title: Geographic information system

text: Survey data can be directly entered into a GIS from digital data collection systems on survey instruments using a technique called coordinate geometry (COGO). Positions from a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) like Global Positioning System can also be collected and then imported into a GIS. A current trend in data collection gives users the ability to utilize field computers with the ability to edit live data using wireless connections or disconnected editing sessions. Current trend is to utilize applications available on smartphones and PDAs - Mobile GIS. This has been enhanced by the availability of low-cost mapping-grade GPS units with decimeter accuracy in real time. This eliminates the need to post process, import, and update the data in the office after fieldwork has been collected. This includes the ability to incorporate positions collected using a laser rangefinder. New technologies also allow users to create maps as well as analysis directly in the field, making projects more efficient and mapping more accurate.


title: Geographic information system

text: Remotely sensed data also plays an important role in data collection and consist of sensors attached to a platform. Sensors include cameras, digital scanners and lidar, while platforms usually consist of aircraft and satellites. In England in the mid 1990s, hybrid kite/balloons called helikites first pioneered the use of compact airborne digital cameras as airborne geo-information systems. Aircraft measurement software, accurate to 0.4 mm was used to link the photographs and measure the ground. Helikites are inexpensive and gather more accurate data than aircraft. Helikites can be used over roads, railways and towns where unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are banned.


title: Geographic information system

text: Recently aerial data collection has become more accessible with miniature UAVs and drones. For example, the Aeryon Scout was used to map a 50-acre area with a ground sample distance of in only 12 minutes.


title: Geographic information system

text: The majority of digital data currently comes from photo interpretation of aerial photographs. Soft-copy workstations are used to digitize features directly from stereo pairs of digital photographs. These systems allow data to be captured in two and three dimensions, with elevations measured directly from a stereo pair using principles of photogrammetry. Analog aerial photos must be scanned before being entered into a soft-copy system, for high-quality digital cameras this step is skipped.


title: Geographic information system

text: Satellite remote sensing provides another important source of spatial data. Here satellites use different sensor packages to passively measure the reflectance from parts of the electromagnetic spectrum or radio waves that were sent out from an active sensor such as radar. Remote sensing collects raster data that can be further processed using different bands to identify objects and classes of interest, such as land cover.


title: Geographic information system

text: The most common method of data creation is digitization, where a hard copy map or survey plan is transferred into a digital medium through the use of a CAD program, and geo-referencing capabilities. With the wide availability of ortho-rectified imagery (from satellites, aircraft, Helikites and UAVs), heads-up digitizing is becoming the main avenue through which geographic data is extracted. Heads-up digitizing involves the tracing of geographic data directly on top of the aerial imagery instead of by the traditional method of tracing the geographic form on a separate digitizing tablet (heads-down digitizing). Heads-down digitizing, or manual digitizing, uses a special magnetic pen, or stylus, that feeds information into a computer to create an identical, digital map. Some tablets use a mouse-like tool, called a puck, instead of a stylus. The puck has a small window with cross-hairs which allows for greater precision and pinpointing map features. Though heads-up digitizing is more commonly used, heads-down digitizing is still useful for digitizing maps of poor quality.


title: Geographic information system

text: Existing data printed on paper or PET film maps can be digitized or scanned to produce digital data. A digitizer produces vector data as an operator traces points, lines, and polygon boundaries from a map. Scanning a map results in raster data that could be further processed to produce vector data.


title: Geographic information system

text: When data is captured, the user should consider if the data should be captured with either a relative accuracy or absolute accuracy, since this could not only influence how information will be interpreted but also the cost of data capture.


title: Geographic information system

text: After entering data into a GIS, the data usually requires editing, to remove errors, or further processing. For vector data it must be made "topologically correct" before it can be used for some advanced analysis. For example, in a road network, lines must connect with nodes at an intersection. Errors such as undershoots and overshoots must also be removed. For scanned maps, blemishes on the source map may need to be removed from the resulting raster. For example, a fleck of dirt might connect two lines that should not be connected.


title: Geographic information system

text: The earth can be represented by various models, each of which may provide a different set of coordinates (e.g., latitude, longitude, elevation) for any given point on the Earth's surface. The simplest model is to assume the earth is a perfect sphere. As more measurements of the earth have accumulated, the models of the earth have become more sophisticated and more accurate. In fact, there are models called datums that apply to different areas of the earth to provide increased accuracy, like North American Datum of 1983 for U.S. measurements, and the World Geodetic System for worldwide measurements.


title: Geographic information system

text: The latitude and longitude on a map made against a local datum may not be the same as one obtained from a GPS receiver. Converting coordinates from one datum to another requires a datum transformation such as a Helmert transformation, although in certain situations a simple translation may be sufficient.


title: Geographic information system

text: In popular GIS software, data projected in latitude/longitude is often represented as a Geographic coordinate system. For example, data in latitude/longitude if the datum is the 'North American Datum of 1983' is denoted by 'GCS North American 1983'.


title: Geographic information system

text: While no digital model can be a perfect representation of the real world, it is important that GIS data be of a high quality. In keeping with the principle of homomorphism, the data must be close enough to reality so that the results of GIS procedures correctly correspond to the results of real world processes. This means that there is no single standard for data quality, because the necessary degree of quality depends on the scale and purpose of the tasks for which it is to be used. Several elements of data quality are important to GIS data:


title: Geographic information system

text: GIS accuracy depends upon source data, and how it is encoded to be data referenced. Land surveyors have been able to provide a high level of positional accuracy utilizing the GPS-derived positions. High-resolution digital terrain and aerial imagery, powerful computers and Web technology are changing the quality, utility, and expectations of GIS to serve society on a grand scale, but nevertheless there are other source data that affect overall GIS accuracy like paper maps, though these may be of limited use in achieving the desired accuracy.


title: Geographic information system

text: In developing a digital topographic database for a GIS, topographical maps are the main source, and aerial photography and satellite imagery are extra sources for collecting data and identifying attributes which can be mapped in layers over a location facsimile of scale. The scale of a map and geographical rendering area representation type, or map projection, are very important aspects since the information content depends mainly on the scale set and resulting locatability of the map's representations. In order to digitize a map, the map has to be checked within theoretical dimensions, then scanned into a raster format, and resulting raster data has to be given a theoretical dimension by a rubber sheeting/warping technology process known as georeferencing.


title: Geographic information system

text: A quantitative analysis of maps brings accuracy issues into focus. The electronic and other equipment used to make measurements for GIS is far more precise than the machines of conventional map analysis. All geographical data are inherently inaccurate, and these inaccuracies will propagate through GIS operations in ways that are difficult to predict.


title: Geographic information system

text: Data restructuring can be performed by a GIS to convert data into different formats. For example, a GIS may be used to convert a satellite image map to a vector structure by generating lines around all cells with the same classification, while determining the cell spatial relationships, such as adjacency or inclusion.


title: Geographic information system

text: More advanced data processing can occur with image processing, a technique developed in the late 1960s by NASA and the private sector to provide contrast enhancement, false color rendering and a variety of other techniques including use of two dimensional Fourier transforms. Since digital data is collected and stored in various ways, the two data sources may not be entirely compatible. So a GIS must be able to convert geographic data from one structure to another. In so doing, the implicit assumptions behind different ontologies and classifications require analysis. Object ontologies have gained increasing prominence as a consequence of object-oriented programming and sustained work by Barry Smith and co-workers.


title: Geographic information system

text: Spatial ETL tools provide the data processing functionality of traditional extract, transform, load (ETL) software, but with a primary focus on the ability to manage spatial data. They provide GIS users with the ability to translate data between different standards and proprietary formats, whilst geometrically transforming the data en route. These tools can come in the form of add-ins to existing wider-purpose software such as spreadsheets.


title: Geographic information system

text: GIS spatial analysis is a rapidly changing field, and GIS packages are increasingly including analytical tools as standard built-in facilities, as optional toolsets, as add-ins or 'analysts'. In many instances these are provided by the original software suppliers (commercial vendors or collaborative non commercial development teams), while in other cases facilities have been developed and are provided by third parties. Furthermore, many products offer software development kits (SDKs), programming languages and language support, scripting facilities and/or special interfaces for developing one's own analytical tools or variants. The increased availability has created a new dimension to business intelligence termed "spatial intelligence" which, when openly delivered via intranet, democratizes access to geographic and social network data. Geospatial intelligence, based on GIS spatial analysis, has also become a key element for security. GIS as a whole can be described as conversion to a vectorial representation or to any other digitisation process.


title: Geographic information system

text: Geoprocessing is a GIS operation used to manipulate spatial data. A typical geoprocessing operation takes an input dataset, performs an operation on that dataset, and returns the result of the operation as an output dataset. Common geoprocessing operations include geographic feature overlay, feature selection and analysis, topology processing, raster processing, and data conversion. Geoprocessing allows for definition, management, and analysis of information used to form decisions.


title: Geographic information system

text: Many geographic tasks involve the terrain, the shape of the surface of the earth, such as hydrology, earthworks, and biogeography. Thus, terrain data is often a core dataset in a GIS, usually in the form of a raster Digital elevation model (DEM) or a Triangulated irregular network (TIN). A variety of tools are available in most GIS software for analyzing terrain, often by creating derivative datasets that represent a specific aspect of the surface. Some of the most common include:


title: Geographic information system

text: Most of these are generated using algorithms that are discrete simplifications of vector calculus. Slope, aspect, and surface curvature in terrain analysis are all derived from neighborhood operations using elevation values of a cell's adjacent neighbours. Each of these is strongly affected by the level of detail in the terrain data, such as the resolution of a DEM, which should be chosen carefully.


title: Geographic information system

text: Distance is a key part of solving many geographic tasks, usually due to the friction of distance. Thus, a wide variety of analysis tools have analyze distance in some form, such as buffers, Voronoi or Thiessen polygons, Cost distance analysis, and network analysis.


title: Geographic information system

text: It is difficult to relate wetlands maps to rainfall amounts recorded at different points such as airports, television stations, and schools. A GIS, however, can be used to depict two- and three-dimensional characteristics of the Earth's surface, subsurface, and atmosphere from information points. For example, a GIS can quickly generate a map with isopleth or contour lines that indicate differing amounts of rainfall. Such a map can be thought of as a rainfall contour map. Many sophisticated methods can estimate the characteristics of surfaces from a limited number of point measurements. A two-dimensional contour map created from the surface modeling of rainfall point measurements may be overlaid and analyzed with any other map in a GIS covering the same area. This GIS derived map can then provide additional information - such as the viability of water power potential as a renewable energy source. Similarly, GIS can be used to compare other renewable energy resources to find the best geographic potential for a region.


title: Geographic information system

text: Additionally, from a series of three-dimensional points, or digital elevation model, isopleth lines representing elevation contours can be generated, along with slope analysis, shaded relief, and other elevation products. Watersheds can be easily defined for any given reach, by computing all of the areas contiguous and uphill from any given point of interest. Similarly, an expected thalweg of where surface water would want to travel in intermittent and permanent streams can be computed from elevation data in the GIS.


title: Geographic information system

text: A GIS can recognize and analyze the spatial relationships that exist within digitally stored spatial data. These topological relationships allow complex spatial modelling and analysis to be performed. Topological relationships between geometric entities traditionally include adjacency (what adjoins what), containment (what encloses what), and proximity (how close something is to something else).


title: Geographic information system

text: Geometric networks are linear networks of objects that can be used to represent interconnected features, and to perform special spatial analysis on them. A geometric network is composed of edges, which are connected at junction points, similar to graphs in mathematics and computer science. Just like graphs, networks can have weight and flow assigned to its edges, which can be used to represent various interconnected features more accurately. Geometric networks are often used to model road networks and public utility networks, such as electric, gas, and water networks. Network modeling is also commonly employed in transportation planning, hydrology modeling, and infrastructure modeling.


title: Geographic information system

text: Dana Tomlin coined the term "cartographic modeling" in his PhD dissertation (1983); he later used it in the title of his book, "Geographic Information Systems and Cartographic Modeling" (1990). Cartographic modeling refers to a process where several thematic layers of the same area are produced, processed, and analyzed. Tomlin used raster layers, but the overlay method (see below) can be used more generally. Operations on map layers can be combined into algorithms, and eventually into simulation or optimization models.


title: Geographic information system

text: The combination of several spatial datasets (points, lines, or polygons) creates a new output vector dataset, visually similar to stacking several maps of the same region. These overlays are similar to mathematical Venn diagram overlays. A union overlay combines the geographic features and attribute tables of both inputs into a single new output. An intersect overlay defines the area where both inputs overlap and retains a set of attribute fields for each. A symmetric difference overlay defines an output area that includes the total area of both inputs except for the overlapping area.


title: Geographic information system

text: Data extraction is a GIS process similar to vector overlay, though it can be used in either vector or raster data analysis. Rather than combining the properties and features of both datasets, data extraction involves using a "clip" or "mask" to extract the features of one data set that fall within the spatial extent of another dataset.


title: Geographic information system

text: In raster data analysis, the overlay of datasets is accomplished through a process known as "local operation on multiple rasters" or "map algebra", through a function that combines the values of each raster's matrix. This function may weigh some inputs more than others through use of an "index model" that reflects the influence of various factors upon a geographic phenomenon.


title: Geographic information system

text: Geostatistics is a branch of statistics that deals with field data, spatial data with a continuous index. It provides methods to model spatial correlation, and predict values at arbitrary locations (interpolation).


title: Geographic information system

text: When phenomena are measured, the observation methods dictate the accuracy of any subsequent analysis. Due to the nature of the data (e.g. traffic patterns in an urban environment; weather patterns over the Pacific Ocean), a constant or dynamic degree of precision is always lost in the measurement. This loss of precision is determined from the scale and distribution of the data collection.


title: Geographic information system

text: To determine the statistical relevance of the analysis, an average is determined so that points (gradients) outside of any immediate measurement can be included to determine their predicted behavior. This is due to the limitations of the applied statistic and data collection methods, and interpolation is required to predict the behavior of particles, points, and locations that are not directly measurable.


title: Geographic information system

text: Interpolation is the process by which a surface is created, usually a raster dataset, through the input of data collected at a number of sample points. There are several forms of interpolation, each which treats the data differently, depending on the properties of the data set. In comparing interpolation methods, the first consideration should be whether or not the source data will change (exact or approximate). Next is whether the method is subjective, a human interpretation, or objective. Then there is the nature of transitions between points: are they abrupt or gradual. Finally, there is whether a method is global (it uses the entire data set to form the model), or local where an algorithm is repeated for a small section of terrain.


title: Geographic information system

text: Interpolation is a justified measurement because of a spatial autocorrelation principle that recognizes that data collected at any position will have a great similarity to, or influence of those locations within its immediate vicinity.


title: Geographic information system

text: Digital elevation models, triangulated irregular networks, edge-finding algorithms, Thiessen polygons, Fourier analysis, (weighted) moving averages, inverse distance weighting, kriging, spline, and trend surface analysis are all mathematical methods to produce interpolative data.


title: Geographic information system

text: Geocoding is interpolating spatial locations (X,Y coordinates) from street addresses or any other spatially referenced data such as ZIP Codes, parcel lots and address locations. A reference theme is required to geocode individual addresses, such as a road centerline file with address ranges. The individual address locations have historically been interpolated, or estimated, by examining address ranges along a road segment. These are usually provided in the form of a table or database. The software will then place a dot approximately where that address belongs along the segment of centerline. For example, an address point of 500 will be at the midpoint of a line segment that starts with address 1 and ends with address 1,000. Geocoding can also be applied against actual parcel data, typically from municipal tax maps. In this case, the result of the geocoding will be an actually positioned space as opposed to an interpolated point. This approach is being increasingly used to provide more precise location information.


title: Geographic information system

text: Reverse geocoding is the process of returning an estimated street address number as it relates to a given coordinate. For example, a user can click on a road centerline theme (thus providing a coordinate) and have information returned that reflects the estimated house number. This house number is interpolated from a range assigned to that road segment. If the user clicks at the midpoint of a segment that starts with address 1 and ends with 100, the returned value will be somewhere near 50. Note that reverse geocoding does not return actual addresses, only estimates of what should be there based on the predetermined range.


title: Geographic information system

text: Coupled with GIS, multi-criteria decision analysis methods support decision-makers in analysing a set of alternative spatial solutions, such as the most likely ecological habitat for restoration, against multiple criteria, such as vegetation cover or roads. MCDA uses decision rules to aggregate the criteria, which allows the alternative solutions to be ranked or prioritised. GIS MCDA may reduce costs and time involved in identifying potential restoration sites.


title: Geographic information system

text: GIS or spatial data mining is the application of data mining methods to spatial data. Data mining, which is the partially automated search for hidden patterns in large databases, offers great potential benefits for applied GIS-based decision making. Typical applications include environmental monitoring. A characteristic of such applications is that spatial correlation between data measurements require the use of specialized algorithms for more efficient data analysis.


title: Geographic information system

text: Cartography is the design and production of maps, or visual representations of spatial data. The vast majority of modern cartography is done with the help of computers, usually using GIS but production of quality cartography is also achieved by importing layers into a design program to refine it. Most GIS software gives the user substantial control over the appearance of the data.


title: Geographic information system

text: First, it produces graphics on the screen or on paper that convey the results of analysis to the people who make decisions about resources. Wall maps and other graphics can be generated, allowing the viewer to visualize and thereby understand the results of analyses or simulations of potential events. Web Map Servers facilitate distribution of generated maps through web browsers using various implementations of web-based application programming interfaces (AJAX, Java, Flash, etc.).


title: Geographic information system

text: Second, other database information can be generated for further analysis or use. An example would be a list of all addresses within one mile (1.6 km) of a toxic spill.


title: Geographic information system

text: An archeochrome is a new way of displaying spatial data. It is a thematic on a 3D map that is applied to a specific building or a part of a building. It is suited to the visual display of heat-loss data.


title: Geographic information system

text: Traditional maps are abstractions of the real world, a sampling of important elements portrayed on a sheet of paper with symbols to represent physical objects. People who use maps must interpret these symbols. Topographic maps show the shape of land surface with contour lines or with shaded relief.


title: Geographic information system

text: Today, graphic display techniques such as shading based on altitude in a GIS can make relationships among map elements visible, heightening one's ability to extract and analyze information. For example, two types of data were combined in a GIS to produce a perspective view of a portion of San Mateo County, California.


title: Geographic information system

text: A GIS was used to register and combine the two images to render the three-dimensional perspective view looking down the San Andreas Fault, using the Thematic Mapper image pixels, but shaded using the elevation of the landforms. The GIS display depends on the viewing point of the observer and time of day of the display, to properly render the shadows created by the sun's rays at that latitude, longitude, and time of day.


title: Geographic information system

text: In recent years there has been a proliferation of free-to-use and easily accessible mapping software such as the proprietary web applications Google Maps and Bing Maps, as well as the free and open-source alternative OpenStreetMap. These services give the public access to huge amounts of geographic data, perceived by many users to be as trustworthy and usable as professional information.


title: Geographic information system

text: Some of them, like Google Maps and OpenLayers, expose an application programming interface (API) that enable users to create custom applications. These toolkits commonly offer street maps, aerial/satellite imagery, geocoding, searches, and routing functionality. Web mapping has also uncovered the potential of crowdsourcing geodata in projects like OpenStreetMap, which is a collaborative project to create a free editable map of the world. These mashup projects have been proven to provide a high level of value and benefit to end users outside that possible through traditional geographic information.


title: Geographic information system

text: Web mapping is not without its drawbacks. Web mapping allows for the creation and distribution of maps by people without proper cartographic training. This has led to maps that ignore cartographic conventions and are potentially misleading.


title: Geographic information system

text: Since its origin in the 1960s, GIS has been used in an ever-increasing range of applications, corroborating the widespread importance of location and aided by the continuing reduction in the barriers to adopting geospatial technology. The perhaps hundreds of different uses of GIS can be classified in several ways:


title: Geographic information system

text: The implementation of a GIS is often driven by jurisdictional (such as a city), purpose, or application requirements. Generally, a GIS implementation may be custom-designed for an organization. Hence, a GIS deployment developed for an application, jurisdiction, enterprise, or purpose may not be necessarily interoperable or compatible with a GIS that has been developed for some other application, jurisdiction, enterprise, or purpose.


title: Geographic information system

text: GIS is also diverging into location-based services, which allows GPS-enabled mobile devices to display their location in relation to fixed objects (nearest restaurant, gas station, fire hydrant) or mobile objects (friends, children, police car), or to relay their position back to a central server for display or other processing.


title: Geographic information system

text: The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is an international industry consortium of 384 companies, government agencies, universities, and individuals participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geoprocessing specifications. Open interfaces and protocols defined by OpenGIS Specifications support interoperable solutions that "geo-enable" the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT, and empower technology developers to make complex spatial information and services accessible and useful with all kinds of applications. Open Geospatial Consortium protocols include Web Map Service, and Web Feature Service.


title: Geographic information system

text: GIS products are broken down by the OGC into two categories, based on how completely and accurately the software follows the OGC specifications.


title: Geographic information system

text: "Compliant products" are software products that comply to OGC's OpenGIS Specifications. When a product has been tested and certified as compliant through the OGC Testing Program, the product is automatically registered as "compliant" on this site.


title: Geographic information system

text: "Implementing products" are software products that implement OpenGIS Specifications but have not yet passed a compliance test. Compliance tests are not available for all specifications. Developers can register their products as implementing draft or approved specifications, though OGC reserves the right to review and verify each entry.


title: Geographic information system

text: The condition of the Earth's surface, atmosphere, and subsurface can be examined by feeding satellite data into a GIS. GIS technology gives researchers the ability to examine the variations in Earth processes over days, months, and years through the use of cartographic visualizations. As an example, the changes in vegetation vigor through a growing season can be animated to determine when drought was most extensive in a particular region. The resulting graphic represents a rough measure of plant health. Working with two variables over time would then allow researchers to detect regional differences in the lag between a decline in rainfall and its effect on vegetation.


title: Geographic information system

text: GIS technology and the availability of digital data on regional and global scales enable such analyses. The satellite sensor output used to generate a vegetation graphic is produced for example by the advanced very-high-resolution radiometer (AVHRR). This sensor system detects the amounts of energy reflected from the Earth's surface across various bands of the spectrum for surface areas of about 1 square kilometer. The satellite sensor produces images of a particular location on the Earth twice a day. AVHRR and more recently the moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) are only two of many sensor systems used for Earth surface analysis.


title: Geographic information system

text: In addition to the integration of time in environmental studies, GIS is also being explored for its ability to track and model the progress of humans throughout their daily routines. A concrete example of progress in this area is the recent release of time-specific population data by the U.S. Census. In this data set, the populations of cities are shown for daytime and evening hours highlighting the pattern of concentration and dispersion generated by North American commuting patterns. The manipulation and generation of data required to produce this data would not have been possible without GIS.


title: Geographic information system

text: Using models to project the data held by a GIS forward in time have enabled planners to test policy decisions using spatial decision support systems.


title: Geographic information system

text: Tools and technologies emerging from the World Wide Web Consortium's Semantic Web are proving useful for data integration problems in information systems. Correspondingly, such technologies have been proposed as a means to facilitate interoperability and data reuse among GIS applications and also to enable new analysis mechanisms.


title: Geographic information system

text: Ontologies are a key component of this semantic approach as they allow a formal, machine-readable specification of the concepts and relationships in a given domain. This in turn allows a GIS to focus on the intended meaning of data rather than its syntax or structure. For example, reasoning that a land cover type classified as "deciduous needleleaf trees" in one dataset is a specialization or subset of land cover type "forest" in another more roughly classified dataset can help a GIS automatically merge the two datasets under the more general land cover classification. Tentative ontologies have been developed in areas related to GIS applications, for example the hydrology ontology developed by the Ordnance Survey in the United Kingdom and the SWEET ontologies developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Also, simpler ontologies and semantic metadata standards are being proposed by the W3C Geo Incubator Group to represent geospatial data on the web. GeoSPARQL is a standard developed by the Ordnance Survey, United States Geological Survey, Natural Resources Canada, Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation and others to support ontology creation and reasoning using well-understood OGC literals (GML, WKT), topological relationships (Simple Features, RCC8, DE-9IM), RDF and the SPARQL database query protocols.


title: Geographic information system

text: Recent research results in this area can be seen in the International Conference on Geospatial Semantics and the Terra Cognita – Directions to the Geospatial Semantic Web workshop at the International Semantic Web Conference.


title: Geographic information system

text: With the popularization of GIS in decision making, scholars have begun to scrutinize the social and political implications of GIS. GIS can also be misused to distort reality for individual and political gain. It has been argued that the production, distribution, utilization, and representation of geographic information are largely related with the social context and has the potential to increase citizen trust in government. Other related topics include discussion on copyright, privacy, and censorship. A more optimistic social approach to GIS adoption is to use it as a tool for public participation.


title: Geographic information system

text: At the end of the 20th century, GIS began to be recognized as tools that could be used in the classroom. The benefits of GIS in education seem focused on developing spatial cognition, but there is not enough bibliography or statistical data to show the concrete scope of the use of GIS in education around the world, although the expansion has been faster in those countries where the curriculum mentions them.


title: Geographic information system

text: GIS seem to provide many advantages in teaching geography because they allow for analyses based on real geographic data and also help raise many research questions from teachers and students in classrooms. They also contribute to improvement in learning by developing spatial and geographical thinking and, in many cases, student motivation.


title: Geographic information system

text: GIS is proven as an organization-wide, enterprise and enduring technology that continues to change how local government operates. Government agencies have adopted GIS technology as a method to better manage the following areas of government organization:


title: Geographic information system

text: The Open Data initiative is pushing local government to take advantage of technology such as GIS technology, as it encompasses the requirements to fit the Open Data/Open Government model of transparency. With Open Data, local government organizations can implement Citizen Engagement applications and online portals, allowing citizens to see land information, report potholes and signage issues, view and sort parks by assets, view real-time crime rates and utility repairs, and much more. The push for open data within government organizations is driving the growth in local government GIS technology spending, and database management.


title: Yellow Submarine (album)

text: Yellow Submarine is the tenth studio album by English rock band the Beatles, released on 13 January 1969 in the United States and on 17 January in the United Kingdom. It was issued as the soundtrack to the animated film of the same name, which premiered in London in July 1968. The album contains six songs by the Beatles, including four new songs and the previously released "Yellow Submarine" and "All You Need Is Love". The remainder of the album is a re-recording of the film's orchestral soundtrack by the band's producer, George Martin.


title: Yellow Submarine (album)

text: The project was regarded as a contractual obligation by the Beatles, who were asked to supply four new songs for the film. Some were written and recorded specifically for the soundtrack, while others were unreleased tracks from other projects. The album was recorded before – and issued two months after – the band's self-titled double LP (also known as the "White Album") and was not viewed by the band as a significant release. An EP containing only the new songs had been considered, and was mastered, but left unreleased. The original mono mixes were later included in the 2009 compilation "Mono Masters".


title: Yellow Submarine (album)

text: "Yellow Submarine" reached the top 5 in the UK and the US. It has since been afforded a mixed reception from music critics, some of whom consider that it falls short of the high standard generally associated with the Beatles' work. Another version of the album, the "Yellow Submarine Songtrack", was issued on the film's 30th anniversary. It dispenses with the George Martin orchestrations, and includes the six Beatles songs from the original album, along with an additional nine songs heard in the film, all newly remixed.


title: Yellow Submarine (album)

text: The album arose from contractual obligations as part of the band's the Beatles three-picture deal with United Artists. Having disliked "Help", it was agreed that an animated film "Yellow Submarine", would fulfil their obligation, as it reduced the band's involvement, though they reluctantly agreed to record four new songs for the film. Having recently completed their album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" in April 1967, the group showed minimal enthusiasm for the project. Along with the music for their "Magical Mystery Tour" TV film, the "Yellow Submarine" soundtrack was part of a period that author Ian MacDonald later described as the band's "regime of continuous low-intensity recording ... it had a workaday quality about it – an intrinsic lack of tension which was bound to colour the resulting material."


title: Yellow Submarine (album)

text: Only one side of the album contains songs performed by the Beatles; of the six, two of them were previously released. "Yellow Submarine" had been issued in August 1966 as a single, topping the UK chart for four weeks, and had also been released on the album "Revolver". Following the Beatles' performance of the song on the "Our World" international television broadcast, "All You Need Is Love" had been issued as a single as well, in July 1967, and had also been included on the Capitol Records LP release of "Magical Mystery Tour" in November 1967. A stereo mix was made of this song on 29 October 1968 for release on this album.


title: Yellow Submarine (album)

text: Of the unreleased tracks, the first to be recorded was George Harrison's "Only a Northern Song", taped in February 1967 but rejected for inclusion on "Sgt. Pepper". The group performed overdubs on this basic track in April, immediately after completing the stereo mixes for that album. Among the sounds added during what Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn describes as "a curious session", were trumpet, glockenspiel and spoken voices. Harrison's lyrics reflect his displeasure at being merely a contracted songwriter to the Beatles' publishing company, Northern Songs.


title: Yellow Submarine (album)

text: "All Together Now" was recorded in a single session on 12 May 1967, specifically for the film project. The title came from a phrase Paul McCartney had heard as a child, to encourage everyone to sing music hall songs. He later described the song as "a throwaway".


title: Yellow Submarine (album)

text: The band recorded Harrison's "It's All Too Much" in late May 1967 at De Lane Lea Studios in central London. Inspired by its author's experimentation with the drug LSD, and originally running to over eight minutes in length, the song reflects the Summer of Love philosophy of 1967 and makes extensive use of guitar feedback. As with the later recorded "All You Need Is Love", the track includes musical and lyrical quotations from other works – in this case, a trumpet passage from Jeremiah Clarke's "Prince of Denmark's March" and a lyric from the Merseys' 1966 hit "Sorrow".


title: Yellow Submarine (album)

text: John Lennon's "Hey Bulldog" was recorded on 11 February 1968 and evolved from an initial intent to shoot a promotional film for the single "Lady Madonna". Like "All Together Now", it was specifically recorded with the film soundtrack in mind. The track's ending contained a jam session after the point where a fade-out was intended in the final mix, which was kept in the finished version. Lennon later described the song as "a good-sounding record that means nothing".


title: Yellow Submarine (album)

text: Side two consists of re-recordings of the symphonic film score composed by the Beatles' producer, George Martin, specifically for the album. The recording took place with a 41-piece orchestra over two three-hour sessions on 22 and 23 October 1968 in Abbey Road, and was edited down to the length on the LP on 22 November.


title: Yellow Submarine (album)

text: In some of his arrangements, Martin referenced his past work with the Beatles; for example, "Sea of Time" includes what MacDonald terms "an affectionate quotation" from the Indian-styled "Within You Without You", from "Sgt. Pepper", and "Yellow Submarine in Pepperland" reprises the film's title track. In "Sea of Monsters", Martin included the beginning of Bach's "Air on the G String", while in other selections he parodies works by Stravinsky. MacDonald also detects the influence of Mozart and Webern among the "classical allusions" in Martin's score.


title: Yellow Submarine (album)

text: The film received its worldwide premiere in London in July 1968, by which time the Beatles were busy working on their self-titled double album, commonly called "the White Album". After viewing the finished film, the Beatles were much more enthusiastic and did more to associate themselves with it after its release. Having been delayed so that it would not clash with the release of "The Beatles", and to allow for the re-recording of Martin's contributions, "Yellow Submarine" was issued by Apple Records on 13 January 1969 in the US and on 17 January in the UK. The album was issued in stereo only in the US, while the UK album was available in both stereo and mono, although the mono version is simply a fold-down (a combination of two stereo channels into one mono) rather than a specific mix.


title: Yellow Submarine (album)

text: Since "All You Need Is Love" had been rush-released as a single, it did not have an official stereo mix. Although the track was released on the US LP "Magical Mystery Tour", an official stereo mix of the track was not made until 29 October 1968 for the album. In the US, 8-track tape and cassette tape versions included "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", which was also heard in the film, as an additional song.


title: Yellow Submarine (album)

text: In contrast to the animated film, "Yellow Submarine" was not generally considered to be a significant release. Issued two months after "The Beatles", it was one of the few Beatles releases that failed to top the charts in either the United Kingdom or the United States, peaking instead at number 3 and number 2, respectively. In Canada, "Yellow Submarine" topped the "RPM" national albums chart for two weeks, ending the White Album's 12-week run at number 1. On America's "Billboard" Top LPs chart, it was kept from the top by the same album.


title: Yellow Submarine (album)

text: The artwork on the sleeve contains a drawing of the Beatles as it appeared on trailer posters, created by Heinz Edelman. The same basic design was used for the UK and US covers, though the UK jacket contains the words "Nothing is Real" (taken from "Strawberry Fields Forever") just below the album's title, while the US version did not.


title: Yellow Submarine (album)

text: On the back of the cover, the UK album contained a review of the White Album written for "The Observer" by Tony Palmer. The review was introduced by a few liner notes by Apple press officer Derek Taylor. The US cover contained a fictitious illustrated biography by Dan Davis of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, in which the ensemble's battle with the Blue Meanies was compared to three other epic struggles in the history of the English-speaking world: Beowulf's struggle to save the Heorot mead hall, King John's signing of the Magna Carta and Thomas Jefferson's writing of the Declaration of Independence.


title: Yellow Submarine (album)

text: An EP containing the new songs had been considered for release in September 1968, but any plan to issue the soundtrack music from "Yellow Submarine" was then postponed to allow for the White Album's unveiling. Following the delayed release of the soundtrack album, however, Lewisohn writes that the Beatles were "mildly criticised" for issuing a new LP with just four new songs and having ceded a full LP side to Martin's music and thereby failing to provide their customary "excellent value-for-money". As a result, the band decided to reissue "Yellow Submarine" as a five-track mono EP, without the film score but including the then-unreleased "Across the Universe" as a bonus track. This EP was mastered in March 1969 but was never issued. The original running order for the EP was "Only a Northern Song", "Hey Bulldog" and "Across the Universe" on side one, with "All Together Now" and "It's All Too Much" on side two.


title: Yellow Submarine (album)

text: Lennon later dismissed Martin's contributions as "all this terrible shit" and blamed Brian Epstein, the Beatles' manager, for allowing Martin to participate in the project. According to author and music journalist Peter Doggett, neither the proposed EP format nor an expanded soundtrack album (containing other previously issued Beatles songs that appear in the 1968 film) was possible at the time, since "both options would have denied George Martin his contractual right to appear alongside The Beatles – and robbed him of potentially the largest royalty payment of his career."


title: Yellow Submarine (album)

text: The first compact disc release of the album appeared in August 1987. It was consistent with the British version of the LP, with "Sea of Time" and "Sea of Holes" as separate tracks; the "Nothing Is Real" subtitle remained, and the review of the White Album with Taylor's introduction was reproduced inside the CD insert. The soundtrack album returned to the UK charts, peaking at number 60.


title: Yellow Submarine (album)

text: A 30th anniversary version of the album was released on 13 September 1999, coinciding with the remastered re-release of the film. Titled "Yellow Submarine Songtrack", it does not include the George Martin film score, but features the six Beatles songs from the original album, along with an additional nine songs heard in the film, all completely remixed for this disc.


title: Yellow Submarine (album)

text: The original album remained available and was remastered and reissued, along with the rest of the Beatles' catalogue, on 9 September 2009. This release included both the UK and US sleeve notes. The mono mixes of the four songs that were intended for the unreleased EP (along with "Across the Universe") were released for the first time on the "Mono Masters" collection as part of the box set "The Beatles in Mono".


title: Yellow Submarine (album)

text: Recalling the album's release in a special-edition issue of "Mojo" magazine, Peter Doggett writes that "The papers got all trippy for "Yellow Submarine"". "Beat Instrumental" bemoaned the paucity of new material by the band, but added: "be not of bad cheer. The George Martin score to the film is really very nice, and two tracks by George Harrison redeem the first side. Both [songs] are superb pieces, considerably more enthralling than the most draggy "All Together Now", a rather wet track." In a review for "International Times", Barry Miles considered Martin's score "superbly produced" and, of the songs, wrote only of "It's All Too Much", which he described as, variously, "Endless, mantric, a round, interwoven, trellised, tessellated, filigreed, gidouiled, spiralling" and "Happy singalong music". "Record Mirror"s reviewer said that, given the longstanding demand for a soundtrack album, the release of "Yellow Submarine" would evoke "the ecstasy of fans the world over". The reviewer added that the four new Beatles songs matched the quality of the two "excellent" hit singles, and Martin's side represented a "tremendous achievement" that also justified any complaints about the price. Writing in their 1975 book "", "NME" critics Roy Carr and Tony Tyler bemoaned the commercial considerations that had resulted in the release of a full soundtrack album, saying that the four new tracks "would have made a superb EP".


title: Yellow Submarine (album)

text: More recently, AllMusic critic Richie Unterberger has written of "Yellow Submarine": "The album would have been far better value if it had been released as a four-song EP ... with the addition of a bonus track in "Across the Universe" ... No one would argue that there's a huge amount more than meets the eye (or ear) there, but listening to the original album anew 40 years on, one is still struck by how mostly second-rate, and recycled and rejected Beatles material still sounds so good." Writing for Pitchfork Media, Mark Richardson opines that "the "Yellow Submarine" soundtrack is like the work of a supremely talented band that couldn't really be bothered" and describes "Hey Bulldog" as "a tough and funky piano-driven rocker, [and] by a good margin the best song here". Richardson concludes: "But as an album it's ultimately forgettable, which is something the Beatles so rarely were otherwise."


title: Yellow Submarine (album)

text: PopMatters' David Gassman views Martin's selections as "kind of twee and inconsequential" and the four new songs on side one as "fascinating", adding that "The material's tossed-off origins give it a character unlike any other Beatles album." While noting that the soundtrack was superseded with the 1999 release of "Yellow Submarine Songtrack", Gassman writes: "No matter how you get them, though, the otherwise unavailable songs on this album ought to be part of any thinking Beatles fan's collection." Alex Young of Consequence of Sound writes: "as a whole, "Yellow Submarine" is a delightful album, even if it's still a less-than-acceptable inclusion in the Beatles canon", though he criticised the inclusion of Martin's score, which he felt should have been sold as a separate release.


title: The Edge of Seventeen

text: The Edge of Seventeen is a 2016 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film written and directed by Kelly Fremon Craig, in her directorial debut. The film stars Hailee Steinfeld, Woody Harrelson, Kyra Sedgwick, and Haley Lu Richardson.


title: The Edge of Seventeen

text: The film premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival on September 16, 2016, and was theatrically released on November 18, 2016, by STXfilms.


title: The Edge of Seventeen

text: It received positive reviews, with Steinfeld's performance being critically acclaimed, and grossed over $19 million against a budget of $9 million.


title: The Edge of Seventeen

text: Seventeen-year-old Nadine Franklin has tempestuous relationships with her popular older brother Darian and her image conscious mother Mona, and only felt close to her father Tom, who died of a heart attack when Nadine was thirteen, leaving her best friend Krista the only person keeping her buoyed.


title: The Edge of Seventeen

text: Darian throws a pool party where Nadine and Krista get drunk. Nadine falls asleep while Krista talks to Darian. The next morning Nadine finds Krista giving Darian a handjob, straining their friendship. The next day at school Darian asks Krista to be his girlfriend. Nadine turns to her classmate Erwin Kim, who has a crush on her, though she is attracted to older student Nick Mossman.


title: The Edge of Seventeen

text: Krista insists Nadine join her at a house party to which Darian has invited her. Krista is introduced to other students, leaving Nadine on her own. After failed attempts at mingling, Nadine sits outside with another partygoer, who remarks how inferior Nadine seems compared to her brother, and Nadine leaves the party. She invites Erwin to an amusement park, where she rejects his attempt to kiss her. At the end of the night Nadine tells him he is a great guy and they become close friends.


title: The Edge of Seventeen

text: At school, Krista confronts Nadine for ignoring her, and Nadine says Darian does not care about Krista and will soon drop her. Krista retorts that Darian has asked her to prom, which is months away. She rejects Nadine's demand that she choose between herself and Darian, and Nadine ends their friendship.


title: The Edge of Seventeen

text: For support at school, Nadine turns to Mr Bruner who says she is his favorite student. Nadine goes swimming in Erwin's pool and finds his house is luxurious and his family wealthy. She learns Erwin is a talented animation filmmaker, and accepts his invitation to their school's short-film festival.


title: The Edge of Seventeen

text: Driving to school, Mona and Nadine have a fight that leads to Mona bringing Nadine with her to work. They argue about her father, and Nadine steals Mona's car. She writes a sexually explicit text to Nick and accidentally sends it.


title: The Edge of Seventeen

text: Nadine flippantly tells Mr. Bruner she is going to kill herself, and he tries to reassure her. Nick replies asking her to hang out. Mona calls Darian, telling him that Nadine is missing and Darian leaves to find her. Nick, having believed Nadine's explicit text, repeatedly attempts to have sex with her in his car. Pushing him off, Nadine runs away and calls Mr. Bruner, who drives her to his house where they wait for Darian to arrive. Darian tells Nadine he has suffered from the pressures of taking their father’s place, saying he feels trapped and did not apply to distant colleges because the only person who makes him happy is Krista. Nadine confesses her own feelings of self-hatred and envy of Darian. They hug, ending their feud.


title: The Edge of Seventeen

text: As Nadine leaves for the film festival, she meets Darian and Krista; the friends reconcile and agree to catch up later. Realizing that Mona is still worried she has run away, Nadine texts her that she is safe, and Mona decides to trust her word. Erwin's animated film is about an alien boy who falls in love with a girl at high school but is rejected. The girl resembles Nadine and wears sneakers similar to hers. After the film, Nadine hands Erwin flowers she picked for him and apologizes for taking so long to accept his affection. Erwin is congratulated by his colleagues and introduces Nadine, who greets them with a smile.


title: The Edge of Seventeen

text: In 2011, screenwriter Kelly Fremon Craig sent a copy of her screenplay, "Besties", to producer James L. Brooks, hoping that Brooks would produce the film. Craig recalled, "I had written a spec version of this film, and had been just an insane fan of Jim's for years and years. He was the crazy longshot I took in the beginning! And one I never thought would actually work. But I sent him the script and he ended up taking on the project." "The Edge of Seventeen" is Craig's directorial debut. She also produced the film.


title: The Edge of Seventeen

text: On August 4, 2015, Hailee Steinfeld was cast in the film to play the lead role, while Richard Sakai was also attached as a producer of the film. On September 24, 2015, Woody Harrelson and Kyra Sedgwick joined the film's cast, with Harrelson playing the role of a high school teacher and Sedgwick as the main character's mother. On October 6, 2015, Blake Jenner was cast in the film as Nadine's older brother, a popular and handsome soccer player who begins dating Nadine's best friend Krista. Hayden Szeto was cast in the film as Erwin Kim, Nadine's earnest classmate, who fumbles several attempts to win her affection through much of the story. Haley Lu Richardson joined the film to play the role of Nadine's best friend Krista.


title: The Edge of Seventeen

text: Principal photography on the film began on October 21, 2015, in Hollywood North, then in Anaheim, California. Filming also took place in the Metro Vancouver area, then at Guildford Park Secondary School and near Guildford Town Centre in Surrey, British Columbia. Port Moody was also shown, with the film festival taking place in City Hall. Filming wrapped on December 3, 2015.


title: The Edge of Seventeen

text: "The Edge of Seventeen", distributed by STX Entertainment, was originally scheduled to be released on September 30, 2016, before being moved to November 18. Stage 6 Films and Sony Pictures Releasing International handle some distribution rights to the film outside the United States.


title: The Edge of Seventeen

text: "The Edge of Seventeen" grossed $14.4 million in the United States and Canada and $4.4 million in other territories for a total of $18.8 million, against a production budget of $9 million.


title: The Edge of Seventeen

text: In North America, the film was released alongside the openings of "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" and "Bleed for This", as well as the wide expansions of "Moonlight" and "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk", and was initially expected to gross around $8 million from 1,900 theaters. However, after grossing $1.8 million on its first day, weekend projections were lowered to $4–5 million; it ended up opening with $4.8 million, finishing number seven at the box office.


title: The Edge of Seventeen

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 94% based on 216 reviews, with an average rating of 7.90/10. The website's critical consensus reads, ""The Edge of Seventeen"s sharp script – and Hailee Steinfeld's outstanding lead performance – make this more than just another coming-of-age dramedy." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 77 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: The Edge of Seventeen

text: In May 2018, it was announced that YouTube Premium began development for a spin-off web series based on the film that would be exclusive to their platform. Annabel Oakes would pen the pilot, while Fremon Craig would executive produce the series. In May 2020, it was confirmed by Oakes that the series had been cancelled.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: Richard Bertrand Spencer (born May 1978) is an American neo-Nazi, antisemitic conspiracy theorist, and white supremacist. A former editor, he is a public speaker and activist on behalf of the alt-right movement. He advocates for the reconstitution of the European Union into a White racial empire, which he believes will replace the diverse European ethnic identities with one homogeneous "White identity".


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: Spencer has advocated for the enslavement of Haitians by Whites and the ethnic cleansing of racial minorities from the United States, additionally expressing admiration for the political tactics of American Nazi Party founder George Lincoln Rockwell. He was a featured speaker at the August 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, among other neo-Nazi rallies that Spencer has headlined.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: Spencer has repeatedly used Nazi gestures and rhetoric in public. In early 2016, Spencer was filmed giving the Nazi salute in a karaoke bar, and leaked footage also depicts Spencer giving the "Sieg Heil" salute to his supporters during the August 2017 Charlottesville rally. After Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, Spencer urged his supporters to "party like it's 1933," the year Hitler came to power in Germany. In the weeks following, Spencer quoted Nazi propaganda and denounced Jews. At a conference Spencer held celebrating the election, Spencer cried: "Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!"; subsequently Mike Enoch led a number of Spencer's supporters in performing a Nazi salute and a chant similar to the chant. In early-to-mid-2017, when Spencer's following was at its height, his supporters would give him the "Sieg Heil" salute when he entered a room.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: Following the Unite the Right rally, Spencer has been involved in several legal issues. After the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, during which an alt-right supporter drove his car into a group of counter-protesters, killing one and injuring at least 19 others, Spencer was sued as part of "Sines v. Kessler" for allegedly acting as a "gang boss" and inciting the killing. On November 23, 2021, the jury found Spencer liable on two counts and were unable to reach verdicts for another two, awarding $25 million in total damages. Three supporters of Spencer were charged with attempted homicide following his October 2017 speech at the University of Florida. Following an appeal by the Polish government, he was banned from the Schengen Area in 2018, having been banned previously in 2014 after being deported from Hungary.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: Richard Bertrand Spencer was born in 1978 in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of ophthalmologist Rand Spencer and Sherry Spencer (née Dickenhorst), the heiress to cotton farms in Louisiana. He grew up in Preston Hollow, Dallas, Texas. Spencer attended St. Mark's School of Texas, then Colgate University for one year before transferring to the University of Virginia. In 2001, he received a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Music from the University of Virginia and, in 2003, a Master of Arts in the Humanities from the University of Chicago. From the summer of 2005 into 2006, Spencer attended Vienna International Summer University. From 2005 to 2007, he was a PhD student in Modern European intellectual history at Duke University. He joined the Duke Conservative Union, where he met future President Trump's senior policy advisor Stephen Miller. His former website says he did not complete his PhD at Duke in order "to pursue a life of thought-crime".


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: From March to December 2007, Spencer was the assistant editor at "The American Conservative" magazine. According to founding editor Scott McConnell, he was fired from "The American Conservative" because his views were considered too extreme. Spencer spoke about the Duke lacrosse case and credits it with changing the course of his career. From January 2008 to December 2009, he served as the executive editor of "Taki's Magazine," a libertarian online magazine published by Taki Theodoracopulos. He has claimed credit for coining the term alt-right in 2008 in order to differentiate himself from "mainstream American conservatism", although Paul Gottfried argues that both he and Spencer created the term.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: In March 2010, Spencer founded AlternativeRight.com, a website he edited until 2012. In January 2011, he became the owner and executive director of Washington Summit Publishers. In January 2011, Spencer became president and director of the National Policy Institute (NPI), a White supremacist think tank based in Virginia, which was once run from his mother's $3 million summer house. George Hawley, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Alabama, has described NPI as "rather obscure and marginalized" until Spencer became its president.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: Spencer was invited to speak at Vanderbilt University in 2010 and Providence College in 2011 by Youth for Western Civilization. In 2012, he founded "Radix Journal" as a biannual publication of Washington Summit Publishers. Contributions have included articles by Kevin B. MacDonald, Alex Kurtagić, and Samuel T. Francis. He also hosts a weekly podcast, "Vanguard Radio."


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: In 2014, Spencer was deported from Budapest, Hungary. Under terms of the Schengen Agreement, he was banned for three years from 26 countries in Europe after trying to organize the National Policy Institute Conference, a conference for White nationalists.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: On January 15, 2017, the day of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, Spencer launched the AltRight Corporation and its website "altright.com", another commentary website for alt-right members. According to Spencer, the site is a populist and big tent site for members of the alt-right. Swedish publisher Daniel Friberg of Arktos Media is co-founder and European editor of the site. The Southern Poverty Law Center of the United States describes the common thread among contributors as antisemitism, rather than White nationalism or White supremacy in general. Contributors to AltRight.com have included Henrik Palmgren and Jared Taylor. On February 23, 2017, Spencer was removed from the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he was giving statements to the press. A CPAC spokesman said he was removed from the event because other members found him "repugnant".


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: On May 13, 2017, he led a torch-lit protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, against the vote of the city council to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee, the commanding general of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War. Spencer and David Duke were among those who led the crowd in chants of "You will not replace us," and "Blood and soil". Michael Signer, the mayor of Charlottesville, called the protest "horrific", and stated that it was either "profoundly ignorant" or intended to instill fear among minorities "in a way that hearkens back to the days of the KKK".


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: In August 2017, Spencer was listed as an organizer on posters promoting the Charlottesville, Virginia, Unite the Right rally. It attracted counter-protesters, and violence broke out. One rightist drove his car into a group of counter-protesters, killing one woman and wounding 30 so severely they needed hospital treatment. In November 2017, Twitter removed from Spencer's account the blue checkmark that, reported "The Washington Post", "the company gives to prominent accounts to help readers ensure they are authentic". Spencer told "The Post" he was worried this would lead to Twitter banning people like him. He later joined the social network Gab.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: In November 2019, Milo Yiannopoulos released an audio recording allegedly of Spencer using racist slurs immediately after the 2017 Unite the Right rally. Spencer said he did not recall making the remarks, but did not deny the voice on the recording was his. On the tape, Spencer is heard saying "Little fucking kikes. They get ruled by people like me. Little fucking octaroons. My ancestors fucking enslaved those little pieces of fucking shit."


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: During a speech Spencer delivered in mid-November 2016 at an alt-right conference attended by approximately 200 people in Washington, D.C., Spencer quoted Nazi propaganda in the original German and denounced Jews. Audience members cheered and gave the Nazi salute when he said, "Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!" and extended his right arm with a glass to toast that victory. Spencer later defended their conduct, stating that the Nazi salute was given in a spirit of "irony and exuberance". It was later reported that Spencer had given the Nazi salute at a karaoke bar in April 2016. Additionally, in 2017, sources indicate Spencer pressured followers to give him the "Sieg Heil" salute when he entered a room. Leaked texts between Spencer and Eli Mosley indicate that those who refused to give the Nazi salute to Spencer, such as Jason Kessler, were stigmatized within the movement.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: Groups and events which Spencer has spoken to include the Property and Freedom Society, the "American Renaissance" conference, and the HL Mencken Club. In November 2016, an online petition to prevent Spencer from speaking at Texas A&M University on December 6, 2016, was signed by thousands of students, employees, and alumni. A protest and a university-organized counter-event were held to coincide with Spencer's event. On January 20, 2017, Spencer attended the inauguration of Donald Trump. As he was giving an impromptu interview on a nearby street afterwards, a masked man punched Spencer in the face, then fled. A video of the incident was posted online, leading to divergent views on whether the attack was appropriate.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: Shortly after the violent Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017, the University of Florida denied Spencer's request for a September 2017 speaking opportunity, citing public safety grounds after opposition from students and locals of Gainesville, Florida. Due to safety reasons, he was also denied speaking requests at Louisiana State University and Michigan State University in August 2017. In September 2017, Cameron Padgett, who tried to book Spencer, sued MSU; he was represented by Kyle Bristow, an MSU alumnus.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: On August 16, during a television interview with Israeli Channel 2 anchor Danny Kushmaro, Spencer claimed that "Jews are vastly over-represented in... 'the establishment', that is, Ivy League educated people who really determine policy".


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: Spencer's National Policy Institute, David Duke, Stefan Molyneux, and "American Renaissance" magazine were among the white nationalist outlets banned by YouTube from their platform in late June 2020 for not following the platform's policies on hate speech.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: After the University of Florida's August 2017 denial of Spencer's request to speak the following month, Floridian lawyer Gary Edinger threatened to sue the university for violating the First Amendment by prohibiting Spencer from speaking despite being a publicly funded institution. The university subsequently reached an agreement with Edinger allowing Spencer to speak on October 19, 2017. Florida Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency for Alachua County on October 16, saying: "I find that the threat of a potential emergency is imminent" as a result of Spencer's appearance.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: On October 19, 2017, Spencer spoke at the Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts on university grounds. In addition to Spencer, the speakers included Eli Mosley of Identity Evropa, a white supremacist group from California, and Mike Enoch, a white nationalist blogger. The event's security costs reportedly amounted to an estimated $600,000. It drew about 2,500 protestors, vastly outnumbering Spencer's supporters.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: The speech, which was Spencer's first public appearance after the Charlottesville rally, was disrupted by loud protests. When drowned out by chants from the audience, he grew visibly frustrated, stating that the protestors were interfering with his freedom of speech. He added: "You are all engaged in what's known as the heckler's veto." According to Clay Calvert, director of the Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, non-violent protesting, booing and suggesting that the speaker leave was not a heckler's veto in law. The speech and the concurrent protests were largely peaceful.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: Later that day, three of Spencer's supporters were arrested on felony charges following an alleged discharge of a firearm, directed at protestors leaving the event. The three suspects were residents of Texas who had traveled to Florida to hear Spencer speak. According to the Gainesville Police Department, they had shouted "Hail Hitler" and gave Nazi salutes immediately before the alleged attack. Authorities said that two of the suspects had known links to extremist groups. The men had participated in the August 2017 Unite the Right rally, where Spencer had been scheduled to speak. All three were charged with attempted homicide.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: In the aftermath of the October 19 events, Ohio State University declined Spencer's request to allow him to speak on campus, citing "substantial risk to public safety". In response, a lawyer representing Spencer's associate and organizer of his speaking tour filed a lawsuit against the university.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: The National Policy Institute think tank, AlternativeRight.com, and Radix Journal all use the same mailing address in Whitefish, Montana.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: In 2013, a dispute with neoconservative lobbyist Randy Scheunemann at Whitefish Mountain Resort in Montana drew public attention to Spencer and his political views.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: In 2014, a pro-tolerance group affiliated with the Montana Human Rights Network rallied against Spencer's residency in Whitefish. In response, the city council approved a non-discrimination resolution.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: In December 2016, Republican Representative Ryan Zinke, Republican Senator Steve Daines, Democratic Senator Jon Tester, Democratic Governor Steve Bullock and Republican Attorney General Tim Fox condemned a neo-Nazi march that had been planned for January 2017. The community of Whitefish organized in opposition to the event, and the march never occurred. Also in December 2016, Spencer announced he was considering an independent run for Montana's at-large congressional district in the 2017 special election, although he ultimately did not enter the race.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: European governments and media have responded to his visits. During his speaking tour in Hungary in 2014, Spencer was mocked by the Hungarian newspaper for his call for "a white Imperium" through a revival of the Roman Empire, and for his claim to be a "racial European", ideas that the newspaper called contrived and without any basis in European history. In the aftermath of his visit, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán pressed through legislative measures which banned his entry and condemned Spencer. The government of Poland has also banned him from entering the country and condemned Spencer, citing his Nazi rhetoric, the anti-Polish and anti-Slavic racism of the Nazis, and the Nazis' genocide of Slavic peoples during World War II. In July 2018, Spencer was detained at Keflavík Airport in Reykjavík, Iceland en route to Sweden and was ordered by Polish officials to return to the United States; the successful effort of the Poles to ban Spencer from other parts of Europe arises from the Schengen Agreement.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: Spencer believes in white pride and the unification of a pan-European "white race" in a "potential racial empire" resembling the Roman Empire. In an interview with CNN, he was criticized for an apparent inconsistency or lack of clarity in his definition of white, with his interviewer saying that Spencer defined Syrians as white in the context of Steve Jobs's role in developing the iPhone, but described them as a non-white presence in Europe in the context of the Syrian refugee crisis.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: In 2013, the Anti-Defamation League called Spencer a "leader" in white supremacist circles, and said that after leaving "The American Conservative", he rejected conservatism, because he believed its adherents "can't or won't represent explicitly white interests".


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: While being interviewed by David Pakman, he was asked if he would condemn the Ku Klux Klan and Adolf Hitler, he refused by saying: "I'm not going to play this game", while stating that Hitler had "done things that I think are despicable", without elaborating on which things he was referring to.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: In a 2016 interview for "Time" magazine, Spencer said he rejected white supremacy and the slavery of nonwhites, preferring to establish America as a white ethnostate. He also advocates the creation of a white ethnostate in Europe that would be open to all "racial Europeans". Jason Wilson in "The Guardian" has argued that Spencer and other white nationalists are appropriating some elements of socialist rhetoric to critique a "notion of capitalism centered on stereotypes of Jews".


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: According to political scientist Tamir Bar-On, Spencer defends "racialist and anti-Semitic agendas" of the Old Right under a new metapolitical guise, acting as a cultural influencer rather than a direct political actor, and using various media outlets to "disseminate his views to ordinary people in an accessible manner".


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: Audio of Spencer speaking in Charlottesville in August 2017 was leaked by Milo Yiannopoulos in November 2019, in which Spencer reacted to the aftermath of the Unite the Right rally and the death of Heather Heyer, saying, "Little fucking kikes... get ruled by people like me. Little fucking octoroons... my ancestors fucking enslaved those little pieces of fucking shit... They look up and see a face like mine looking down at them. That's how the fucking world works. We are going to destroy this fucking town."


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Spencer has advocated for a white homeland for a "dispossessed white race", and called for "peaceful ethnic cleansing" to halt the "deconstruction" of what he describes as "white culture". To this end he has supported what he has called "the creation of a White ethnostate on the North American continent", an "ideal" that he has regarded as a "reconstitution of the Roman Empire". Spencer claims to be a "white Zionist" and praised Israel's , saying: "Jews are, once again, at the vanguard, rethinking politics and sovereignty for the future, showing a path forward for Europeans." His position was described as disingenuous as the alt-right does not usually support Zionism.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: Prior to the UK vote to leave the EU, Spencer expressed support for the multi-national bloc "as a potential racial empire" and an alternative to "American hegemony", stating that he has "always been highly skeptical of so-called 'Euro-Skeptics'".


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: Spencer has made frequent use of Nazi rhetoric and gestures in his public speeches. He called Donald Trump's 2016 presidential election "the victory of will", a phrase evoking the title of Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will" (1935), a Nazi-era propaganda film. Spencer urged his supporters to "party like it's 1933," the year Hitler came to power in Germany. In the weeks following, Spencer quoted Nazi propaganda and denounced Jews.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: At a conference Spencer held celebrating Trump's election, he mentioned the "mainstream media" in those terms: "or perhaps we should refer to them in the original German: "Lügenpresse"", meaning 'lying press' or 'press of lies', a term frequently used by Joseph Goebbels in Nazi propaganda. Spencer ended his speech with: "Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!", and a number of his supporters gave the Nazi salute and chanted in a similar fashion to the chant. Spencer also admires George Lincoln Rockwell, the founder of the American Nazi Party, for using "shock as a positive means to an end".


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: Spencer supported Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. Following Trump's appointment of Steve Bannon as chief White House strategist and senior counselor, Spencer said Bannon would be in "the best possible position" to influence policy.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: In November 2018, however, Spencer told his followers: "The Trump moment is over, and it's time for us to move on." The Southern Poverty Law Center reported that, around the same time, the white nationalist movement as a whole was dissatisfied with Trump's presidency.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: In a July 2019 interview on CNN, he called Trump's tweet about four congresswomen (telling them to "go back" to where they came from) "racist". He believed Trump was practicing a "con game" in not clearly developing a white nationalist agenda as Trump "gives us nothing outside of racist tweets, and by racist tweets, I mean tweets that are meaningless and cheap".


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: In 2020, following the assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, Spencer said that he regretted voting for Trump. In August of that year, Spencer said that he planned to vote for Joe Biden and the straight Democratic ticket in the November election. "The MAGA/Alt-Right moment is over. I made mistakes; Trump is an obvious disaster; but mainly the paradigm contained flaws that we now are able to perceive. And it needs to end," Spencer wrote. "So be patient. We'll have another day in the sun. We need to recover and return in a new form." The Biden campaign renounced his support.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: During the 2016 United States presidential election, Spencer tweeted that women should not be allowed to make foreign policy. He also stated in an interview with "The Washington Post" that his vision of America as a white ethnostate includes women returning to traditional roles as childbearers and homemakers. In October 2017, when asked his opinion on American women having the right to vote, he said: "I don't necessarily think that that's a great thing" after stating that he was "not terribly excited" about voting in general.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: Spencer opposes same-sex marriage, which he has described as "unnatural" and a "non-issue", commenting that "very few gay men will find the idea of monogamy to their liking".


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: Despite his opposition to same-sex marriage, Spencer barred people with anti-gay views from the National Policy Institute's annual conference in 2015.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: Spencer supports legal access to abortion, in part because he believes it would reduce the number of black and Hispanic people, which he says would be a "great boon" to white people. Spencer also supports a national single-payer health care system because he believes it would benefit white people.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: Spencer is an atheist, although he also believes that the Christian church previously held some pragmatic value, because Spencer believes that it helped unify the white population of Europe. He opposes traditional Christian values as a moral code, due to the fact that Christianity is a universalizing religion, rather than an ethnic religion. Spencer references his views on Christianity as being influenced by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Citing Nietzsche's criticism of anti-Semitism and nationalism, Scott Galupo writing for "The Week", Sean Illing for "Vox", and Jordan Harris for "The Courier-Journal" have described Spencer's interpretation of Nietzsche's philosophy as incorrect. Spencer's "Radix Journal" has promoted paganism, running titles such as "Why I am a pagan". Spencer has also described himself as a "cultural Christian".


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: Spencer states he voted for Democrat John Kerry over incumbent Republican George W. Bush during the 2004 United States presidential election, because Bush stood for "the war".


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: Spencer criticized President Trump's administration for escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran. In January 2020, Spencer tweeted: "To the people of Iran, there are millions of Americans who do not want war, who do not hate you, and who respect your nation and its history. After our traitorous elite is brought to justice, we hope to achieve peace, reconciliation, and forgiveness."


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: Spencer has advocated for the US pulling out of NATO, and called Russia the "sole white power in the world". His former partner, Nina Kouprianova, under her pen name Nina Byzantina referred to herself as a "Kremlin troll leader" and regularly aligned to Kremlin talking points, with ties to Aleksandr Dugin, a far-right ultranationalist Russian leader in the Eurasianism movement and writer of "Foundations of Geopolitics". The webzine founded by Spencer in 2010, called Alternative Right, accepted direct contributor pieces from Dugin. Kouprianova has translated several books written by Dugin. The books were later published by Spencer's publishing house, Washington Summit Publishers.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: In the late 2000s, Spencer was involved in the libertarian movement, supporting libertarian Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul and hosting him at his discussion club, the Robert Taft Club. Spencer later disavowed libertarianism as incompatible with white nationalism, and in 2017 he came into conflict with libertarians after reportedly attempting to "crash" an International Students for Liberty conference.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: According to political scientist Tamir Bar-On, "Spencer's key intellectual influences are largely those thinkers concerned with winning the 'cultural war' against egalitarianism, liberal democracy, capitalism, socialism, and multiculturalism," citing Nietzsche, the German Conservative Revolution (including Carl Schmitt, Ernst Jünger, and Martin Heidegger), French New Right theorists like Alain de Benoist and Guillaume Faye, along with other far-right figures such as Julius Evola, Francis Parker Yockey, Aleksandr Dugin, and "US right-wingers with a penchant for race-driven politics or anti-Semitism" like Sam Francis, Jared Taylor, and Kevin B. MacDonald.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: In June 2020, Norman K. Moon, the federal district judge presiding over "Sines v. Kessler", a civil rights lawsuit that stemmed from the violence at the Unite the Right rally in 2017, allowed Spencer's lawyer, John DiNucci, to withdraw from the case, on the grounds that Spencer owed DiNucci a significant amount in legal fees, and also was not cooperating with him in preparing the case; Spencer thereafter represented himself. At the time of DiNucci's withdrawal, Spencer also faced a $500 fine and two weeks in a county jail in Montana if he did not pay over $60,000 he owed to the "guardian ad litem" representing his children's interests in Spencer's ongoing divorce proceedings there. Ultimately, Spencer avoided going to jail after settling the debt.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: On November 23, 2021, the jury reached a mixed verdict in the case. Along with the other defendants, Spencer was found liable on two counts; civil conspiracy under Virginia state law, and race-based harassment or violence. The jury deadlocked on the remaining two charges of conspiracy to commit racially motivated violence, and whether defendants had knowledge of the conspiracy and failed to prevent it from taking place. Jurors awarded more than $25 million in total damages, with Spencer personally liable for $700,000 in punitive damages. Spencer stated he would appeal the judgement, saying the "entire theory of that verdict is fundamentally flawed." Roberta Kaplan meanwhile said that the plaintiffs' lawyers plan to refile so that a new jury can decide on the deadlocked claims.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: In 2010, Spencer moved to Whitefish, Montana. He says he splits his time between Whitefish and Arlington, Virginia, although he has said he has lived in Whitefish for over 10 years and considers it home. As of 2017, Spencer was renting an apartment in Alexandria, Virginia. He moved out in August 2018. Prior to his marriage, Spencer's dating history included Asian women, which he has said predates his white nationalism, though this evaluation is disputed.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: Spencer married Nina Kouprianova in 2010, with whom he has two children. He separated from Kouprianova, a Russian-Canadian with Georgian roots, in October 2016; in April 2017, Spencer said he and his wife were not separated and were still together.


title: Richard B. Spencer

text: In October 2018, Kouprianova accused him, in divorce documents, of multiple forms of abuse. Kouprianova provided hours of recordings and text messages to the press in order to substantiate her allegations. Court documents detailed emotional abuse, financial abuse, and violent physical abuse, including when Kouprianova was four months pregnant, and frequently in front of their children. According to media reports, the recordings and text messages show Spencer telling his wife that he will "fucking break [her] nose," encouraging her to commit suicide, and apologizing for previous incidents of physical abuse. A caregiver to the children testified in court about Spencer's abuses towards both her and Kouprianova. Spencer denied all allegations made against him, and was not charged with a crime.


title: Pterosaur

text: Pterosaurs (; from Greek "pteron" and "sauros", meaning "wing lizard") is an extinct clade of flying reptiles in the order, Pterosauria. They existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous (228 to 66 million years ago). Pterosaurs are the earliest vertebrates known to have evolved powered flight. Their wings were formed by a membrane of skin, muscle, and other tissues stretching from the ankles to a dramatically lengthened fourth finger.


title: Pterosaur

text: There were two major types of pterosaurs. Basal pterosaurs (also called 'non-pterodactyloid pterosaurs' or 'rhamphorhynchoids') were smaller animals with fully toothed jaws and, typically, long tails. Their wide wing membranes probably included and connected the hind legs. On the ground, they would have had an awkward sprawling posture, but the anatomy of their joints and strong claws would have made them effective climbers, and some may have even lived in trees. Basal pterosaurs were insectivores or predators of small vertebrates. Later pterosaurs (pterodactyloids) evolved many sizes, shapes, and lifestyles. Pterodactyloids had narrower wings with free hind limbs, highly reduced tails, and long necks with large heads. On the ground, pterodactyloids walked well on all four limbs with an upright posture, standing plantigrade on the hind feet and folding the wing finger upward to walk on the three-fingered "hand". They could take off from the ground, and fossil trackways show at least some species were able to run and wade or swim. Their jaws had horny beaks, and some groups lacked teeth. Some groups developed elaborate head crests with sexual dimorphism.


title: Pterosaur

text: Pterosaurs sported coats of hair-like filaments known as pycnofibers, which covered their bodies and parts of their wings. Pycnofibers grew in several forms, from simple filaments to branching down feathers. These may be homologous to the down feathers found on both avian and some non-avian dinosaurs, suggesting that early feathers evolved in the common ancestor of pterosaurs and dinosaurs, possibly as insulation. In life, pterosaurs would have had smooth or fluffy coats that did not resemble bird feathers. They were warm-blooded (endothermic), active animals. The respiratory system had efficient unidirectional "flow-through" breathing using air sacs, which hollowed out their bones to an extreme extent. Pterosaurs spanned a wide range of adult sizes, from the very small anurognathids to the largest known flying creatures, including "Quetzalcoatlus" and "Hatzegopteryx", which reached wingspans of at least nine metres. The combination of endothermy, a good oxygen supply and strong muscles made pterosaurs powerful and capable flyers.


title: Pterosaur

text: Pterosaurs are often referred to by popular media or the general public as "flying dinosaurs", but dinosaurs are defined as the descendants of the last common ancestor of the Saurischia and Ornithischia, which excludes the pterosaurs. Pterosaurs are nonetheless more closely related to birds and other dinosaurs than to crocodiles or any other living reptile, though they are not bird ancestors. Pterosaurs are also colloquially referred to as pterodactyls, particularly in fiction and journalism. However, technically, "pterodactyl" may refer to members of the genus "Pterodactylus", and more broadly to members of the suborder Pterodactyloidea of the pterosaurs.


title: Pterosaur

text: Pterosaurs had a variety of lifestyles. Traditionally seen as fish-eaters, the group is now understood to have also included hunters of land animals, insectivores, fruit eaters and even predators of other pterosaurs. They reproduced by eggs, some fossils of which have been discovered.


title: Pterosaur

text: The anatomy of pterosaurs was highly modified from their reptilian ancestors by the adaptation to flight. Pterosaur bones were hollow and air-filled, like those of birds. This provided a higher muscle attachment surface for a given skeletal weight. The bone walls were often paper-thin. They had a large and keeled breastbone for flight muscles and an enlarged brain able to coordinate complex flying behaviour. Pterosaur skeletons often show considerable fusion. In the skull, the sutures between elements disappeared. In some later pterosaurs, the backbone over the shoulders fused into a structure known as a notarium, which served to stiffen the torso during flight, and provide a stable support for the shoulder blade. Likewise, the sacral vertebrae could form a single synsacrum while the pelvic bones fused also.


title: Pterosaur

text: Basal pterosaurs include the clades Dimorphodontidae ("Dimorphodon"), Campylognathididae ("Eudimorphodon", "Campyognathoides"), and Rhamphorhynchidae ("Rhamphorhynchus", "Scaphognathus").


title: Pterosaur

text: Pterodactyloids include the clades Ornithocheiroidea ("Istiodactylus", "Ornithocheirus", "Pteranodon"), Ctenochasmatoidea ("Ctenochasma", "Pterodactylus"), Dsungaripteroidea ("Germanodactylus", "Dsungaripterus"), and Azhdarchoidea ("Tapejara", "Tupuxuara", "Quetzalcoatlus").


title: Pterosaur

text: The two groups overlapped in time, but the earliest pterosaurs in the fossil record are basal pterosaurs, and the latest pterosaurs are pterodactyloids.


title: Pterosaur

text: The position of the clade Anurognathidae ("Anurognathus, Jeholopterus, Vesperopterylus") is debated. Anurognathids (frog-headed pterosaurs) were highly specialized. Small flyers with shortened jaws and a wide gape, some had large eyes suggesting nocturnal or crepuscular habits, mouth bristles, and feet adapted for clinging. Parallel adaptations are seen in birds and bats that prey on insects in flight.


title: Pterosaur

text: Pterosaurs had a wide range of sizes, though they were generally large. The smallest species had a wingspan no less than . The most sizeable forms represent the largest known animals ever to fly, with wingspans of up to .


title: Pterosaur

text: Standing, such giants could reach the height of a modern giraffe. Traditionally, it was assumed that pterosaurs were extremely light relative to their size. Later, it was understood that this would imply unrealistically low densities of their soft tissues. Some modern estimates therefore extrapolate a weight of up to for the largest species.


title: Pterosaur

text: Compared to the other vertebrate flying groups, the birds and bats, pterosaur skulls were typically quite large. Most pterosaur skulls had elongated jaws. Their skull bones tend to be fused in adult individuals. Early pterosaurs often had heterodont teeth, varying in build, and some still had teeth in the palate. In later groups the teeth mostly became conical. Front teeth were often longer, forming a "prey grab" in transversely expanded jaw tips, but size and position were very variable among species. With the derived Pterodactyloidea, the skulls became even more elongated, sometimes surpassing the combined neck and torso in length. This was caused by a stretching and fusion of the front snout bone, the premaxilla, with the upper jaw bone, the maxilla. Unlike most archosaurs, the nasal and antorbital openings of pterodactyloid pterosaurs merged into a single large opening, called the "nasoantorbital fenestra". This feature likely evolved to lighten the skull for flight. In contrast, the bones behind the eye socket contracted and rotated, strongly inclining the rear skull and bringing the jaw joint forward. The braincase was relatively large for reptiles.


title: Pterosaur

text: In some cases, fossilized keratinous beak tissue has been preserved, though in toothed forms, the beak is small and restricted to the jaw tips and does not involve the teeth. Some advanced beaked forms were toothless, such as the Pteranodontidae and Azhdarchidae, and had larger, more extensive, and more bird-like beaks. Some groups had specialised tooth forms. The Istiodactylidae had recurved teeth for eating meat. Ctenochasmatidae used combs of numerous needle-like teeth for filter feeding; "Pterodaustro" could have over a thousand bristle-like teeth. Dsungaripteridae covered their teeth with jawbone tissue for a crushing function. If teeth were present, they were placed in separate tooth sockets. Replacement teeth were generated behind, not below, the older teeth.