew each other before the auditions. Both girls stood out among the others because of their appearance and vocal experience, but the producers decided to start with 14-year-old Katina, who sang "It Must Have Been Love" by Roxette. Katina began recording demos, including "Yugoslavia", a protest song about NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. After the demos were cut, Shapovalov insisted that another girl be added to the project. Thus, in late 1999, 14-year-old Julia Volkova was added to the group to complete the duo. She also started recording not long after Lena's "Yugoslavia" demo was finished.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: According to Katina, Shapovalov was inspired to create the duo after the release of the Swedish film "Show Me Love" which focused on the romance between two school girls. After completing the duo, the producers decided on the name "Тату" (Tatu). Sounding like the English word "tattoo", it is also a shortened version of the Russian phrase "Та любит ту" ("ta lyubit tu"), meaning "This [girl] loves that [girl]". For the release of their first English-language album, they decided to go by t.A.T.u., using uppercase letters and periods to distinguish themselves from an already existing Australian band, Tatu.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: Over the next year, Katina and Volkova recorded songs with their producers. Voitinskij left the project, and Shapovalov decided to sign Elena Kiper as co-producer and co-writer for their debut album. They also enlisted the help of Trevor Horn to write the English-language version of "Ya Soshla s Uma". Trevor Horn went on to write t.A.T.u.'s most memorable song, "All the Things She Said", and helped produce most of the English album "200 km/h In The Wrong Lane". While working with Shapovalov, the group was "controlled" by him and it was reported that he was "strict" during the process of making the album.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: The first single was completed in autumn 2000, titled "Ya Soshla S Uma" (later released in English as "All the Things She Said"). It was not physically and formally released until December 2000. The song describes the turmoil in a girl's soul because she is in love with another girl, but is afraid, as society frowns upon this. She asks her parents for forgiveness. Elena Kiper has been credited with the song, explaining that the idea came to her when she fell asleep at her dentist's office and had a dream in which she kissed another woman. She woke up saying out loud, "Я сошла с ума!" (Ya soshla s uma, meaning "I've lost my mind"). Ivan Shapovalov is said to have added the second phrase of the chorus, "Мне нужна она" (Mne nuzhna ona, meaning "I need her").


title: T.A.T.u.

text: Their first album, "200 Po Vstrechnoy" was released on 21 May 2001. Their second single was "Nas Ne Dogonyat" which was only released in music video form rather than as an official CD single, although a promotional conjoined "Ya Soshla s Uma/Nas Ne Dagonyat" was released in Poland. This was followed by the third single "30 Minut", only available as a music video. The album was eventually released in Japan, where it was certified gold by RIAJ. The group went on tour in 2001, where their routines were described as "precise" and featured routines where the girls had to strip. The tour appeared in countries including Germany, Bulgaria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Israel.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: The English version of the album was released in December 2002 titled "200 km/h in the Wrong Lane". The first single from the album was "All the Things She Said" which was released in October 2002. The song peaked at the top spot in Australia, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The music video caused controversy worldwide, due to the members, who were both 17 at the time of the video's production, kissing behind a fence. Some believed the video promoted lesbianism and pedophilia. Many musical journalists, publications and music critics had branded the group's music as "paedophilic pop". The group announced their "Show Me Love Tour", which was to commence in the United Kingdom. However, both of their proposed concerts in the UK were cancelled due to poor ticket sales. In July 2002, "Blender" praised the group by saying "We have seen the future of rock & roll ... to say you've never seen or heard anything quite like it is a colossal understatement." t.A.T.u. were then heralded by "The Face" magazine as "The hottest popstars in the world right now."


title: T.A.T.u.

text: On 25 February 2003 the women mocked NBC's insistence that they neither kiss nor comment on the Iraq war by performing "All the Things She Said" in white "T-shirts that bore the Russian language message Khuy Voyne! (Fuck the war!) across the front, and by blocking their faces with their hands as they kissed during a break in their performance."


title: T.A.T.u.

text: The "Fuck the War!" T-shirts were banned on the "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" show and replaced with T-shirts that said "Censored". They still wrote the term on Jimmy Kimmel's hand.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: The next single "Not Gonna Get Us" was released in May 2003. Though not as popular as their debut single, it managed to have success in most record charts. Also in May 2003, Shapovalov was arrested after arranging filming for the group's music video "Show Me Love" in Moscow's Red Square despite his application for filming being refused. Shapovalov also attempted to film near London's Big Ben and various other locations. The footage that was recorded was later used for a music video for the song "Show Me Love", despite the song not being released in any country other than Poland. The group then released their third single "30 Minutes". It was released as an official single in the UK. A music video followed after the release. The fourth single off the album "How Soon Is Now?" was a cover of the song by The Smiths.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: In May 2003, t.A.T.u. represented Russia at Eurovision Song Contest 2003, where they placed third. After the contest, Russia's Channel One complained that Irish broadcaster RTÉ (Ireland's national television broadcaster) had used a back-up jury, and that it had cost them victory; RTÉ did not use the televoting results after some network problems. A statement by Channel One suggested that there were grounds to believe that the contest results could be much different for Russia. RTÉ responded by publishing the unused results of the Irish televote, which showed that had the jury not been used, Turkey, whose entry was also overlooked by the Irish Jury, would still have won. The group's record label, Universal Music Russia, were originally against the group's participation saying that the Eurovision contest was for "young artists" and said "artists of Tatu's level will not get much out of the participation in it, We [Universal] would much rather prefer the group to work on their new album, and not to participate in contests for rising stars [...]"


title: T.A.T.u.

text: The same month, the group postponed their German promo tour due to a late invitation to the 2003 MTV Movie Awards, where they performed. The following month they also cancelled their Riga concert and Japan concert in June, which led to a lawsuit from Pasadena Group Promotion, asking for $180,000 in damages.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: On 26 September 2003, the group released a remix compilation, titled "Remixes". In November 2003, the CD was released in Russia, with two new tracks and videos. The two new tracks were "Prostiye Dvizheniya" and "Ne Ver, Ne Boisya." Both of the tracks were released as singles, however "Prostye Dvizheniya" did not broadcast well in Russia, due to the promotion for "Ne Ver, Ne Boisya" in the Eurovision Song Contest. The DVD compilation "Screaming for More" was released on 24 November 2003, featuring music videos and behind-the-scenes. "Anatomy of t. A. T. u." aired on Russian television on 12 December 2003. The documentary revealed that the girls were not lesbians and chronicled the group as they took part in Eurovision earlier in the year.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: In early 2004, t.A.T.u. legally broke their contract with Ivan Shapovalov and Neformat. In the months before the split, t.A.T.u. and Shapovalov were being filmed for a reality show on STS in Russia titled "Podnebesnaya". The show followed the group as they were recording their second album, to little success, with their producer Ivan Shapovalov. The documentary aired on Russian television from January to March 2004.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: There were many rumors around the split until the show aired, which depicted the group leaving due to a lack of interest and care from their producer. They also claimed the quality of the music being produced was too low, and that Shapovalov was only interested in creating scandals. Volkova stated, "He [Ivan] spends his time thinking up scandals instead of planning our artistic work. I'm sure our fans would rather hear new songs and new albums than new scandals." Katina then stated, "He made us out to BE lesbians when we were just singing FOR lesbians. We wanted people to understand them and not judge them. That they are as free as anyone else." In one of the final episodes, Volkova mentioned returning to the United States in spring of 2004 to record with new producers. However, she became pregnant soon thereafter, and recording was delayed.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: Volkova soon joined Katina and previous producer Sergio Galoyan in the studio. The group was backed by their record label, Universal Music International, in finding adequate songs and production to release a new album. In August 2005, "All About Us" and "Lyudi Invalidy" were announced to be the first singles from the English and Russian albums, respectively. "All About Us" was a worldwide hit, charting in the top ten in the majority of European charts. The group released their second English album on 5 October 2005 titled "Dangerous and Moving". Its Russian counterpart was released on 19 October, titled "Lyudi Invalidy". The second single was "Friend or Foe". Soon after the video was released, the group's management replaced drummer Roman Ratej with Steve "Boomstick" Wilson, and appointed a new bassist, Domen Vajevec. On 25 March 2006, t.A.T.u. received the award for Best Group at the first edition of the "TRL Awards".


title: T.A.T.u.

text: On 17 April 2006, t.A.T.u. returned to reality TV in Russia with "t.A.T.u. Expedition", which was broadcast on the Russian music channel Muz TV. It chronicled the release of their second album, and the recording of the video for their third single, "Gomenasai", which was released during the airing of the show. The video, as well as the actual song, is quite a departure from t.A.T.u.'s usual style and leaves many of their fans cold. t.A.T.u. performed in Saint Petersburg, Russia on 28 April kicking off their Dangerous and Moving Tour. On 30 August 2006, the official website announced that the girls had left their record company, Universal/Interscope.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: On 21 November 2006, the region of the Komi Republic in Russia filed a lawsuit against t.A.T.u. over the album and song "Lyudi Invalidy" due to the title translating to "disabled people". Leonid Vakuev, a human rights representative for the Komi Republic, interpreted the song as being directed towards disabled people and cited words written in the booklet for the album, which said: "[Lyudi Invalidy] do not know what it means to be a human being. They are fakes inside the human form. They do not live, but — function". Katina said, "Of course, we meant moral invalids, people who do not have [a] soul and human feelings." When asked if they had anything against disabled people, she stated that she finds it offensive to refer to people by that term, and added, "We take pictures together and make sure they have priority seats [at concerts]."


title: T.A.T.u.

text: In 2006, Russian politician Aleksey Mitrofanov proposed t.A.T.u. to be awarded the Order of Friendship, but the State Duma vetoed his idea. Mitrofanov came to write a novel inspired by the duo, "t.A.T.u. Come Back" (Russian: ТАТУ КАМ БЭК), which was also adapted into the film "You and I".


title: T.A.T.u.

text: On 17 May 2007, t.A.T.u. issued a statement directed to their gay fans: "When t.A.T.u.'s second album came out, many of our fans of alternative sexual orientation thought that we lied and betrayed them. This is not true! We’ve never done that and we’ve always advocated love without boundaries." On 26 May, they flew out to Moscow to take part in the Moscow Gay Pride demonstration.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: On 12 September 2007, the group released the concert DVD "". It was the group's first release since leaving Universal. In late 2007, "Белый Плащик", "Beliy Plaschik", the lead single from their upcoming Russian-language album, was released. The project was then known as "Управление Отбросами", "Upravleniye Otbrosami", which translates to "Waste Management". The second single, "220" ("Двести Двадцать", Dvesti Dvadtsat'), made its radio premiere in May 2008 and the music video was released on their official YouTube channel on 5 June 2008. "Beliy Plaschik" and "220" were the main attractions on a special release known as "Hyperion-Plate", the first-ever EP from the duo. The EP was released on 8 May 2008 and featured multimedia content including music, video, ringtones and wallpapers.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: At the time of the "Hyperion-Plate" release, "Upravleniye Otbrosami / Управление отбросами" was scheduled to hit the stores in June 2008. The EP featured a poster which advertised that date, as well as a coupon redeemable for a discount on the album that expired on 30 June 2008. However, the release schedule abruptly stalled on 5 June 2008, when t.A.T.u.'s manager Boris Renski announced that Julia Volkova was seriously ill. Volkova's illness forced the cancellation of a concert in Santa Clara, CA, and the singer was not seen in public until the wedding of producer Sergey Konov on 5 July 2008. The duo returned to work in late August, when it was reported that t.A.T.u. would be the face of fashion designer Marc Jacobs's fall and winter campaigns in Russia.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: On 9 September 2008, a press release appeared on the duo's official website that declared that the forthcoming album would be titled "Веселые Улыбки", "Vesyolye Ulybki" ("Happy Smiles") instead of "Upravleniye Otbrosami" ("Waste Management"). The name change reflected sarcastic comments about the state of the Russian music business made by Volkova and Katina in an interview with Moscow's Time Out Magazine. The press release also provided the track list of the album and an early version of its cover art, but still no confirmed release date was given. On 12 September, the album's third single, "You and I" made its debut on Love Radio. The press release disappeared from the site shortly afterward, only to re-appear on 8 October with a change made to the cover art --- where there was once the face of a smiling astronaut on the original design, a black square now appeared.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: On 15 October, t. A. T. u.'s website announced that "Vesyolye Ulybki" would be released on 21 October 2008, beginning with a special event at two Soyuz record stores in Moscow where fans could meet the girls and get their autographs. The album also went on pre-sale at the official t. A. T. u. web shop on 18 October, with a small number of buyers receiving a limited-edition postcard set as a prize. The songs were also made available internationally through the iTunes digital music store. Upon its release, it became apparent that the album essentially had two covers --- the astronaut cover was a slipcase, while the original design used for "Upravleniye Otbrosami" appeared inside. The black square from the press release had been hiding a Mars scene.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: On 23 October, t.A.T.u. appeared on Vladimir Polupanov's "The 7 Premieres" to promote their new album. They were also the subjects of an ongoing mini-reality series on the website Russia.ru. On 21 October 2008 "Vesyolye Ulybki" was released internationally on online music stores. On 28 November t.A.T.u were awarded the Legend of MTV at the MTV Russia Music Awards 2008.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: In March 2009, a statement was released on the duo's site and MySpace stating that the duo will no longer be a "full-time" project and that Katina and Volkova were working on solo projects. They also mentioned that the third video will be released on 17 April on MTV Russia. The album's single "Snegopady" was eventually released, along with its music video.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: The girls performed a special concert at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 on 10 May. They were also included as an interval act on the 12th at the first semifinals, performing Not Gonna Get Us with the Russian Army Choir.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: On 13 July, the group released their single "Snowfalls". The song was released digitally worldwide, along with its music video. The group's second single for the album, "White Robe", was released by Coqueiro Verde Records online and premiered on t.A.T.u's YouTube account. t.A.T.u's official website announced that the video was up for voting on MTV Brazil on 10 November 2009. On 3 December, the "White Robe" video reached the number one position on MTV Brazil. It was announced via Twitter that Coqueiro Verde Records would release the album in Brazil on 25 January 2010. The album was eventually released worldwide digitally, and received favorable reception from critics. The album did not sell very well and was reported to have only sold over 1000 copies in the United States, as of December 2010.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: The third single off the album was "Sparks", which was the English version of "220". It was released in Brazil and on t.A.T.u.'s official YouTube account on 13 April 2010. On 31 March 2010, a contest was to be launched in which fans will be able to remix their favorite t.A.T.u songs from the new album. The winning mixes would be included on an upcoming remix album.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: Julia made headlines in Russia with an interview where she expressed her opinion on Lena's solo career, "She has the right to [sing t. A. T. u. songs], but it's so stupid, absolutely stupid. If you do a solo career, it means that you do your own work. Her stuff, that she makes, I think, is silly and very soon her career will wither away and disappear." Lena responded to this interview via her YouTube Page, "I saw Julia's interview. Of course I got upset. But I want to tell everybody that I have a completely opposite attitude towards the whole situation, Julia's project included. I believe she's a very talented person and I sincerely hope that she'll be successful in all the things she plans."


title: T.A.T.u.

text: In July, Lena made an appearance on a radio station where she was asked about the future of the duo. Lena responded by saying, "Life has changed a lot. Julia and I are working on our projects now. I, for one, will be traveling to Los Angeles this Saturday, where I will keep working on my album. And I'm preparing a big show in San Francisco in September, so now we are not planning to reform t.A.T.u., certainly not in the near future. Now we really want to concentrate only on our own projects." Lena Katina and her full band performed her first live major solo show in San Francisco on 17 September 2010.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: At the end of March 2011, t.A.T.u. management released a press release on their official website declaring t.A.T.u. over. Due to conflicts between the two women, and them both wanting to pursue solo careers, the duo was officially announced as disbanded. They finalised the duo's discography with a double remix album for "Waste Management". The management thanked fans for their loyalty over the past twelve years of the duo's history.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: After the split, the group decided to focus on their solo careers, both musically and in film. In August 2011, Lena revealed her debut solo single "Never Forget" which eventually charted at number one on the US Hot Dance Club Songs for a sole week. Volkova was also working on her studio album and released two singles; "All Because of You" and "Didn't Wanna Do It", but failed to generate interest on the music charts. The following year she confirmed she would be starring in the dark comedy zombie film "9 1/2 Zombies".


title: T.A.T.u.

text: On 2 October 2012, Cherrytree Records/Universal Russia announced that they would be issuing a special re-release of t.A.T.u's "200 km/h in the Wrong Lane." The "10th Year Anniversary Gold Edition" featured all new artwork, a never-before-released song from the 2002 sessions, "A Simple Motion", a brand new remix of "All the Things She Said" from producer Fernando Garibay, in addition to newly mastered songs. On 24 October 2012, Cherrytree Records released the official track listing for the album; it was a note addressed to fans handwritten and signed by Julia and Lena themselves. The album was released on 12 November 2012.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: On 11 December 2012, Lena and Julia reunited to appear as musical guests on "The Voice of Romania". It was their first performance together in three years. The duo t.A.T.u performed "All About Us" and "All the Things She Said" during the show. They also appeared in radio and on another television show before.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: After the re-release, the group were interviewed by Bradley Stern on MuuMuse, and was asked about a reunion and relationship together. Volkova stated "We don't keep in touch", while Katina stated "Only when we see each other. We have very different lives in different countries now. We are not in a fight though." As for a reunion, Katina said "I believe that there is always a chance for anything in this life. Maybe…." Volkova stated that, while she is not "ready for it", she said "But this won't stop us from reuniting for joint performances. We’ll see what happens!"


title: T.A.T.u.

text: In April 2013, the group announced they would perform one live show at a Russian VIP Club. Lena also stated that "The t.A.T.u. comeback is very possible, we are talking about that right now." After Volkova had her second surgery for her ligaments, she officially confirmed that she and Katina were planning to reunite t.A.T.u. However, soon Volkova told an interviewer that they were not reuniting after all. Katina also stated that her solo career was the number one goal at that time and if t.A.T.u. was going to reunite, it would only be for small things like commercials and concerts.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: On 27 September 2013, t.A.T.u. performed a concert in Kyiv, Ukraine. Shortly thereafter they wore their schoolgirls outfits from their first album again for a Snickers Japanese advertisement. Whilst in Japan they also performed "All the Things She Said" live in Tokyo.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: The duo performed before the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony in Sochi, along with piano virtuoso Denis Matsuev and opera soprano Anna Netrebko, who also performed the Olympic anthem. Media reports expressed confusion at this performance, given that there is a lack of LGBT rights in Russia, especially since the much politicized Russian law banning gay propaganda aimed at minors that is being used to promote family values. The ceremony's director, Konstantin Ernst, said t.A.T.u.'s "Not Gonna Get Us" was chosen because it's one of the few Russian pop songs that international viewers might recognize.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: On 17 February 2014, Katina posted a video message on her official YouTube channel stating that she would no longer be working with Julia and that t.A.T.u. was once again no longer a group. However, on 20 February, Volkova posted a video message saying that there is "no big reunion" but t.A.T.u. were having "joint projects". She also criticized Katina's "meaning" behind the video and confirmed that they would be shooting the video for the new single. On 5 March 2014, Volkova posted another video message on her official YouTube channel in response to Katina's video. She stated that despite "reasons of severe trepidation on the part of Lena about [Volkova] and [her] behavior," collaboration between the two was possible, referring to the release of their new single as well as their music video.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: On 6 April 2014, the music video to "Love in Every Moment" was released to the Cornetto Ru page on YouTube, in which Katina and Volkova filmed their scenes apart. Towards the end of the video, Volkova is shown interacting with a body double of Katina, with the latter's face obscured. The song is part of the "A Sight of Cupid" project which contains several short films about love. In the short film "Together Apart" the duo were portrayed as cupids. On 22 May 2014, both singers introduced the film at the Cannes Film Festival. Due to their conflict and in keeping with Katina's wishes to not interact with Volkova, both singers had separate interviews with reporters. Volkova announced during an interview with the Italian press that the film would be the last collaborative work between her and Katina. Despite tensions, a petition dubbed "#tATuComeback" was circulated throughout popular social media websites, such as Facebook and Twitter, in the hopes that the former duo would resolve their conflicts and return with their long-awaited comeback as they had originally planned.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: On 16 May 2016, the duo met publicly again at the 25th anniversary celebration of the children's musical group Neposedy, which both were a part of before the formation of t.A.T.u. There, together with the children, Lena sang her song "All Around the World" and together with Julia, everybody sang "Nas Ne Dogonyat” ("Not Gonna Get Us").


title: T.A.T.u.

text: On 7 August 2016, for the 15th anniversary of "Ya Soshla S Uma" being released, a remix video of "Ya Soshla S Uma" was uploaded to the official YouTube channel. The audio was a remix by Fly_Dream, and the video contained 'rare footage' of "Ya Soshla S Uma" in HD.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: In October 2017, the official community of t.A.T.u. in VKontakte received a proposal to create a remix contest for rare a cappella demo, which was intended for the third studio album t.A.T.u. «Waste Management». For 2 months, different authors from around the world sent their works. On 13 August 2018 the video "НАВСЕГДА (Best Remixes) [AUDIO]" was uploaded to the official YouTube channel with 6 remixes: MZ Remix, Fly_Dream Remix, Alexander Davidov Remix, Niko Palonen Щели Remix, Niko Palonen Remix and Niko Palonen Remix instrumental.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: On 8 June 2021, a lengthy interview and documentary about t.A.T.u.'s story titled "ТАТУ: 20 лет спустя! Главная российская группа в мире" was published on YouTube on journalist Ksenia Sobchak's channel. The documentary discussed the formation of the group, its past controversies and Katina's and Volkova's personal and career developments after t.A.T.u. It also included interviews of former t.A.T.u. producer Ivan Shapovalov and Lena Katina's mother. Katina and Volkova were interviewed separately, as Katina rejected a common interview. The interview/documentary was the most trending video on Russian YouTube the day after it was published.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: Lena Katina announced that t.A.T.u. will return to the stage in 2022. They had participated in the t.A.T.u. tribute concert which was originally supposed to be in 2021. However, due to persistent issues with the ongoing pandemic, they decided to postpone until spring 2022.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: Additionally, Julia Volkova announced on her Instagram account that both she and Lena Katina were to reunite for a special concert in Minsk, in September 2022.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: Russian State Deputy duma Tatyana Butskaya said that tATu helped bolster and increase rates of homosexual behavior in Russian society, comparing the musical act to “tooth decay“. She also said gay people should be cured of their disease. Her statement can be seen here. This comes after a proposal to ban homosexual behavior from Russian society itself.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: Throughout their career the group has received criticism, particularly since the release of "All the Things She Said". The AllMusic review for "200 km/h in the Wrong Lane" labelled the band as an exceptionally tawdry gimmick. In 2003, after the release of their video of "All the Things She Said", some UK presenters campaigned to ban the video worldwide. Despite subsequent reports that the BBC had banned the video from their pre-watershed programme "Top of the Pops", the BBC quickly denied the ban, stating only that they had better footage to show.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: Just before the recording of their third studio album "Dangerous and Moving", it was announced that Julia was pregnant. This led to critics accusing the girls of being "fake", with regard to the impression they were lesbians, although Lena and Julia have said in the past they are not "together" or "in a relationship".


title: T.A.T.u.

text: The group have appeared on Forbes's Top 50 Richest Stars of Russia twice, ranking at number six in 2006 with estimates of 1.4. million dollars and thirty-six in 2007, dropping thirty places. The group received the FHM Special Award for being the Top 100 Sexiest Woman. Both Katina and Volkova have been ranked on Maxim Russia Top 100 Sexiest Girls, with Katina at fifty-three and Volkova at fifteen. The group also appeared on the cover of "Maxim".


title: T.A.T.u.

text: Between the years of 2002 and 2004, t.A.T.u. caused controversy for cancelling several concerts and tours around the world. In March 2003, the group announced dates for their "Show Me Love Promo Tour" in the United Kingdom. However the next month, just days before they were due to perform, the group dropped the dates and did not perform at the concert, due to poor ticket sales. BBC News stated that only a fraction of the tickets were sold for the concert and said the stadiums (held in London and Manchester) had capacities of around 10,000. A spokesman from their label, Interscope, did not understand why the cancellation took place.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: In May 2003, t.A.T.u.'s management were sued by the promoters EEM Group for the cancellations of the concerts. EEM sued their management for £300,000, claiming they put "unachievable and numerous obstacles" in the way of ticket sales for the shows. They also claimed that Julia's illness was a reason for the cancellation, however due to the lack of evidence, the lawsuit was discarded. After the lawsuit, the group also cancelled their Asian promo tour for Japan and China, due to Julia's sickness, with the excuse that Julia needed urgent surgery. The same month, the group postponed their German Promo tour, due to a late invitation to the 2003 MTV Movie Awards, where they performed. The following month they also cancelled their Riga concert and Japan concert in June, which led to a lawsuit from Pasadena Group Promotion, asking $180,000 in damages, as they did not receive any official letters regarding the cancellation.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: While promoting their studio album "Dangerous and Moving", the group cancelled their appearances in Chile due to poor ticket sales and the withdrawal of one of the Chilean sponsors. One month later, the group cancelled their tour at the last minute, due to inadequate stage preparation and poor ticket sales. In September 2009, several dates in Russia were cancelled due to the 22 July Tupolev Tu-154 plane crash.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: "All the Things She Said" was ranked at number 452 in "Blender" magazine's "The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born". The song was listed at number 8 on the "AOL"'s Top 100 Pop Songs of the Decade. Rebecca Bary from "The New Zealand Herald" listed the song at number five on their Top Ten Best Singles of 2003. Bill Lamb from "About.com" listed the song on his Top 100 Pop Songs of 2003 at number 31 and on his Top 10 Contemporary Girl Group Songs at number ten.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: In 2008, the group received the MTV Legend award by MTV Russia. The group is the most successful Russian musical export of all time. Katina stated to "Billboard" Magazine; "People will remember us for great songs, being free, taking life as it is and not being afraid of anything, [There were] provocative images of two girls kissing each other, but the second thing was the really great music." In 2006, both Lena and Julia were awarded "Woman of the Year" by GQ's Person of the Year Awards, but were not awarded under the band name.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: When t.A.T.u. was first formed by Shapovalov, "Neformat" was created as the group's production company, with Shapovalov and Renski at the head. In 2004, the company was dissolved when t.A.T.u. left Shapovalov.


title: T.A.T.u.

text: Since 2005, T.A. Music has been the Moscow-based production company of t.A.T.u. The liner notes that accompanied the release of "Dangerous and Moving" said that the company was composed of t.A.T.u., Boris Renski, Dasha Mischenko, and Andrey Artischev. After t.A.T.u. broke ties with Universal Music in 2006, it was announced in 2008 that T.A. Music would become the duo's record label, although only currently in the Russian market. "Vesyolye Ulybki" was released internationally on iTunes through the T.A. Music label. T.A. Music also now acts as the label and management company for Lena Katina's solo project.


title: Giganotosaurus

text: Giganotosaurus ( ) is a genus of theropod dinosaur that lived in what is now Argentina, during the early Cenomanian age of the Late Cretaceous period, approximately 99.6 to 95 million years ago. The holotype specimen was discovered in the Candeleros Formation of Patagonia in 1993 and is almost 70% complete. The animal was named Giganotosaurus carolinii in 1995; the genus name translates to "giant southern lizard", and the specific name honors the discoverer, Rubén D. Carolini. A dentary bone, a tooth, and some tracks, discovered before the holotype, were later assigned to this animal. The genus attracted much interest and became part of a scientific debate about the maximum sizes of theropod dinosaurs.


title: Giganotosaurus

text: "Giganotosaurus" was one of the largest known terrestrial carnivores, but the exact size has been hard to determine due to the incompleteness of the remains found so far. Estimates for the most complete specimen range from a length of , a skull in length, and a weight of . The dentary bone that belonged to a supposedly larger individual has been used to extrapolate a length of . Some researchers have found the animal to be larger than "Tyrannosaurus", which has historically been considered the largest theropod, while others have found them to be roughly equal in size and the largest size estimates for "Giganotosaurus" exaggerated. The skull was low, with rugose (rough and wrinkled) nasal bones and a ridge-like crest on the lacrimal bone in front of the eye. The front of the lower jaw was flattened and had a downward-projecting process (or "chin") at the tip. The teeth were compressed sideways and had serrations. The neck was strong and the pectoral girdle proportionally small.


title: Giganotosaurus

text: Part of the family Carcharodontosauridae, "Giganotosaurus" is one of the most completely known members of the group, which includes other very large theropods, such as the closely related "Mapusaurus" and "Carcharodontosaurus". "Giganotosaurus" is thought to have been homeothermic (a type of "warm-bloodedness"), with a metabolism between that of a mammal and a reptile, which would have enabled fast growth. It would have been capable of closing its jaws quickly, capturing and bringing down prey by delivering powerful bites. The "chin" may have helped in resisting stress when a bite was delivered against prey. "Giganotosaurus" is thought to have been the apex predator of its ecosystem, and it may have fed on juvenile sauropod dinosaurs.


title: Giganotosaurus

text: In 1993, the amateur fossil hunter Rubén D. Carolini discovered the tibia (lower leg bone) of a theropod dinosaur while driving a dune buggy in the badlands near Villa El Chocón, in the Neuquén province of Patagonia, Argentina. Specialists from the National University of Comahue were sent to excavate the specimen after being notified of the find. The discovery was announced by the paleontologists Rodolfo Coria and Leonardo Salgado at a Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting in 1994, where science writer Don Lessem offered to fund the excavation, after having been impressed by a photo of the leg-bone. The partial skull was scattered over an area of about 10 m (110 sq ft), and the postcranial skeleton was disarticulated. The specimen preserved almost 70% of the skeleton, and included most of the vertebral column, the pectoral and pelvic girdles, the femora, and the left tibia and fibula. In 1995, this specimen (MUCPv-Ch1) was preliminarily described by Coria and Salgado, who made it the holotype of the new genus and species "Giganotosaurus carolinii" (parts of the skeleton were still encased in plaster at this time). The generic name is derived from the Ancient Greek words "gigas/" (meaning "giant"), "notos/" (meaning "austral/southern", in reference to its provenance) and "-sauros/-" (meaning "lizard"). The specific name honors Carolini, the discoverer. The holotype skeleton is now housed in the Ernesto Bachmann Paleontological Museum in Villa El Chocón, which was inaugurated in 1995 at the request of Carolini. The specimen is the main exhibition at the museum, and is placed on the sandy floor of a room devoted to the animal, along with tools used by paleontologists during the excavation. A mounted reconstruction of the skeleton is exhibited in an adjacent room.


title: Giganotosaurus

text: One of the features of theropod dinosaurs that has attracted most scientific interest is the fact that the group includes the largest terrestrial predators of the Mesozoic Era. This interest began with the discovery of one of the first known dinosaurs, "Megalosaurus", named in 1824 for its large size. More than half a century later in 1905, "Tyrannosaurus" was named, and it remained the largest known theropod dinosaur for 90 years, though other large theropods were also known. The discussion of which theropod was the largest was revived in the 1990s by new discoveries in Africa and South America. In their original description, Coria and Salgado considered "Giganotosaurus" at least the largest theropod dinosaur from the southern hemisphere, and perhaps the largest in the world. They conceded that comparison with "Tyrannosaurus" was difficult due to the disarticulated state of the cranial bones of "Giganotosaurus", but noted that at , the femur of "Giganotosaurus" was 5 cm (2 in) longer than that of "Sue", the largest known "Tyrannosaurus" specimen, and that the bones of "Giganotosaurus" appeared to be more robust, indicating a heavier animal. They estimated the skull to have been about 1.53 m (5 ft) long, and the whole animal to have been 12.5 m (41 ft) long, with a weight of about .


title: Giganotosaurus

text: In 1996, the paleontologist Paul Sereno and colleagues described a new skull of the related genus "Carcharodontosaurus" from Morocco, a theropod described in 1927 but previously known only from fragmentary remains (the original fossils were destroyed in World War II). They estimated the skull to have been long, similar to "Giganotosaurus", but perhaps exceeding that of the "Tyrannosaurus" "Sue", with a 1.53 m (5 ft) long skull. They also pointed out that carcharodontosaurs appear to have had the proportionally largest skulls, but that "Tyrannosaurus" appears to have had longer hind limbs. In an interview for a 1995 article entitled "new beast usurps "T. rex" as king carnivore", Sereno noted that these newly discovered theropods from South America and Africa competed with "Tyrannosaurus" as the largest predators, and would help in the understanding of Late Cretaceous dinosaur faunas, which had otherwise been very "North America-centric". In the same issue of the journal in which "Carcharodontosaurus" was described, the paleontologist Philip J. Currie cautioned that it was yet to be determined which of the two animals were larger, and that the size of an animal is less interesting to paleontologists than, for example, adaptations, relationships, and distribution. He also found it remarkable that the two animals were found within a year of each other, and were closely related, in spite of being found on different continents.


title: Giganotosaurus

text: In a 1997 interview, Coria estimated "Giganotosaurus" to have been 13.7 (45 ft) to 14.3 (47 ft) m long and weighing based on new material, larger than "Carcharodontosaurus". Sereno countered that it would be difficult to determine a size range for a species based on few, incomplete specimens, and both paleontologists agreed that other aspects of these dinosaurs were more important than settling the "size contest". In 1998, the paleontologist Jorge O. Calvo and Coria assigned a partial left dentary bone (part of the lower jaw) containing some teeth (MUCPv-95) to "Giganotosaurus". It had been collected by Calvo near Los Candeleros in 1988 (found in 1987), who described it briefly in 1989, while noting it may have belonged to a new theropod taxon. Calvo and Coria found the dentary to be identical to that of the holotype, though 8% larger at 62 cm (24 in). Though the rear part of it is incomplete, they proposed that the skull of the holotype specimen would have been long, and estimated the skull of the larger specimen to have been long, the longest skull of any theropod.


title: Giganotosaurus

text: In 1999, Calvo referred an incomplete tooth, (MUCPv-52), to "Giganotosaurus"; this specimen was discovered near Lake Ezequiel Ramos Mexia in 1987 by A. Delgado, and is therefore the first known fossil of the genus. Calvo further suggested that some theropod trackways and isolated tracks (which he made the basis of the ichnotaxon "Abelichnus astigarrae" in 1991) belonged to "Giganotosaurus", based on their large size. The largest tracks are long with a pace of , and the smallest is long with a pace of . The tracks are tridactyl (three-toed) and have large and coarse digits, with prominent claw impressions. Impressions of the digits occupy most of the track-length, and one track has a thin heel. Though the tracks were found in a higher stratigraphic level than the main fossils of "Giganotosaurus", they were from the same strata as the single tooth and some sauropod dinosaurs that are also known from the same strata as "Giganotosaurus".


title: Giganotosaurus

text: In 2001, the physician-scientist Frank Seebacher proposed a new polynomial method of calculating body-mass estimates for dinosaurs (using body-length, depth, and width), and found "Giganotosaurus" to have weighed (based on the original length estimate). In their 2002 description of the braincase of "Giganotosaurus", Coria and Currie gave a length estimate of for the holotype skull, and calculated a weight of by extrapolating from the circumference of the femur-shaft. This resulted in an encephalization quotient (a measure of relative brain size) of 1.9. In 2004, the paleontologist Gerardo V. Mazzetta and colleagues pointed out that though the femur of the "Giganotosaurus" holotype was larger than that of "Sue", the tibia was shorter at . They found the holotype specimen to have been equal to "Tyrannosaurus" in size at (marginally smaller than "Sue"), but that the larger dentary might have represented an animal of , if geometrically similar to the holotype specimen. By using multivariate regression equations, these authors also suggested an alternative weight of for the holotype and for the larger specimen, and that the latter was therefore the largest known terrestrial carnivore.


title: Giganotosaurus

text: In 2005, the paleontologist Cristiano Dal Sasso and colleagues described new skull material (a snout) of "Spinosaurus" (the original fossils of which were also destroyed during World War II), and concluded this dinosaur would have been long with a weight , exceeding the maximum size of all other theropods. In 2006, Coria and Currie described the large theropod "Mapusaurus" from Patagonia; it was closely related to "Giganotosaurus" and of approximately the same size. In 2007, the paleontologists François Therrien and Donald M. Henderson found that "Giganotosaurus" would have approached in length and in weight, while "Carcharodontosaurus" would have approached in length and in weight (surpassing "Tyrannosaurus"), and estimated the "Giganotosaurus" holotype skull to have been long. They cautioned that these measurements depended on whether the incomplete skulls of these animals had been reconstructed correctly, and that more complete specimens were needed for more accurate estimates. They also found that Dal Sasso and colleagues' reconstruction of "Spinosaurus" was too large, and instead estimated it to have been long, weighing , and possibly as low as in length and in weight. They concluded that these dinosaurs had reached the upper biomechanical size limit attainable by a strictly bipedal animal. In 2010, the paleontologist Gregory S. Paul suggested that the skulls of carcharodontosaurs had been reconstructed as too long in general.


title: Giganotosaurus

text: In 2012, the paleontologist Matthew T. Carrano and colleagues noted that though "Giganotosaurus" had received much attention due to its enormous size, and in spite of the holotype being relatively complete, it had not yet been described in detail, apart from the braincase. They pointed out that many contacts between skull bones were not preserved, which lead to the total length of the skull being ambiguous. They found instead that the skulls of "Giganotosaurus" and "Carcharodontosaurus" were exactly the same size as that of "Tyrannosaurus". They also measured the femur of the "Giganotosaurus" holotype to be long, in contrast to the original measurement, and proposed that the body mass would have been smaller overall. In 2013, the paleontologist Scott Hartman published a Graphic Double Integration mass estimate (based on drawn skeletal reconstructions) on his blog, wherein he found "Tyrannosaurus" ("Sue") to have been larger than "Giganotosaurus" overall. He estimated the "Giganotosaurus" holotype to have weighed , and the larger specimen . "Tyrannosaurus" was estimated to have weighed , and Hartman noted that it had a wider torso, though the two seemed similar in side view. He also pointed out that the "Giganotosaurus" dentary that was supposedly 8% larger than that of the holotype specimen would rather have been 6.5% larger, or could simply have belonged to a similarly sized animal with a more robust dentary. He conceded that with only one good "Giganotosaurus" specimen known, it is possible that larger individuals will be found, as it took most of a century to find "Sue" after "Tyrannosaurus" was discovered.


title: Giganotosaurus

text: In 2014, the paleontologist Nizar Ibrahim and colleagues estimated the length of "Spinosaurus" to have been over , by extrapolating from a new specimen scaled up to match the snout described by Dal Sasso and colleagues. This would make "Spinosaurus" the largest known carnivorous dinosaur. In 2019, the paleontologist W. Scott Persons and colleagues described a "Tyrannosaurus" specimen (nicknamed "Scotty"), and estimated it to be more massive than other giant theropods, but cautioned that the femoral proportions of the carcharodontosaurids "Giganotosaurus" and "Tyrannotitan" indicated a body mass larger than other adult "Tyrannosaurus". They noted that these theropods were known by far fewer specimens than "Tyrannosaurus", and that future finds may reveal specimens larger than "Scotty", as indicated by the large "Giganotosaurus" dentary. While "Scotty" had the greatest femoral circumference, the femoral length of "Giganotosaurus" was about 10% longer, but the authors stated it was difficult to compare proportions between large theropod clades.


title: Giganotosaurus

text: In 2021, the paleontologist Matías Reolid and colleagues compiled various mass estimates of theropods (including "Giganotosaurus") to calculate the average, but did not include Therrien and Henderson's 2007 estimates of "Carnotaurus" and "Giganotosaurus", considering them outliers. This resulted in a body mass range for "Giganotosaurus" between , with an average of . They also applied the skull length and body length ratio proposed by Therrien and Henderson and reconstructed various digital 3D models of theropods to measure body mass distribution and volume, resulting in the mass of a long "Giganotosaurus" up to . These researchers found the estimates consistent with the values proposed by previous studies. In 2022, Juan I. Canale and colleagues described the large carcharodontosaurid "Meraxes", which has the most completely known Carcharodontosaurine skull, with an estimated length of . Extrapolating from that skull, they estimated the skull of "Giganotosaurus" to have been long, making it one of the largest known theropod skulls.


title: Giganotosaurus

text: "Giganotosaurus" is thought to have been one of the largest theropod dinosaurs, but the incompleteness of its remains have made it difficult to estimate its size reliably. It is therefore impossible to determine with certainty whether it was larger than "Tyrannosaurus", for example, which has been considered the largest theropod historically. Different size estimates have been reached by several researchers, based on various methods, and depending on how the missing parts of the skeleton have been reconstructed. Length estimates for the holotype specimen have varied between , with a skull between long, a femur (thigh bone) between long, and a weight between . Fusion of sutures (joints) in the braincase indicates the holotype specimen was a mature individual. A second specimen, consisting of a dentary bone from a supposedly larger individual, has been used to extrapolate a length of , a skull long, and a weight of . Some writers have considered the largest size estimates for both specimens exaggerated. "Giganotosaurus" has been compared to an oversized version of the well-known genus "Allosaurus".


title: Giganotosaurus

text: Though incompletely known, the skull of "Giganotosaurus" appears to have been low. The maxilla of the upper jaw had a long tooth row, was deep from top to bottom, and its upper and lower edges were almost parallel. The maxilla had a pronounced process (projection) under the nostril, and a small, ellipse-shaped fenestra (opening), as in "Allosaurus" and "Tyrannosaurus". The nasal bone was very rugose (rough and wrinkled), and these rugosities continued backwards, covering the entire upper surface of this bone. The lacrimal bone in front of the eye had a prominent, rugose crest (or horn) that pointed up at a backwards angle. The crest was ridge-like, and had deep grooves. The postorbital bone behind the eye had a down and backwards directed jugal process that projected into the orbit (eye opening), as seen in "Tyrannosaurus", "Abelisaurus", and "Carnotaurus". The supraorbital bone above the eye that contacted between the lacrimal and postorbital bones was eave-like, and similar to that of "Abelisaurus". The quadrate bone at the back of the skull was long, and had two pneumatic (air-filled) foramina (holes) on the inner side.


title: Giganotosaurus

text: The skull roof (formed by the frontal and parietal bones) was broad and formed a "shelf", which overhung the short supratemporal fenestrae at the top rear of the skull. The jaw articulated far behind the occipital condyle (where the neck is attached to the skull) compared to other theropods. The condyle was broad and low, and had pneumatic cavities. "Giganotosaurus" did not have a sagittal crest on the top of the skull, and the jaw muscles did not extend onto the skull roof, unlike in most other theropods (due to the shelf over the supratemporal fenestrae). These muscles would instead have been attached to the lower side surfaces of the shelf. The neck muscles that elevated the head would have attached to the prominent supraoccipital bones on the top of the skull, which functioned like the nuchal crest of tyrannosaurs. A latex endocast of the brain cavity of "Giganotosaurus" showed that the brain was similar to that of the related genus "Carcharodontosaurus", but larger. The endocast was long, wide, and had a volume of .


title: Giganotosaurus

text: The dentary of the lower jaw expanded in height towards the front (by the mandibular symphysis, where the two halves of the lower jaw connected), where it was also flattened, and it had a downwards projection at the tip (which has been referred to as a "chin"). The lower side of the dentary was concave, the outer side was convex in upper view, and a groove ran along it, which supported foramina that nourished the teeth. The inner side of the dentary had a row of interdental plates, where each tooth had a foramen. The Meckelian groove ran along the lower border. The curvature of the dentary shows that the mouth of "Giganotosaurus" would have been wide. It is possible that each dentary had twelve alveoli (tooth sockets). Most of the alveoli were about 3.5 cm (1.3 in) long from front to back. The teeth of the dentary were of similar shape and size, except for the first one, which was smaller. The teeth were compressed sideways, were oval in cross-section, and had serrations at the front and back borders, which is typical of theropods. The teeth were sigmoid-shaped when seen in front and back view. One tooth had nine to twelve serrations per mm (0.039 in). The side teeth of "Giganotosaurus" had curved ridges of enamel, and the largest teeth in the premaxilla (front of the upper jaw) had pronounced wrinkles (with their highest relief near the serrations).


title: Giganotosaurus

text: The neck of "Giganotosaurus" was strong, and the axis bone (the neck vertebra that articulates with the skull) was robust. The rear neck (cervical) vertebrae had short, flattened centra (the "bodies" of the vertebrae), with almost hemispherical articulations (contacts) at the front, and pleurocoels (hollow depressions) divided by laminae (plates). The back (dorsal) vertebrae had high neural arches and deep pleurocoels. The tail (caudal) vertebrae had neural spines that were elongated from front to back and had robust centra. The transverse processes of the caudal vertebrae were long from front to back, and the chevrons on the front were blade-like. The pectoral girdle was proportionally shorter than that of "Tyrannosaurus", with the ratio between the scapula (shoulder blade) and the femur being less than 0.5. The blade of the scapula had parallel borders, and a strong tubercle for insertion of the triceps muscle. The coracoid was small and hook-shaped.


title: Giganotosaurus

text: The ilium of the pelvis had a convex upper border, a low postacetabular blade (behind the acetabulum), and a narrow brevis-shelf (a projection where tail muscles attached). The pubic foot was pronounced and shorter at the front than behind. The ischium was straight and expanded hindwards, ending in a lobe-shape. The femur was sigmoid-shaped, and had a very robust, upwards pointing head, with a deep sulcus (groove). The lesser trochanter of the femoral head was wing-like, and placed below the greater trochanter, which was short. The fourth trochanter was large and projected backwards. The tibia of the lower leg was expanded at the upper end, its articular facet (where it articulated with the femur) was wide, and its shaft was compressed from front to back.


title: Giganotosaurus

text: Coria and Salgado originally found "Giganotosaurus" to group more closely with the theropod clade Tetanurae than to more basal (or "primitive") theropods such as ceratosaurs, due to shared features (synapomorphies) in the legs, skull, and pelvis. Other features showed that it was outside the more derived (or "advanced") clade Coelurosauria. In 1996, Sereno and colleagues found "Giganotosaurus", "Carcharodontosaurus", and "Acrocanthosaurus" to be closely related within the superfamily Allosauroidea, and grouped them in the family Carcharodontosauridae. Features shared between these genera include the lacrimal and postorbital bones forming a broad "shelf" over the orbit, and the squared front end of the lower jaw.


title: Giganotosaurus

text: As more carcharodontosaurids were discovered, their interrelationships became clearer. The group was defined as all allosauroids closer to Carcharodontosaurus than "Allosaurus" or "Sinraptor" by the paleontologist Thomas R. Holtz and colleagues in 2004. In 2006, Coria and Currie united "Giganotosaurus" and "Mapusaurus" in the carcharodontosaurid subfamily Giganotosaurinae based on shared features of the femur, such as a weak fourth trochanter, and a shallow, broad groove on the lower end. In 2008, Sereno and the paleontologist Stephen L. Brusatte united "Giganotosaurus", "Mapusaurus", and "Tyrannotitan" in the tribe Giganotosaurini. In 2010, Paul listed "Giganotosaurus" as ""Giganotosaurus" (or "Carcharodontosaurus") "carolinii"" without elaboration. "Giganotosaurus" is one of the most complete and informative members of Carcharodontosauridae.


title: Giganotosaurus

text: The following cladogram shows the placement of "Giganotosaurus" within Carcharodontosauridae according to Sebastián Apesteguía "et al.", 2016:


title: Giganotosaurus

text: Coria and Salgado suggested that the convergent evolution of gigantism in theropods could have been linked to common conditions in their environments or ecosystems. Sereno and colleagues found that the presence of carcharodontosaurids in Africa ("Carcharodontosaurus"), North America ("Acrocanthosaurus"), and South America ("Giganotosaurus"), showed the group had a transcontinental distribution by the Early Cretaceous period. Dispersal routes between the northern and southern continents appear to have been severed by ocean barriers in the Late Cretaceous, which led to more distinct, provincial faunas, by preventing exchange. Previously, it was thought that the Cretaceous world was biogeographically separated, with the northern continents being dominated by tyrannosaurids, South America by abelisaurids, and Africa by carcharodontosaurids. The subfamily Carcharodontosaurinae, in which "Giganotosaurus" belongs, appears to have been restricted to the southern continent of Gondwana (formed by South America and Africa), where they were probably the apex (top) predators. The South American tribe Giganotosaurini may have been separated from their African relatives through vicariance, when Gondwana broke up during the Aptian–Albian ages of the Early Cretaceous.


title: Giganotosaurus

text: In 1999, the paleontologist Reese E. Barrick and the geologist William J. Showers found that the bones of "Giganotosaurus" and "Tyrannosaurus" had very similar oxygen isotope patterns, with similar heat distribution in the body. These thermoregulatory patterns indicate that these dinosaurs had a metabolism intermediate between that of mammals and reptiles, and were therefore homeothermic (with a stable core body-temperature, a type of "warm-bloodedness"). The metabolism of an "Giganotosaurus" would be comparable to that of a mammalian carnivore, and would have supported rapid growth.


title: Giganotosaurus

text: In 2001, the physicist Rudemar Ernesto Blanco and Mazzetta evaluated the cursorial (running) capability of "Giganotosaurus". They rejected the hypothesis by James O. Farlow that the risk of injuries involved in such large animals falling while on a run, would limit the speed of large theropods. Instead they posed that the imbalance caused by increasing velocity would be the limiting factor. Calculating the time it would take for a leg to gain balance after the retraction of the opposite leg, they found the upper kinematic limit of the running speed to be . They also found comparison between the running capability of "Giganotosaurus" and birds like the ostrich based on the strength of their leg-bones to be of limited value, since theropods, unlike birds, had heavy tails to counterbalance their weight.


title: Giganotosaurus

text: A 2017 biomechanical study of the running ability of "Tyrannosaurus" by the biologist William I. Sellers and colleagues suggested that skeletal loads were too great to have allowed adult individuals to run. The relatively long limbs, which were long argued to indicate good running ability, would instead have mechanically limited it to walking gaits, and it would therefore not have been a high-speed pursuit predator. They suggested that these findings would also apply to other long-limbed giant theropods such as "Giganotosaurus", "Mapusaurus", and "Acrocanthosaurus".


title: Giganotosaurus

text: In 2002, Coria and Currie found that various features of the rear part of the skull (such as the frontwards slope of the occiput and low and wide occipital condyle) indicate that "Giganotosaurus" would have had a good capability of moving the skull sideways in relation to the front neck vertebrae. These features may also have been related to the increased mass and length of the jaw muscles; the jaw articulation of "Giganotosaurus" and other carcharodontosaurids was moved hindwards to increase the length of the jaw musculature, enabling faster closure of the jaws, whereas tyrannosaurs increased the mass of the lower jaw musculature, to increase the power of their bite.


title: Giganotosaurus

text: In 2005 Therrien and colleagues estimated the relative bite force of theropods and found that "Giganotosaurus" and related taxa had adaptations for capturing and bringing down prey by delivering powerful bites, whereas tyrannosaurs had adaptations for resisting torsional stress and crushing bones. Estimates in absolute values like newtons were impossible. The bite force of "Giganotosaurus" was weaker than that of "Tyrannosaurus", and the force decreased hindwards along the tooth row. The lower jaws were adapted for slicing bites, and it probably captured and manipulated prey with the front part of the jaws. These authors suggested that "Giganotosaurus" and other allosaurs may have been generalized predators that fed on a wide spectrum of prey smaller than themselves, such as juvenile sauropods. The ventral process (or "chin") of the lower jaw may have been an adaptation for resisting tensile stress when the powerful bite was delivered with the front of the jaws against the prey.


title: Giganotosaurus

text: The first known fossils of the closely related "Mapusaurus" were found in a bonebed consisting of several individuals at different growth stages. In their 2006 description of the genus, Coria and Currie suggested that though this could be due to a long term or coincidental accumulation of carcasses, the presence of different growth stages of the same taxon indicated the aggregation was not coincidental. In a 2006 "National Geographic" article, Coria stated that the bonebed was probably the result of a catastrophic event and that the presence of mainly medium-sized individuals, with very few young or old, is normal for animals that form packs. Therefore, Coria said, large theropods may have hunted in groups, which would be advantageous when hunting gigantic sauropods.


title: Giganotosaurus

text: "Giganotosaurus" was discovered in the Candeleros Formation, which was deposited during the Early Cenomanian age of the Late Cretaceous period, approximately 99.6 to 97 million years ago. This formation is the lowest unit in the Neuquén Group, wherein it is part of the Río Limay Subgroup. The formation is composed of coarse and medium-grained sandstones deposited in a fluvial environment (associated with rivers and streams), and in aeolian conditions (effected by wind). Paleosols (buried soil), siltstones, and claystones are present, some of which represent swamp conditions.


title: Giganotosaurus

text: "Giganotosaurus" was probably the apex predator in its ecosystem. It shared its environment with herbivorous dinosaurs such as the titanosaurian sauropod "Andesaurus", and the rebbachisaurid sauropods "Limaysaurus" and "Nopcsaspondylus". Other theropods include the abelisaurid "Ekrixinatosaurus", the dromaeosaurid "Buitreraptor", and the alvarezsauroid "Alnashetri". Other reptiles include the crocodyliform "Araripesuchus", sphenodontians, snakes, and the turtle "Prochelidella". Other vertebrates include cladotherian mammals, a pipoid frog, and ceratodontiform fishes. Footprints indicate the presence of large ornithopods and pterosaurs as well.


title: Alligator

text: An alligator is a large reptile in the Crocodilia order in the genus Alligator of the family Alligatoridae. The two extant species are the American alligator ("A. mississippiensis") and the Chinese alligator ("A. sinensis"). Additionally, several extinct species of alligator are known from fossil remains. Alligators first appeared during the Oligocene epoch about 37 million years ago.


title: Alligator

text: The name "alligator" is probably an anglicized form of "", the Spanish term for "the lizard", which early Spanish explorers and settlers in Florida called the alligator. Later English spellings of the name included "allagarta" and "alagarto".


title: Alligator

text: Alligators and caimans split in North America during the early Tertiary or late Cretaceous (about 53 million to about 65 million years ago). The Chinese alligator split from the American alligator about 33 million years ago and probably descended from a lineage that crossed the Bering land bridge during the Neogene. The modern American alligator is well represented in the fossil record of the Pleistocene. The alligator's full mitochondrial genome was sequenced in the 1990s. The full genome, published in 2014, suggests that the alligator evolved much more slowly than mammals and birds.


title: Alligator

text: The genus "Alligator" belongs to the subfamily Alligatorinae, which is the sister taxon to Caimaninae (the caimans). Together, these two subfamilies form the family Alligatoridae. The below cladogram shows the phylogeny of alligators.


title: Alligator

text: An average adult American alligator's weight and length is and , but they sometimes grow to long and weigh over . The largest ever recorded, found in Louisiana, measured . The Chinese alligator is smaller, rarely exceeding in length. Additionally, it weighs considerably less, with males rarely over .


title: Alligator

text: Adult alligators are black or dark olive-brown with white undersides, while juveniles have bright yellow or whitish stripes which sharply contrast against their dark hides, providing them additional camouflage amongst reeds and wetland grasses.


title: Alligator

text: No average lifespan for an alligator has been measured. One of the oldest recorded alligator lives was that of Saturn, an American alligator who was hatched in 1936 in Mississippi and spent nearly a decade in Germany before spending the majority of its life at the Moscow Zoo, where it died at the age of 83 or 84 on 22 May 2020. Another one of the oldest lives on record is that of Muja, an American alligator who was brought as an adult specimen to the Belgrade Zoo in Serbia from Germany in 1937. Although no valid records exist about its date of birth, as of 2012, it was in its 80s and possibly the oldest alligator living in captivity.


title: Alligator

text: American alligators are found in the southeast United States: all of Florida and Louisiana; the southern parts of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi; coastal South and North Carolina; East Texas, the southeast corner of Oklahoma, and the southern tip of Arkansas. Louisiana has the largest alligator population. The majority of American alligators inhabit Florida and Louisiana, with over a million alligators in each state. Southern Florida is the only place where both alligators and crocodiles live side by side. A small population is also found in Tamaulipas, in Mexico.


title: Alligator

text: American alligators live in freshwater environments, such as ponds, marshes, wetlands, rivers, lakes, and swamps, as well as in brackish water. When they construct alligator holes in the wetlands, they increase plant diversity and provide habitat for other animals during droughts. They are, therefore, considered an important species for maintaining ecological diversity in wetlands. Farther west, in Louisiana, heavy grazing by coypu and muskrat are causing severe damage to coastal wetlands. Large alligators feed extensively on coypu, and provide a vital ecological service by reducing coypu numbers.


title: Alligator

text: The Chinese alligator currently is found in only the Yangtze River valley and parts of adjacent provinces and is extremely endangered, with only a few dozen believed to be left in the wild. Indeed, far more Chinese alligators live in zoos around the world than can be found in the wild. Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge in southern Louisiana has several in captivity in an attempt to preserve the species. Miami MetroZoo in Florida also has a breeding pair of Chinese alligators.


title: Alligator

text: Large male alligators are solitary territorial animals. Smaller alligators can often be found in large numbers close to each other. The largest of the species (both males and females) defend prime territory; smaller alligators have a higher tolerance for other alligators within a similar size class.


title: Alligator

text: Alligators move on land by two forms of locomotion referred to as "sprawl" and "high walk". The sprawl is a forward movement with the belly making contact with the ground and is used to transition to "high walk" or to slither over wet substrate into water. The high walk is an up-on-four-limbs forward motion used for overland travel with the belly well up from the ground. Alligators have also been observed to rise up and balance on their hind legs and semi-step forward as part of a forward or upward lunge. However, they can not walk on their hind legs.


title: Alligator

text: Although the alligator has a heavy body and a slow metabolism, it is capable of short bursts of speed, especially in very short lunges. Alligators' main prey are smaller animals they can kill and eat with a single bite. They may kill larger prey by grabbing it and dragging it into the water to drown. Alligators consume food that cannot be eaten in one bite by allowing it to rot or by biting and then performing a "death roll", spinning or convulsing wildly until bite-sized chunks are torn off. Critical to the alligator's ability to initiate a death roll, the tail must flex to a significant angle relative to its body. An alligator with an immobilized tail cannot perform a death roll.


title: Alligator

text: Most of the muscle in an alligator's jaw evolved to bite and grip prey. The muscles that close the jaws are powerful, but the muscles for opening their jaws are weak. As a result, an adult human can hold an alligator's jaws shut bare-handed. It is common to use several wraps of duct tape to prevent an adult alligator from opening its jaws when being handled or transported.


title: Alligator

text: Alligators are generally timid towards humans and tend to walk or swim away if one approaches. This may encourage people to approach alligators and their nests, which can provoke the animals into attacking. In Florida, feeding wild alligators at any time is illegal. If fed, the alligators will eventually lose their fear of humans and will learn to associate humans with food.


title: Alligator

text: The type of food eaten by alligators depends upon their age and size. When young, alligators eat fish, insects, snails, crustaceans, and worms. As they mature, progressively larger prey is taken, including larger fish such as gar, turtles, and various mammals, particularly coypu and muskrat, as well as birds, deer, and other reptiles. Their stomachs also often contain gizzard stones. They will even consume carrion if they are sufficiently hungry. In some cases, larger alligators are known to ambush dogs, Florida panthers and black bears, making them the apex predator throughout their distribution. In this role as a top predator, it may determine the abundance of prey species, including turtles and coypu. As humans encroach into their habitat, attacks are few but not unknown. Alligators, unlike the large crocodiles, do not immediately regard a human upon encounter as prey, but may still attack in self-defense if provoked.


title: Alligator

text: Alligators generally mature at a length of . The mating season is in late spring. In April and May, alligators form so-called "bellowing choruses". Large groups of animals bellow together for a few minutes a few times a day, usually one to three hours after sunrise. The bellows of male American alligators are accompanied by powerful blasts of infrasound. Another form of male display is a loud head-slap. In 2010, on spring nights alligators were found to gather in large numbers for group courtship, the so-called "alligator dances".


title: Alligator

text: In summer, the female builds a nest of vegetation where the decomposition of the vegetation provides the heat needed to incubate the eggs. The sex of the offspring is determined by the temperature in the nest and is fixed within seven to 21 days of the start of incubation. Incubation temperatures of or lower produce a clutch of females; those of or higher produce entirely males. Nests constructed on leaves are hotter than those constructed on wet marsh, so the former tend to produce males and the latter, females. The baby alligator's egg tooth helps it get out of its egg during hatching time. The natural sex ratio at hatching is five females to one male. Females hatched from eggs incubated at weigh significantly more than males hatched from eggs incubated at . The mother defends the nest from predators and assists the hatchlings to water. She will provide protection to the young for about a year if they remain in the area. Adult alligators regularly cannibalize younger individuals, though estimates of the rate of cannibalism vary widely. In the past, immediately following the outlawing of alligator hunting, populations rebounded quickly due to the suppressed number of adults preying upon juveniles, increasing survival among the young alligators.


title: Alligator

text: Alligators, much like birds, have been shown to exhibit unidirectional movement of air through their lungs. Most other amniotes are believed to exhibit bidirectional, or tidal breathing. For a tidal breathing animal, such as a mammal, air flows into and out of the lungs through branching bronchi which terminate in small dead-end chambers called alveoli. As the alveoli represent dead-ends to flow, the inspired air must move back out the same way it came in. In contrast, air in alligator lungs makes a circuit, moving in only one direction through the parabronchi. The air first enters the outer branch, moves through the parabronchi, and exits the lung through the inner branch. Oxygen exchange takes place in extensive vasculature around the parabronchi.


title: Alligator

text: The alligator has a similar digestive system to that of the crocodile, with minor differences in morphology and enzyme activity. Alligators have a two-part stomach, with the first smaller portion containing gastroliths. It is believed this portion of the stomach serves a similar function as it does in the gizzard of some species of birds, to aid in digestion. The gastroliths work to grind up the meal as alligators will take large bites or swallow smaller prey whole. This process makes digestion and nutrient absorption easier once the food reaches the second portion of the stomach. Once an alligator's meal has been processed it will move on to the second portion of the stomach which is highly acidic. The acidity of the stomach has been observed to increase once digestion begins. This is due to the increase in CO concentration of the blood, resulting from the right to left shunting of the alligators heart. The right to left shunt of the heart in alligators means the circulatory system will recirculate blood through the body instead of back to the lungs. The re-circulation of blood leads to higher CO concentration as well as lower oxygen affinity. There is evidence to suggest that there is increased blood flow diverted to the stomach during digestion to facilitate an increase in CO concentration which aids in increasing gastric acid secretions during digestion. The alligator's metabolism will also increase after a meal by up to four times its basal metabolic rate. Alligators also have highly folded mucosa in the lining of the intestines to further aid in the absorption of nutrients. The folds result in greater surface area for the nutrients to be absorbed through.


title: Alligator

text: Alligators also have complex microbiomes that are not fully understood yet, but can be attributed to both benefits and costs to the animal. These microorganisms can be found in the high surface area of the mucosa folds of the intestines, as well as throughout the digestive tract. Benefits include better total health and stronger immune system. However alligators are still vulnerable to microbial infections despite the immune boost from other microbiota.


title: Alligator

text: During brumation the process of digestion experiences changes due to the fasting most alligators experience during these periods of inactivity. Alligators that go long enough without a meal during brumation will begin a process called autophagy, where the animal begins to consume its fat reserves to maintain its body weight until it can acquire a sufficient meal. There is also fluctuation in the level of bacterial taxa populations in the alligator's microbial community between seasons which helps the alligator cope with different rates of feeding and activity.


title: Alligator

text: Like other crocodilians, alligators have an armor of bony scutes. The dermal bones are highly vascularised and aid in calcium balance, both to neutralize acids while the animal cannot breathe underwater and to provide calcium for eggshell formation.


title: Alligator

text: The two kinds of white alligators are albino and leucistic. These alligators are practically impossible to find in the wild. They could survive only in captivity and are few in number. The Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans has leucistic alligators found in a Louisiana swamp in 1987.


title: Alligator

text: Alligators are raised commercially for their meat and their skin, which when tanned is used for the manufacture of luggage, handbags, shoes, belts, and other leather items. Alligators also provide economic benefits through the ecotourism industry. Visitors may take swamp tours, in which alligators are a feature. Their most important economic benefit to humans may be the control of coypu and muskrats.


title: Alligator

text: While there are rules of thumb for distinguishing alligators from crocodiles, all of them admit exceptions. Such general rules include:


title: Discord

text: Discord is a VoIP and instant messaging social platform. Users have the ability to communicate with voice calls, video calls, text messaging, media and files in private chats or as part of communities called "servers". A server is a collection of persistent chat rooms and voice channels which can be accessed via invite links. Discord runs on Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, iPadOS, Linux, and in web browsers. , the service has over 350 million registered users and over 150 million monthly active users.


title: Discord

text: The concept of Discord came from Jason Citron, who had founded OpenFeint, a social gaming platform for mobile games, and Stanislav Vishnevskiy, who had founded Guildwork, another social gaming platform. Citron sold OpenFeint to GREE in 2011 for million, which he used to found Hammer & Chisel, a game development studio, in 2012. Their first product was "Fates Forever", released in 2014, which Citron anticipated to be the first MOBA game on mobile platforms, but it did not become commercially successful.


title: Discord

text: According to Citron, during the development process, he noticed how difficult it was for his team to work out tactics in games like "Final Fantasy XIV" and "League of Legends" using available voice over IP (VoIP) software. This led to the development of a chat service with a focus on user friendliness with minimal impact to performance. The name Discord was chosen because it "sounds cool and has to do with talking", was easy to say, spell, remember, and was available for trademark and website. In addition, "Discord in the gaming community" was the problem they wished to solve.


title: Discord

text: To develop Discord, Hammer & Chisel gained additional funding from YouWeb's 9+ incubator, which had also funded the startup of Hammer & Chisel, and from Benchmark capital and Tencent.


title: Discord

text: Discord was publicly released in May 2015 under the domain name discordapp.com. According to Citron, they made no specific moves to target any specific audience, but some gaming-related subreddits quickly began to replace their IRC links with Discord links. Discord became widely used by esports and LAN tournament gamers. The company benefited from relationships with Twitch streamers and subreddit communities for "Diablo" and "World of Warcraft".


title: Discord

text: In January 2016, Discord raised an additional $20 million in funding, including an investment from WarnerMedia (then TimeWarner). In 2019, WarnerMedia Investment Group was shut down and acquired by AT&T, selling its equity.


title: Discord

text: Microsoft announced in April 2018 that it will provide Discord support for Xbox Live users, allowing them to link their Discord and Xbox Live accounts so that they can connect with their Xbox Live friends list through Discord.


title: Discord

text: In December 2018, the company announced it raised $150 million in funding at a $2 billion valuation. The round was led by Greenoaks Capital with participation from Firstmark, Tencent, IVP, Index Ventures and Technology Opportunity Partners.


title: Discord

text: In March 2020, Discord changed its motto from "Chat for Gamers" to "Chat for Communities and Friends", and introduced server templates. This was part of their response to an increase in users as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Discord

text: In April 2020, Discord's Twitter username was changed from @discordapp to @discord. Later in May 2020, Discord changed its primary domain from discordapp.com to discord.com.


title: Discord

text: Starting in June 2020, Discord announced it was shifting focus away from video gaming specifically to a more all-purpose communication and chat client for all functions, revealing its new slogan "Your place to talk", along with a revised website. Among other planned changes would be to reduce the number of gaming in-jokes it uses within the client, improving the user onboarding experience, and increasing server capacity and reliability. The company announced it had received an additional $100 million in investments to help with these changes.


title: Discord

text: In March 2021, Discord announced it had hired its first finance chief, former head of finance for Pinterest Tomasz Marcinkowski. An inside source called this one of the first steps for the company towards a potential initial public offering, though co-founder and chief executive officer Jason Citron had stated earlier in the month he was not thinking about taking the company public. Discord doubled its monthly user base to about 140 million in 2020. The same month, "Bloomberg News" and "The Wall Street Journal" reported that several companies were looking to purchase Discord, with Microsoft named as the likely lead buyer at a value estimated at . However, they ended talks with Microsoft, opting to stay independent. Instead, Discord launched another round of investment in April 2021. Among those investing into the company was Sony Interactive Entertainment; the company stated that it intended to integrate a portion of Discord's services into the PlayStation Network by 2022.


title: Discord

text: In May 2021, Discord rebranded its game controller-shaped logo "Clyde" in celebration of its sixth anniversary. The company also changed the color palette of its branding and user interfaces, making it much more saturated, to be more "bold and playful". They also changed its slogan from "your place to talk", to "imagine a place", believing that it would be easier to attach to additional taglines; these changes were met with backlash and criticism from Discord users.


title: Discord

text: In July 2021, Discord acquired Sentropy, a company that specialized in using artificial intelligence systems to monitor online networks for abusive messages to highlight problematic users, and provide recommendations to users for the means to block such messages or users. With the acquisition, Sentropy's tools will be used exclusively for monitoring Discord servers to help with Discord's goals to prevent harassment of users.


title: Discord

text: Ahead of a new funding round in August 2021, Discord had reported in 2020 revenues, triple from the prior year, and had an estimated valuation of . According to Citron, the increased valuation was due to the shift away from "broadcast wide-open social media communication services to more small, intimate places", as well as increased usage from the COVID-19 pandemic. They also captured users that were leaving Facebook and other platforms due to privacy concerns. Citron states that they are still in talks with several potential buyers including all major gaming console manufacturers. From this, the company secured an additional in further investments in September 2021.


title: Discord

text: In September 2021, Google sent cease and desist notices to the developers of two of the most popular music bots used on Discord – Groovy and Rythm – which were used on an estimated 36 million servers in total. These bots allowed users to request and play songs in a voice channel, taking the songs from YouTube ad-free. Two weeks later, Discord partnered with YouTube to test a "Watch Together" feature, which allows Discord users to watch YouTube videos together.


title: Discord

text: Citron had posted mockup images of Discord around the proposed Web3 principles with integrated cryptocurrency and non-fungible token support in November 2021, leading to criticism from its userbase. Citron later stated that "We appreciate all the perspectives we've been hearing in response to the internal concept you may have seen in a tweet earlier this week and want to clarify we have no plans to ship it at this time. We're excited about the potential for Web3 technology and the positive ways these communities are coming together on Discord, especially those organized around environmentally friendly, creator-focused projects. However, we also recognize there are some problems we need to work through. For now, we're focused on protecting users from spams, scams, and fraud."


title: Discord

text: The CNIL fined Discord €800,000 in November 2022 for being in violation of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The violations found by CNIL were that the application would continue to run in the background after it was closed and would not disconnect the user from a voice chat, as well as allowing users to create passwords that only consist of six characters.


title: Discord

text: Discord is built to create and manage private and public communities. It gives users access to tools focused around communication services like voice and video calls, persistent chat rooms, and integrations with other gamer-focused services along with the general ability to send direct messages and create personal groups. Although Discord services may initially seem directed only towards gamers, in recent years several new updates have made it more useful for the general population.


title: Discord

text: Discord communities are organized into discrete collections of channels called servers. Although they are referred to as servers on the front end, they are called "guilds" in the developer documentation. Users can create servers for free, manage their public visibility, and create voice channels, text channels, and categories to sort the channels into. Any given server can have up to 800,000 members, as discovered when the official Discord server for the video game "Genshin Impact" reached maximum capacity, although Discord raised the capacity to over one million members for their Snowsgiving 2021 event, an official Discord-controlled server made for the 2021 winter holiday season.


title: Discord

text: Starting October 2017, Discord allows game developers and publishers to verify their servers. Verified servers, like verified accounts on social media sites, have badges to mark them as official communities. A verified server is moderated by its developers' or publishers' own moderation team. Verification was later extended in February 2018 to include esports teams and musical artists.


title: Discord

text: Members can help servers obtain perks in three levels via the "Server Boost" feature, which unlocks higher quality voice channels, more emoji slots, and other perks. Users can buy boosts for servers for $4.99 a month. "Discord Nitro" subscribers get two boosts included in the price of Nitro, and 30% off for additional boosts.


title: Discord

text: In 2020, Discord unveiled a new feature, known as "Community servers". It includes such features like a custom welcome screen, server insights, and the ability to advertise on Discord's "Server Discovery" page.


title: Discord

text: Channels may be either used for voice chat and streaming or for instant messaging and file sharing. The visibility and access to channels can be customized to limit access for certain users; for example, marking a channel "NSFW" (Not Safe For Work) requires that first-time viewers confirm they are over 18 years old and willing to see such content.


title: Discord

text: Text channels support some rich text using Markdown-like syntax, e.g. to emphasize text, and notation for inline spoilers. Code blocks with language-specific highlighting can also be used. There is also a nonstandard, Discord-specific syntax that underlines the text.


title: Discord

text: Discord launched Stage Channels in May 2021, a feature similar to Clubhouse which allows for live, moderated channels, for audio talks, discussions, and other uses, which can further be potentially gated to only invited or ticketed users. Initially, users could search for open Stage Channels relevant to their interests through a Stage Discovery tool, which was discontinued in October 2021.


title: Discord

text: In August 2021, Discord launched Threads, which are temporary text channels that can be set to automatically disappear. This is meant to help foster more communication within servers.


title: Discord

text: In September 2022, Discord launched Forum Channels, which gives the ability provide a space for organized discussions within a channel. Users can create multiple "posts" which work like Threads, organised in a forum-like manner.


title: Discord

text: Direct messages in Discord allow users to send messages, share files, live stream their screen, and call others privately outside of servers. An added feature in Discord direct messages is the ability to create message groups of up to 10 users. This acts similar to a server's text channel, with the ability to initiate a call simultaneously for all the members in a direct message group.


title: Discord

text: Users register for Discord with an email address and must create a username. To allow multiple users to use the same username, they are assigned a four-digit number called a "discriminator" (colloquially a "Discord tag"), prefixed with "#", which is added to the end of their username.


title: Discord

text: Discord allows users to connect various external platforms to their account, including Steam, Reddit, Twitch, Twitter, Spotify, Xbox, PlayStation, and YouTube, among others. These accounts can optionally be shown on the user's profile.


title: Discord

text: Users can assign themselves a profile picture. Subscribers for Discord Nitro, part of Discord's monetization plan, can use animated profile pictures.


title: Discord

text: In June 2021, Discord added a feature that allows all users to add an about me section to their profile, as well as a custom colored banner at the top of their profile. Subscribers for Discord Nitro have the added ability to upload a static or animated image as their banner instead of a solid color.


title: Discord

text: Video calling and screen sharing were added in October 2017, allowing users to create private video calls with up to 10 users, later increased to 50 due to the increased popularity of video calling during the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Discord

text: In August 2019, this was expanded with live streaming channels in servers. A user can share their entire screen, or a specific application, and others in that channel can choose to watch the stream. While these features somewhat mimic the livestreaming capabilities of platforms like Twitch, the company does not plan to compete with these services, as these features were made for small groups.


title: Discord

text: In August 2018, Discord launched a games storefront beta, allowing users to purchase a curated set of games through the service. This will include a "First on Discord" featured set of games that their developers attest to Discord's help in getting launched, giving these games 90 days of exclusivity on the Discord marketplace. Discord Nitro subscribers will also gain access to a rotating set of games as part of their subscription, with the price of Nitro being bumped from $4.99 to $9.99 a month. A cheaper service called 'Nitro Classic' was also released that has the same perks as Nitro but does not include free games.


title: Discord

text: Following the launch of the Epic Games Store, which challenged Valve's Steam storefront by only taking a 12% cut of game revenue, Discord announced in December 2018 that it would reduce its own revenue cut to 10%.


title: Discord

text: To further support developers, starting in March 2019 Discord gave the ability for developers and publishers that ran their own servers to offer their games through a dedicated store channel on their server, with Discord managing the payment processing and distribution. This can be used, for example, to give select users access to alpha- and beta-builds of a game in progress as an early access alternative.


title: Discord

text: Also in March 2019, Discord removed the digital storefront, instead choosing to focus on the Nitro subscription and having direct sales be done through developer's own servers. In September 2019, Discord announced that it was ending its free game service in October 2019 as they found too few people were playing the games offered.


title: Discord

text: In December 2016, the company introduced its GameBridge API, which allows game developers to directly integrate with Discord within games.


title: Discord

text: In December 2017, Discord added a software development kit that allows developers to integrate their games with the service, called "rich presence". This integration is commonly used to allow players to join each other's games through Discord or to display information about a player's game progression in their Discord profile.


title: Discord

text: Discord also provides tools for users to create their own bots. There are tools such as discord.js that allow bot developers to interact with the Discord API to control their bot.


title: Discord

text: Documentation for the Discord API is hosted on GitHub and formatted to be displayed on their website.


title: Discord

text: Discord's terms of service prohibit the use of extensions, in spite of this however, people have created some such as BetterDiscord, which is an unofficial open source modification. In modifying the Discord client, it allows for various plugins to be installed, which may augment existing functionalities or add additional ones not offered officially by the service, such as custom skins, or increasing the volume of a participant in a voice call beyond the default. BetterDiscord has generally been well-received, though "PC Gamer" has said it is prone to crashing and exhibiting bugs. According to BetterDiscord's developers, users of the modification are not at risk of being sanctioned by Discord so long as they do not use additional modifications that further violate the terms of service.


title: Discord

text: Discord is a persistent group chat software, based on an eventually consistent database architecture.


title: Discord

text: Discord uses the metaphors of servers and channels similar to Internet Relay Chat even though these servers do not map to traditional hardware or virtual servers. They are instead database entities in Discord's servers.


title: Discord

text: The desktop, web, and iOS apps use React, using React Native on iOS/iPadOS. The Android app was originally written natively, but now shares code with the iOS app. The desktop client is built on the Electron framework using web technologies, which allows it to be multi-platform and operate as an installed application on personal computers.


title: Discord

text: The software is supported by Google Cloud Platform's infrastructure in more than thirty data centres located in thirteen regions to keep latency with clients low.


title: Discord

text: In July 2020, Discord added noise suppression into its mobile app using the Krisp audio-filtering technology.