title: Price index

text: When applied to bundles of individual consumers, a Laspeyres index of 1 would state that an agent in the current period can afford to buy the same bundle as she consumed in the previous period, given that income has not changed; a Paasche index of 1 would state that an agent could have consumed the same bundle in the base period as she is consuming in the current period, given that income has not changed.


title: Price index

text: Hence, one may think of the Paasche index as one where the numeraire is the bundle of goods using current year prices and current year quantities. Similarly, the Laspeyres index can be thought of as a price index taking the bundle of goods using current prices and base period quantities as the numeraire.


title: Price index

text: The Laspeyres index tends to overstate inflation (in a cost of living framework), while the Paasche index tends to understate it, because the indices do not account for the fact that consumers typically react to price changes by changing the quantities that they buy. For example, if prices go up for good formula_6 then, "ceteris paribus", quantities demanded of that good should go down.


title: Price index

text: Many price indices are calculated with the Lowe index procedure. In a Lowe price index, the expenditure or quantity weights associated with each item are not drawn from each indexed period. Usually they are inherited from an earlier period, which is sometimes called the expenditure base period. Generally the expenditure weights are updated occasionally, but the prices are updated in every period. Prices are drawn from the time period the index is supposed to summarize." Lowe indexes are named for economist Joseph Lowe. Most CPIs and employment cost indices from Statistics Canada, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and many other national statistics offices are Lowe indices. Lowe indexes are sometimes called a "modified Laspeyres index", where the principal modification is to draw quantity weights less frequently than every period. For a consumer price index, the weights on various kinds of expenditure are generally computed from surveys of households asking about their budgets, and such surveys are less frequent than price data collection is. Another phrasings is that Laspeyres and Paasche indexes are special cases of Lowe indexes in which all price and quantity data are updated every period.


title: Price index

text: Comparisons of output between countries often use Lowe quantity indexes. The Geary-Khamis method used in the World Bank's International Comparison Program is of this type. Here the quantity data are updated each period from each of multiple countries, whereas the prices incorporated are kept the same for some period of time, e.g. the "average prices for the group of countries".


title: Price index

text: The Marshall–Edgeworth index (named for economists Alfred Marshall and Francis Ysidro Edgeworth), tries to overcome the problems of over- and understatement by the Laspeyres and Paasche indexes by using the arithmetic means of the quantities:


title: Price index

text: The Fisher index, named for economist Irving Fisher), also known as the Fisher ideal index, is calculated as the geometric mean of formula_31 and formula_32:


title: Price index

text: All these indices provide some overall measurement of relative prices between time periods or locations.


title: Price index

text: Price indices are represented as index numbers, number values that indicate relative change but not absolute values (i.e. one price index value can be compared to another or a base, but the number alone has no meaning). Price indices generally select a base year and make that index value equal to 100. Every other year is expressed as a percentage of that base year. In this example, let 2000 be the base year:


title: Price index

text: When an index has been normalized in this manner, the meaning of the number 112, for instance, is that the total cost for the basket of goods is 4% more in 2001 than in the base year (in this case, year 2000), 8% more in 2002, and 12% more in 2003.


title: Price index

text: As can be seen from the definitions above, if one already has price and quantity data (or, alternatively, price and expenditure data) for the base period, then calculating the Laspeyres index for a new period requires only new price data. In contrast, calculating many other indices (e.g., the Paasche index) for a new period requires both new price data and new quantity data (or alternatively, both new price data and new expenditure data) for each new period. Collecting only new price data is often easier than collecting both new price data and new quantity data, so calculating the Laspeyres index for a new period tends to require less time and effort than calculating these other indices for a new period.


title: Price index

text: In practice, price indices regularly compiled and released by national statistical agencies are of the Laspeyres type, due to the above-mentioned difficulties in obtaining current-period quantity or expenditure data.


title: Price index

text: Sometimes, especially for aggregate data, expenditure data are more readily available than quantity data. For these cases, the indices can be formulated in terms of relative prices and base year expenditures, rather than quantities.


title: Price index

text: The above price indices were calculated relative to a fixed base period. An alternative is to take the base period for each time period to be the immediately preceding time period. This can be done with any of the above indices. Here is an example with the Laspeyres index, where formula_12 is the period for which we wish to calculate the index and formula_11 is a reference period that anchors the value of the series:


title: Price index

text: answers the question "by what factor have prices increased between period formula_42 and period formula_12". These are multiplied together to answer the question "by what factor have prices increased since period formula_11". The index is then the result of these multiplications, and gives the price relative to period formula_11 prices.


title: Price index

text: Price index formulas can be evaluated based on their relation to economic concepts (like cost of living) or on their mathematical properties. Several different tests of such properties have been proposed in index number theory literature. W.E. Diewert summarized past research in a list of nine such tests for a price index formula_46, where formula_47 and formula_48 are vectors giving prices for a base period and a reference period while formula_49 and formula_50 give quantities for these periods.


title: Price index

text: Price indices often capture changes in price and quantities for goods and services, but they often fail to account for variation in the quality of goods and services. This could be overcome if the principal method for relating price and quality, namely hedonic regression, could be reversed. Then quality change could be calculated from price. Instead, statistical agencies generally use "matched-model" price indices, where one model of a particular good is priced at the same store at regular time intervals. The matched-model method becomes problematic when statistical agencies try to use this method on goods and services with rapid turnover in quality features. For instance, computers rapidly improve and a specific model may quickly become obsolete. Statisticians constructing matched-model price indices must decide how to compare the price of the obsolete item originally used in the index with the new and improved item that replaces it. Statistical agencies use several different methods to make such price comparisons.


title: Price index

text: The problem discussed above can be represented as attempting to bridge the gap between the price for the old item at time t, formula_68, with the price of the new item at the later time period, formula_69.


title: Christina Cox

text: Christina Cox was born in a town on the outskirts of Toronto, the youngest of three daughters. She is Canadian of Caribbean (Jamaican) descent. She has two older sisters, named Tracey and Melissa. Her father is an automotive executive.


title: Christina Cox

text: Cox studied theatre and dance at the Arts York program at Unionville High School, and continued her theatre training at the Ryerson Theatre School of Toronto, where she studied for two years.


title: Christina Cox

text: Cox actively competed in gymnastics, track and field, and taekwondo while in school. She is also proficient in boxing, muay Thai kickboxing, and fencing, and has had training in stage combat, period weaponry, and firearms. During high school, she had aspirations of becoming an Olympic gymnast, but instead chose to focus on drama and theater.


title: Christina Cox

text: Cox has more than 38 movie and television appearances to her credit. Her best-known movie credits include the 1999 Canadian movie "Better Than Chocolate", and the movie "The Chronicles of Riddick". She received a Gemini Award nomination for her performance as Angela Ramírez in "". Cox was an original member of the UPN sitcom "Girlfriends", cast as Lynn, for the pilot episode.


title: Christina Cox

text: Cox has appeared in numerous national theater productions, including Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night", and Jim Cartwright's "Road".


title: Christina Cox

text: She is also a trained stuntwoman. She performed boxing stunt work for Hilary Swank in "Million Dollar Baby".


title: Christina Cox

text: Cox's first role as a main character in a television series was that of Vicki Nelson in "Blood Ties", a supernatural detective series based on the novels by Tanya Huff. Tanya Huff later said, "Back when Christina Cox was doing "", I used to point at the screen and announce, 'When she's a little older, she'd be brilliant as Vicki!"


title: Christina Cox

text: She starred as astronaut-biologist Jen Crane in ABC's 2009 summer show "Defying Gravity". Cox also appeared in a Season Four episode of Showtime's series "Dexter", playing villainous police officer Zoey Kruger. She was in the cast of the 2011 ABC summer drama "Combat Hospital" (aka "The Hot Zone"), alongside Elias Koteas and Deborah Kara Unger.


title: Christina Cox

text: Cox is married to Grant Mattos, a former NFL wide receiver for the San Diego Chargers. They eloped on October 1, 2010, soon after his return from competing on "". They have a daughter, Flynn, who was born in December 2013.


title: The Hands Resist Him

text: The Hands Resist Him is a painting that was created by artist Bill Stoneham in 1972. It depicts a young boy and a female doll standing in front of a glass paneled door, against which many hands are pressed. According to Stoneham, the boy is based on a photograph of himself at age five. The doorway is a representation of the dividing line between the waking world and the world of fantasy and impossibilities, while the doll is a guide that will escort the boy through it. The titular hands represent alternate lives or possibilities. The painting became the subject of an urban legend and a viral internet meme in February 2000 when it was posted for sale on eBay along with a description implying that it was haunted.


title: The Hands Resist Him

text: The painting was first displayed at the Feingarten Gallery in Beverly Hills, California, during the early 1970s. A one-man Stoneham show at the gallery, which included the piece, was reviewed by the art critic at the "Los Angeles Times". During the show, the painting was purchased by actor John Marley, notable for his role as Jack Woltz in "The Godfather". Sometime after Marley's death, the painting was found at the site of an old brewery by an elderly Californian couple (as stated in their original eBay listing).


title: The Hands Resist Him

text: The painting appeared on the auction website eBay in February 2000. According to the seller, the aforementioned couple, the painting carried some form of curse. Their eBay description made a series of claims that the painting was cursed or haunted. Included in those claims were that the characters in the painting moved during the night, and that they would sometimes leave the painting and enter the room in which it was being displayed. Also included with the listing were a series of photographs that were said to be evidence of an incident in which the female doll character threatened the male character with a gun that she was holding, causing him to attempt to leave the painting. A disclaimer was included with the listing absolving the seller from all liability if the painting was purchased.


title: The Hands Resist Him

text: News of the listing was quickly spread by internet users who forwarded the link to their friends or wrote their own pages about it. Some people claimed that simply viewing the photos of the painting made them feel ill or have unpleasant experiences. Eventually, the auction page was viewed over 30,000 times.


title: The Hands Resist Him

text: After an initial bid of $199, the painting eventually received 30 bids and sold for $1,025.00. The buyer, Perception Gallery in Grand Rapids, Michigan, eventually contacted Bill Stoneham and related the unusual story of its auction on eBay and their acquisition of it. He reported being quite surprised by all the stories and strange interpretations of the images in the painting. According to the artist, the object presumed by the eBay sellers to be a gun is actually nothing more than a dry cell battery and a tangle of wires.


title: The Hands Resist Him

text: Stoneham recalls that both the owner of the gallery in which the painting was first displayed, and the art critic who reviewed it, died within one year of coming into contact with the painting.


title: The Hands Resist Him

text: An individual who saw the story about the original painting contacted Stoneham in 2004 about commissioning a sequel. Stoneham accepted and painted "Resistance at the Threshold". The sequel depicts the same characters 40+ years later in the same style as the original. A second sequel commission, "Threshold of Revelation", was completed in 2012 and can be seen on Stoneham's website. Several years later, a third commission was requested, this time for a prequel. Stoneham created "The Hands Invent Him", depicting the artist as a boy who is behind the original painting's door and who holds a paint brush amongst other visual elements. On March 15, 2017, the Haunted Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada, announced it had acquired the prequel painting. All three commissioned paintings can be seen on Stoneham's website page "The Hands Resist Him".


title: The Hands Resist Him

text: In 2021, Stoneham created what he says is the final painting of the series: "What Remains" depicts the original painting's setting as deteriorated and scattered with the detritus of earlier lives and stories.


title: Bradley Dack

text: Bradley Paul Dack (born 31 December 1993) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Blackburn Rovers.


title: Bradley Dack

text: His first academy side was Charlton Athletic, where he spent three years before being released at the age of 14. Following his release he returned to play youth football with Corinthian in the Kent Youth League.


title: Bradley Dack

text: Dack then joined Gillingham in 2008 and started a three-year scholarship in 2010 with Gillingham, signing his first professional contract in May 2012. He enjoyed a prolific pre-season in 2012 including a four-goal haul against Royal Engineers, which attracted attention from Gillingham manager Martin Allen, leading to his professional debut on 14 August 2012, in a 2–1 victory over Bristol City in the Football League Cup.


title: Bradley Dack

text: He made his league debut against Bradford City on 18 August 2012, being narrowly denied a late goal by the upright. He scored his first senior goal on 4 September 2012 in the Football League Trophy away to Crawley Town and signed a new three-year contract the following day.


title: Bradley Dack

text: Dack received his first red card as a professional for violent conduct against Southend United on 18 September 2012, having come on as substitute, after first winning a penalty.


title: Bradley Dack

text: On 3 January 2013, Dack moved on a one-month loan to Football Conference side Braintree Town. He was named as Gillingham's Young Player of the Season at the end of the 2012–13 season, having made 20 appearances for the club in all competitions, scoring 2 goals.


title: Bradley Dack

text: On 16 April 2014, Dack signed a new four-year deal keeping him contracted at Gillingham until June 2018.


title: Bradley Dack

text: He was named Gillingham's Young Player of the Year, Sponsor's Player of the Year and Players' Player of the Year at the conclusion of the 2014–15 season, having scored 10 goals in 50 appearances in all competitions.


title: Bradley Dack

text: In the 2015–16 season Dack was Gillingham's top goalscorer, with 15 goals in 44 appearances in all competitions and 11 assists in the league. In the January 2016 transfer window he was reportedly the subject of three bids, including one of £2 million, from Championship side Bristol City, but all three were rejected by the club.


title: Bradley Dack

text: At the 2015–16 Football League Awards Dack won the League One Player of the Season award and was named in the Football League Team of the Season. The same season he was also named as Gillingham's Player of the Year, Young Player of the Year, Players' Player of the Year and Sponsor's Player of the Year.


title: Bradley Dack

text: In the 2016–17 season he was named as Gillingham's Young Player of the Season for the third year running. He finished the season with 6 goals in 39 appearances.


title: Bradley Dack

text: On 27 June 2017, Dack joined Blackburn Rovers on a three-year-deal for a fee of £750,000 plus add-ons. He played his first competitive game for the club in their 2–1 defeat by Southend United at Roots Hall on 5 August. Dack scored his first goal for Blackburn on 23 September, scoring an 85th-minute equaliser against Shrewsbury Town to secure a 1–1 draw away from home. Achieving promotion to the Championship in his first season with Blackburn, Dack finished as the club's top scorer, finding the back of the net on 18 occasions in 42 league appearances. His performances saw him win the club's Goal of the Season and Player of the Year award, whilst he was also named as the EFL League One Player of the Season.


title: Bradley Dack

text: With Blackburn achieving promotion back to the Championship, Dack found himself playing football in the second tier of English football for the first time in his career. Despite the step up in level, Dack continued to display his talent, finishing as the club's top scorer for the second season in a row, with 18 goals in all competitions, 15 of which came in the Championship.


title: Bradley Dack

text: On 23 December 2019, Dack, in Blackburn's Championship fixture at home against Wigan Athletic, was substituted off in the 68th after an innocuous challenge from Sam Morsy led to Dack going down clutching his right knee. Days later, the club confirmed that, following a scan, Dack had suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury. Following the news, manager Tony Mowbray commented, "[he] will miss the rest of the season as well as maybe a month or two of next season."


title: Bradley Dack

text: On 3 November 2020, Dack returned to training for the first time in nearly a year, linking up with Billy Barr and his Blackburn Rovers U23s squad. Three weeks later, on 17 November, Dack returned to the pitch for the first time, playing 45-minutes in Blackburn's 2–2 friendly draw with Sheffield United. On 23 December, Blackburn announced that Dack had signed a new two-and-a-half-year deal that would run until the summer of 2023, with the club having the option to take up an additional year. Following the news, Dack made his official return for Blackburn days later on 26 December, coming on as a substitute for Lewis Holtby in the 62nd minute of the 1–1 draw with Sheffield Wednesday.


title: Bradley Dack

text: On 12 March 2021, in Blackburn's Championship game against promotion-chasing Brentford, Dack went down injured in stoppage time after a clash with Brentford goalkeeper David Raya, with the club suspecting a further cruciate knee ligament injury - this time being occurring in Dack's left knee. Days later, Blackburn confirmed that Dack had suffered the same fate of his previous injury, with Dack undergoing surgery on his left knee to repair the damage. He returned to training five months later on 27 August, with Dack returning to action for Blackburn's U23s side in January 2022, playing 45 minutes of a 4–0 win over Leeds United.


title: Bradley Dack

text: On 9 March, Blackburn manager Tony Mowbray said that Dack was likely to feature in the club's Championship match day for their game against Bristol City at Ewood Park.


title: Bradley Dack

text: Dack made his return to competitive football on 12 March 2022, a year to the day since his last game for Blackburn. Coming on as a 70th-minute substitute against fellow Championship side Bristol City, Dack was called upon to take the penalty awarded to Rovers after Jan Paul van Hecke was brought down by City's youngster Han-Noah Massengo. The penalty was saved, however, by Daniel Bentley.


title: Bradley Dack

text: Days later, on 15 March, Dack played a full 45 minutes for Blackburn after coming on as a half-time substitute in replacement of Bradley Johnson. Rovers were down 1–0 to 23rd placed Derby County at the half-time whistle, forcing changes to be made in an attempt to rescue much needed points. Dack helped turn the fortunes of his side around, being involved in the build-up of all three of the club's goals, whilst directly assisting Tyrhys Dolan's 59th-minute header.


title: Bradley Dack

text: An attacking midfielder, Dack has described himself as adopting a "free role behind the two strikers in the final third to go and pick up the ball, get into good positions and create and score goals".


title: Bradley Dack

text: Dack's manager at Gillingham between 2015 and 2017, Justin Edinburgh, has described him as "the catalyst of [our] team...full of energy, he is tenacious, he has quality and he is a top player – definitely Championship quality", adding that he "probably covers more ground than any other player".


title: Bradley Dack

text: Interviewed by Sky Sports in February 2016, Dack suggested that the model for his own style of play was former Chelsea and England international Frank Lampard. He also revealed that before committing to football he had undertaken trials to play cricket for Kent.


title: Bradley Dack

text: In 2019, Dack became engaged to former "Love Island" contestant Olivia Attwood. The duo had to delay their wedding for a second time in 2022 following Dack's second cruciate knee ligament injury.


title: Titanosauria

text: Titanosaurs (or titanosaurians; members of the group Titanosauria) were a diverse group of sauropod dinosaurs, including genera from all seven continents. The titanosaurs were the last surviving group of long-necked sauropods, with taxa still thriving at the time of the extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous. This group includes some of the largest land animals known to have ever existed, such as "Patagotitan"—estimated at long with a weight of —and the comparably-sized "Argentinosaurus" and "Puertasaurus" from the same region.


title: Titanosauria

text: The group's name alludes to the mythological Titans of ancient Greek mythology, via the type genus (now considered a "nomen dubium)" "Titanosaurus". Together with the brachiosaurids and relatives, titanosaurs make up the larger sauropod clade Titanosauriformes. Titanosaurs have long been a poorly-known group, and the relationships between titanosaur species are still not well-understood.


title: Titanosauria

text: Titanosauria have the largest range of body size of any sauropod clade, and includes both the largest known sauropods and some of the smallest. One of the largest titanosaurs, "Patagotitan", had a body mass estimated to be , whereas one of the smallest, "Magyarosaurus", had a body mass of approximately . Even relatively closely related titanosaurs could have very different body sizes, as the small rinconsaurs were closely related to the gigantic lognkosaurs. Fossils from perhaps the largest dinosaur ever found were discovered in 2021 in the Neuquén Province of northwest Patagonia, Argentina. It is believed that they are from a titanosaur. Some of smallest titanosaurs, such as "Magyarosaurus", inhabited Europe, which was largely made up of islands during the Cretaceous, and were likely island dwarfs. Another taxon of tiny titanosaurs, "Ibirania", lived a non-insular context in Upper Creaceous Brazil, and is an example of nanism resultant from other ecological pressures.


title: Titanosauria

text: The heads of titanosaurs are poorly known. However, several different cranial morphologies are apparent. In some species, such as "Sarmientosaurus", the head resembled that of brachiosaurids. In others, such as "Rapetosaurus" and "Nemegtosaurus", the head resembled that of diplodocids. In some titanosaurs, the skull was especially diplodocid-like due to square-shaped jaws; the titanosaur "Antarctosaurus" is especially similar to the rebbachisaurid "Nigersaurus". Titanosaurs had small heads, even when compared with other sauropods. The head was also wide, similar to the heads of "Camarasaurus" and "Brachiosaurus," though somewhat more elongated. Titanosaurian nostrils were large ("macronarian") and all had crests formed by the nasal bones. Their teeth were either somewhat spatulate (spoon-like) or like pegs or pencils, but were always very small.


title: Titanosauria

text: Titanosaur necks were of average length for sauropods, and their tails were whip-like though not as long as in the diplodocids. While the pelvis was slimmer than some sauropods, the pectoral (chest) area was much wider, giving them a uniquely "wide-legged" stance. As a result, the fossilized trackways of titanosaurs are distinctly broader than other sauropods. Their forelimbs were also stocky, and often longer than their hind limbs. Unlike other sauropods, some titanosaurs had no digits, walking only on horseshoe-shaped "stumps" made up of the columnar metacarpal bones. Their vertebrae (back bones) were solid (not hollowed-out), which may be a reversal to more basal saurischian characteristics. Their spinal column was relatively flexible, likely making them more agile than other sauropods and more able to rear onto their hind legs. One of the most characteristic features shared by most titanosaurs were their procoelous caudal vertebrae, with ball-and-socket articulations between the vertebral centra.


title: Titanosauria

text: The dorsal vertebrae of titanosaurs show multiple derived features among sauropods. Similarly to the Rebbachisauridae, titanosaurs lost the , a set of surfaces between vertebrae that prevent additional rotation of the bones. "Andesaurus", one of the most basal titanosaurs, shows a normal hyposphene. The same area is reduced in "Argentinosaurus" to only two ridges, and is fully absent in taxa like "Opisthocoelicaudia" and "Saltasaurus". Both "Argentinosaurus" and "Epachthosaurus" bear similar intermediate "hyposphenal ridges", which suggests they represent a more primitive form of dorsal vertebrae.


title: Titanosauria

text: Sauropod hands already are highly derived from other dinosaurs, being reduced into columnar metacarpals and blocky phalanges with fewer claws. However, titanosaurs evolved the manus even further, completely losing the phalanges and heavily modifying the metacarpals. "Argyrosaurus" is the only titanosaur known to possess carpals. Other taxa like "Epachthosaurus" show a reduction of phalanges to one or two bones. "Opisthoeoclicaudia" shows even more reduction of the hand than other titanosaurs, with both carpals and phalanges completely absent. However, "Diamantinasaurus", while lacking carpals, preserves a manual formula of , including a thumb claw and phalanges on all other digits. This, coupled with the preservation of a single phalanx on digit IV of "Epachthosaurus" and potentially "Opisthocoelicaudia" (further study is necessary), show that preservation biases may be responsible for the lack of hand phalanges in these taxa. This suggests that "Alamosaurus", "Neuquensaurus", "Saltasaurus" and "Rapetosaurus -" all known from imperfect or disarticulated remains previously associated with a lack of phalanges - may have had phalanges but lost them after death.


title: Titanosauria

text: Titanosaurs have a poor fossil record of their pedes (feet), only being complete in five definitive titanosaurs. Among these, "Notocolossus" is the largest, and also has the most specialized pes: like all titanosaurs, its pes is composed of short, thick metatarsals of approximately the same lengths; however, metatarsals I and V are notably more robust than in other taxa.


title: Titanosauria

text: From skin impressions found with fossils, it has been determined that the skin of many titanosaurs was armored with a small mosaic of small, bead-like scales surrounding larger scales. While most titanosaurs were very large animals, many were fairly average in size compared to other giant dinosaurs. Some island-dwelling dwarf titanosaurs, such as "Magyarosaurus", were probably the result of allopatric speciation and insular dwarfism.


title: Titanosauria

text: Some titanosaurs had osteoderms. Osteoderms were first confirmed in the genus "Saltasaurus" but are now known to have been present in a variety of titanosaurs within the clade Lithostrotia. The exact arrangement of osteoderms on the body of a titanosaur is not known, but some paleontologists consider it likely that the osteoderms were arranged in two parallel rows on the animal's back, an arrangement similar to the plates of stegosaurs. Several other arrangements have been proposed, such as a single row along the midline, and it is possible that different species had different arrangements. The osteoderms were certainly far more sparse than those of ankylosaurs, and did not completely cover the back in scutes. Because of their sparse arrangement, it was unlikely that they served a significant role in defense. However, they may have played an important role in nutrient storage for titanosaurs living in highly seasonal climates and for female titanosaurs laying eggs. Osteoderms were present on both large and small species, so they were not solely used by smaller species as protection against predators. New evidence published in 2021 suggests there were indeed some defensive purposes in titanosaur osteoderms; simulated bite marks from both baurusuchid crocodiles and abelisaurids on titanosaurid osteoderms suggest they could be useful for protecting the animals in addition to functioning in mineral storage.


title: Titanosauria

text: Titanosaurs are classified as sauropod dinosaurs. This highly diverse group forms the dominant clade of Cretaceous sauropods. Within Sauropoda, titanosaurs were once classified as close relatives of Diplodocidae due to their shared characteristic of narrow teeth, but this is now known to be the result of convergent evolution. Titanosaurs are now known to be most closely related to euhelopodids and brachiosaurids; together they form a clade named Titanosauriformes.


title: Titanosauria

text: For much of the 20th century, most known species of titanosaurs were classified in the family Titanosauridae, which is no longer in widespread use. Titanosauria was first proposed in 1993 as a taxon to encompass titanosaurids and their close relatives. It has been phylogenetically defined as the clade composed of the most recent common ancestor of "Saltasaurus" and "Andesaurus" and all of its descendants. The relationships of species within Titanosauria remain largely unresolved, and it is considered one of the most poorly-understood areas of dinosaur classification. One of the few areas of agreement is that the majority of titanosaurs except "Andesaurus" and some other basal species form a clade called Lithostrotia, which some researchers consider equivalent to the deprecated Titanosauridae. Lithostrotians include titanosaurs such as "Alamosaurus", "Isisaurus", "Malawisaurus", "Rapetosaurus", and "Saltasaurus".


title: Titanosauria

text: "Titanosaurus indicus" was first named by British paleontologist Richard Lydekker in 1877, as a new taxon of dinosaur based on two caudals and a femur collected on different occasions at the same location in India. While it was later given a position as a sauropod within Cetiosauridae by Lydekker in 1888, he named the new sauropod family Titanosauridae for the genus in 1893, which included only "Titanosaurus" and "Argyrosaurus", united by caudals, presacrals, a lack of pleurocoels and open chevrons. Following this, Austro-Hungarian paleontologist Franz Nopcsa reviewed reptile genera in 1928, and provided a short classification of Sauropoda, where he placed the Titanosaurinae (a reranking of Lydekker's Titanosauridae) in Morosauridae, and included the genera "Titanosaurus", "Hypselosaurus" and "Macrurosaurus" because they all had strongly procoelous caudals. German paleontologist Friedrich von Huene provided a significant revision of Titanosauridae the following year in 1929, where he reviewed the dinosaurs of Cretaceous Argentina, and named multiple new genera. Huene included multiple species of "Titanosaurus" from India, England, France, Romania, Madagascar and Argentina, "Hypselosaurus" and "Aepisaurus" from France, "Macrurosaurus" from England, "Alamosaurus" from United States, and "Argyrosaurus", "Antarctosaurus", and "Laplatasaurus" from Argentina. The material between them represented almost all regions of the skeleton, which showed they were derived sauropods Huene interpreted as closest to "Pleurocoelus" of the various non-titanosaurid genera.


title: Titanosauria

text: For his 1986 thesis, Argentinian paleontologist Jaime Powell described and classified many new genera of South American titanosaurs. Using the family Titanosauridae to include them all, he grouped the genera into Titanosaurinae, Saltasaurinae, Antarctosaurinae, Argyrosaurinae and Titanosauridae indet. Titanosaurinae included "Titanosaurus" and the new genus "Aeolosaurus", united by multiple features of the caudal vertebrae; the new clade Saltasaurinae was created to include "Saltasaurus" and the new genus "Neuquensaurus", united by very distinct dorsals, caudals, and ilia; the new clade Antarctosaurinae was created to include "Antarctosaurus", distinguished by large size, a different form of braincase, more elongate girdle bones, and more robust limb bones; and Argyrosaurinae was created for "Argyrosaurus", bearing a more robust forelimb and hand and more primitive dorsals. The new genus "Epachthosaurus" was named for a more basal titanosaurid classified as Titanosauridae indet. along with unnamed specimens, "Clasmodosaurus" and "Campylodoniscus".


title: Titanosauria

text: John Stanton McIntosh provided a synopsis of sauropod relationships in 1990, using Titanosauridae as the group to contain all taxa like previous authors. "Opisthocoelicaudia" was placed in Opisthocoelicaudiinae within Camarasauridae, following its original description and not later works, and "Nemegtosaurus" and "Quaesitosaurus" were placed within Dicraeosaurinae. Titanosauridae included many previously named genera, plus taxa like "Tornieria" and "Janenschia". "Saltasaurus" included the species previously known as "Titanosaurus australis" and "T. robustus", which were named "Neuquensaurus" by Powell in 1986. McIntosh provided a large diagnosis of the family: "dorsals with irregularly shaped pleurocoels and spines directed strongly backward; transverse processes directed dorsally as well as laterally, very robust in shoulder region; a second dorsosacral, its rib fused to ilium; caudals strongly procoelous with a prominent ball on distal end of centrum throughout tail; caudal arches on front half of centrum; sternal plates large; preacetabular process of ilium swept outward to become almost horizontal", but stressed that the relationships of titanosaurids to other sauropod groups couldn't be determined due to a lack of cranial material.


title: Titanosauria

text: A brief review of putative titanosaurids from Europe was authored by Jean Le Loeuff in 1993, and covered the supposed genera known so far. The Barremian (middle Early Cretaceous) species "Titanosaurus valdensis", named decades previous by Huene, was kept as the oldest of the titanosaurid and given the new genus name "Iuticosaurus". The French taxon "Aepisaurus" was removed from the family and placed in undetermined Sauropoda. "Macrurosaurus" was considered a chimaera of titanosaurid and non-titanosaurid material because of the presence of both procoelous and caudals. Huene's species "Titanosaurus lydekkeri" was left as a nomen dubium, but left within Titanosauridae. Maastrichtian fossils from France and Spain were removed from "Hypselosaurus" and "Titanosaurus", with "Hypselosaurus" being declared dubious like "T. lydekkeri". The variety of Romanian fossils named as "Magyarosaurus" by Huene were also moved into the same species again, "M. dacus" as originally named by Nopcsa.


title: Titanosauria

text: José Bonaparte and Rodolfo Coria in 1993 concluded that a new clade of derived sauropods was necessary because "Argentinosaurus", "Andesaurus" and "Epachthosaurus" were distinct from Titanosauridae as they possessed , but were still very closely related to the titanosaurids. The taxa that possessed the articulations were united within the new family Andesauridae, and the two families were grouped together within the new clade Titanosauria. The titanosaurs were diagnosed by possessing small centered within an anteroposteriorly elongate depression and the presence of two well defined depressions on the posterior face of the neural arch. The entire group was compared favourably with cetiosaurids like "Patagosaurus" and "Volkheimeria".


title: Titanosauria

text: Overlooking the naming of Titanosauria, Paul Upchurch in 1995 named the clade Titanosauroidea, to include "Opisthocoelicaudia" and the more derived Titanosauridae ("Malawisaurus", "Alamosaurus" and "Saltasaurus"). United by: caudals with anteriorly-shifted neural spines, extremely robust forearm bones, a prominent concavity on the ulna for articulation with the humerus, a laterally flared and flattened ilium, and a less robust pubis; Upchurch considered the clade sister taxon to Diplodocoidea, because of their shared dental anatomy, although he noted that peg-like teeth might have been independently evolved. This was followed up by Upchurch's 1998 study on sauropod phylogenetics, which additionally recovered "Phuwiangosaurus" and "Andesaurus" within Titanosauroidea and resolved "Opisthocoelicaudia" as the sister of "Saltasaurus" instead of the most basal titanosauroid. This result places Titanosauroidea in a group with "Camarasaurus" and "Brachiosaurus", although Nemegtosauridae ("Nemegtosaurus" and "Quaesitosaurus") was still classified as the basalmost family of diplodocoids. Upchurch chose to use Titanosauroidea as a replacement name for Titanosauria due to the recommended use of Linnean taxonomy and ranks.


title: Titanosauria

text: In 1997, Leonardo Salgado "et al." published a phylogenetic study on Titanosauriformes, including relationships within Titanosauria. They provided a definition for the clade of "including the most recent common ancestor of "Andesaurus delgadoi" and Titanosauridae and all of its descendants". Titanosauria resolved including the same two subclades as Bonaparte & Coria (1993), where Andesauridae was monotypic, only including the name genus, and Titanosauridae was all other titanosaurs. Titanosauria was additionally rediagnosed, with eye-shaped pleurocoels, forked infradiapophyseal , centro-parapophyseal laminae, procoelous anterior caudals, and a significantly longer pubis than ischium. Titanosauridae was less strongly defined because of the polytomy between "Malawisaurus" and "Epachthosaurus", so some diagnostic features couldn't be resolved. Saltasaurinae was defined as the most recent ancestor of "Neuquensaurus", "Saltasaurus" and its descendants, and diagnosed by short cervical , vertically compressed anterior caudals, and a posteriorly shifted anterior caudal neural spine.


title: Titanosauria

text: Contributing additional work to the systematics of titanosaurs, Spanish paleontologist José Sanz "et al." published an additional study in 1999, utilizing both the names Titanosauria and Titanosauroidea in displaying their results. Similar to Upchurch (1995), Sanz "et al." recovered "Opisthocoelicaudia" as a titanosauroid outside Titanosauria, while Titanosauria was redefined to include only the taxa classified by their study. Eutitanosauria was proposed as a name for the titanosaurs more derived than "Epachthosaurus", and noted the presence of osteoderms as a probable synapomorphy of this clade. "Aeolosaurus", "Alamosaurus", "Ampelosaurus" and "Magyarosaurus" were looked at using their character list, but were considered too incomplete to add to the final study.


title: Titanosauria

text: Argentinian paleontologist Jaime Powell published his 1986 thesis in 2003, with revisions to bring his old work up to date, including the addition of more phylogenetics and the recognition of Titanosauria as a clade name. Using the datamatrix of Sanz "et al." (1999) and modifying it to include additional taxa and some character changes, Powell found that titanosaurs formed mostly a single gradual radiation beginning with "Epachthosaurus" as the most basal titanosaur, and "Ampelosaurus" and "Isisaurus" as the most derived. Titanosauroidea (following Upchurch 1995), was distinguished by pre- and post-spinal laminae in anterior caudals, a laterally flared ilium, a lateral expansion of the upper femur, and strongly opisthocoelous posterior dorsals. Less inclusive, Titanosauria was diagnosed by horizontally facing dorsal , prominent procoelous anterior caudals, and a ridge on the sternal plates. Within Titanosauria, Eutitanosauria was characterized by the absence of a hyposphene-hypantrum, no femoral fourth trochanter, and osteoderms. A small clade of "Alamosaurus", "Lirainosaurus" and the "Peirópolis titanosaur" ("Trigonosaurus") was resolved, and diagnosed by only a rotation of the tibia so the proximal end is perpendicular to the distal end. More derived clades, while resolved, were only weakly supported, or characterized by reversions of diagnostic traits of larger groups (below and left).


title: Titanosauria

text: "Rapetosaurus" was described in 2001 by Kristina Curry-Rogers and Catherine Forster, who additionally provided a new phylogenetic analysis of Titanosauriformes (above and right). Titanosauria was strongly supported, distinguished by up to 20 characters depending on unknown traits in basal taxa. Similarly, Saltasaurinae was characterised by up to 16 traits, and the clade of "Rapetosaurus" and related taxa possessed four unique features. "Nemegtosaurus" and "Quaesitosaurus" were resolved within Titanosauria for the first time, after being placed in Diplodocoidea by multiple other analyses, because "Rapetosaurus" provided the first significant titanosaur cranial material with associated postcrania. All three genera were resolved in a clade together, although Curry-Rogers & Forster noted that it was possible the group was only resolved because no other titanosaurs had comparable cranial material. "Opisthocoelicaudia" was also nested deeply in Saltasaurinae, though a further investigation of titanosaur interrelationships was proposed.


title: Titanosauria

text: American paleontologist Jeff Wilson presented another revision of overall sauropod phylogeny in 2002, resolving strong support for most groups, and a similar result to Upchurch (1998) although with "Euhelopus" closest to titanosaurs instead of outside Neosauropoda. More internal clades were resolved for Titanosauria, with "Nemegtosaurus" and "Rapetosaurus" united within Nemegtosauridae, and Saltasauridae including two subfamilies, Opisthocoelicaudiinae and Saltasaurinae. Saltasauridae was defined as a node-stem triplet, where everything descended from the common ancestor of "Opisthocoelicaudia" and "Saltasaurus" was within Saltasauridae, and the subfamilies Saltasaurinae and Opisthocoelicaudiinae were for every taxon on one branch of the saltasaurid tree or the other.


title: Titanosauria

text: Wilson and Paul Upchurch followed this study up in 2003 with a significant revision of the type genus "Titanosaurus", and revisited all the material that had been assigned to the genus while reviewing titanosaur inter-relationships. Because they found "Titanosaurus" to be a dubious name, they proposed that Linnaean-named groups Titanosauridae and Titanosauroidea should be considered invalid as well. Wilson & Upchurch (2003) supported the definition of Salgado "et al." (1997) for Titanosauria, since it was oldest and most similar to the original content of the group when named by Bonaparte & Coria (1993). Lithostrotia (Upchurch "et al." 2004) was defined to be "Malawisaurus" and all more derived titanosaurs, and the clade Eutitanosauria (Sanz "et al." 1999) was considered a possible synonym of Saltasauridae. Wilson & Upchurch (2003) presented a reduced cladogram of Titanosauria, including only the most commonly-analyzed taxa from previous studies, resulting in a tree similar to that of Wilson (2002) but with "Rapetosaurus" and "Nemegtosaurus" excluded and "Epachthosaurus" included. "Alamosaurus" and "Opisthocoelicaudia" were united within Opisthocoelicaudiinae, "Neuquensaurus" and "Saltasaurus" formed Saltasaurinae, and "Isisaurus" placed as the next most derived titanosaurid.


title: Titanosauria

text: At the same time as Wilson & Upchurch redescribing the species of "Titanosaurus", Saldago (2003) looked over the potential invalidity of the family Titanosauridae and redefined the internal clades of Titanosauria. Titanosauria was defined as more inclusive than Titanosauroidea, contrasting with earlier used by Upchurch (1995) and Sanz "et al." (1999), as all taxa in Somphospondyli closer to "Saltasaurus" than "Euhelopus". In order to create additional stability, Saldago also defined Andesauroidea for only "Andesaurus", as every titanosaur closer to that genus than "Saltasaurus", and also it's opposite Titanosauroidea as every titanosaur closer to "Saltasaurus" than "Andesaurus". Next most inclusive, Salgado revitalised Titanosauridae to include everything descended from the ancestor of "Epachthosaurus" and "Saltasaurus", and to replace the node-stem triplet of Saltasauridae, defined the clades Epachthosaurinae and Eutitanosauria as "Epachthosaurus">"Saltasaurus" and "Saltasaurus"<"Epachthosaurus" respectively. Saltasaurinae and Opisthocoelicaudiinae were retained with their original definitions, but Lithostrotia was considered a synonym of Titanosauridae, and Titanosaurinae was considered a paraphyletic clade of unrelated titanosaurids.


title: Titanosauria

text: Following the clade definitions proposed in previous Salgado studies, Bernardo González-Riga published two papers in 2003 describing new taxa in Titanosauria: "Mendozasaurus", and "Rinconsaurus" (with Jorge O. Calvo). In both studies, the new taxa formed clades within Titanosauridae, although neither were named, and new diagnostic features were proposed for the family. For "Mendozasaurus", the new genus grouped with "Malawisaurus" as basal within Titanosauridae, but because of the features of caudal vertebrae in these basal taxa, González-Riga recommended revising the diagnosis of the family, instead of changing the content. The situation of caudals in "Rinconsaurus" also suggested procoelous caudals were no longer diagnostic, because in the tail of "Rinconsaurus" the vertebrae regularly changed their articular surfaces, being from procoelous caudals interspersed with amphicoelous, opisthocoelous and biconvex vertebrae. "Rinconsaurus" was then included in Aeolosaurini, a clade named the following year by Aldirene Franco-Rosas "et al." containing everything closer to "Aeolosaurus" and "Gondwanatitan" than "Saltasaurus" or "Opisthocoelicaudia". Only the three genera and various intermediate specimens were included in Aeolosaurini in their 2004 paper, with the tribe being considered to be within Saltasaurinae.


title: Titanosauria

text: The second edition of "The Dinosauria", published in 2004, included newly described titanosaurs and other taxa reidentified as titanosaurs. Written by Upchurch, Paul Barrett and Peter Dodson, a review of Sauropoda included a more expansive Titanosauria for sauropods more derived than brachiosaurids. Titanosauria, defined as everything closer to "Saltasaurus" than "Brachiosaurus", included a very large variety of taxa, and the new clade Lithostrotia was named for a large number of more derived taxa, although Nemegtosauridae was placed in Diplodocoidea following earlier publications of Upchurch. Lithostrotia adopted the distinguishing feature of strongly procoelous caudals, previously used for Titanosauria.


title: Titanosauria

text: In 2005, Curry-Rogers proposed a new phylogenetic analysis that focused on the inter-relationships of Titanosauria and included the most expansive character and taxon list of any study before it. 364 characters were selected from all previous phylogenetic analyses and scored across 29 probable titanosaurs, ranging from the Late Jurassic African "Janenschia" to the large variety of Late Cretaceous global genera. Proposing her analysis as the basis for a new phylogenetic framework of Titanosauria, Curry-Rogers recommended only using named for clades that were very strongly supported. For the strict consensus, every taxon more derived than "Brachiosaurus" was in an unresolved polytomy except for a clade of "Rapetosaurus" and "Nemegtosaurus", and one of Saltasaurinae. Within the recommended results, she only named Titanosauria, Lithostrotia, Saltasauridae, Saltasaurinae and Opisthocoelicaudiinae, because of the weakness of support (below and left).


title: Titanosauria

text: Another form of composite matrix was created by Calvo, González-Riga and Juan Porfiri in 2007, based upon multiple previous studies between 1997 and 2003. The final analysis included 15 titanosaurs and 65 characters, and the typical titanosaur subclades were resolved, Titanosauridae being used over Lithostrotia following Salgado (2003), and the new clade Rinconsauria for the clade of "Rinconsaurus" and "Muyelensaurus". The new clade (defined as "Rinconsaurus" and "Muyelensaurus") was placed as the sister taxon of Aeolosaurini, which together grouped with "Rapetosaurus" as sister to Saltasauridae. In the same year, Calvo "et al." published another paper, describing the basal titanosaur "Futalognkosaurus". The only difference in the resulting phylogeny, based on the matrix of the Calvo, González-Riga & Porfiri (2007), was the addition of "Futalognkosaurus" as the sister taxon to "Mendozasaurus" in a clade Calvo "et al." named Lognkosauria, defined by the two genera classified within it. A very similar result was also recovered by González-Riga "et al." in 2009 in a phylogenetic analysis based partially on that of Calvo "et al." (2007), although "Epachthosaurus" was nested with "Rapetosaurus" outside the clades of aeolosaurines. Further updates and modifications were then made by Palbo Gallina & Apesteguía in 2011, with the additions of "Ligabuesaurus", "Antarctosaurus", "Nemegtosaurus" and "Bonitasaura" and character updates to match, bringing the total to 77 characters and 22 taxa. Significantly contrasting the earlier results, internal relationships of Titanosauria were rearranged. "Malawisaurus" nested with "Andesaurus" in a clade of the basalmost titanosaurs outside Titanosauroidea, where "Lirainosaurus", instead of being the basal member of the saltasaur-branch was instead basalmost titanosauroid. Lognkosauria moved to be within rinconsaurs, while Nemegtosauridae was resolved as the sister of "Aeolosaurus" and "Gondwanatitan", and the rinconsaur-lognkosaur branch. "Antarctosaurus" was unstable, but placed in a polytomy with the lognkosaurs and rinconsaurs before being excluded. Saltasaurinae and its relationship with "Opisthocoelicaudia" remained the same.


title: Titanosauria

text: Nemegtosauridae was additionally revised by Hussam Zaher "et al." (2011) with the description of "Tapuiasaurus", which nested closer to "Rapetosaurus" than "Nemegtosaurus", with all three forming a clade of derived lithostrotians. Using the matrix of Wilson (2002), following the additions of a few cranial characters and "Diamantinasaurus", "Tangvayosaurus" and "Phuwiangosaurus", remained the same as originally found by Wilson but with "Diamantinasaurus" sister to Saltasauridae and the other two genera as basal titanosaurs outside Lithostrotia, since Titanosauria, while undefined, was labelled to include all taxa closer to "Saltasaurus" than "Euhelopus". Following a revision of the skull of "Tapuiasaurus", Wilson "et al." (2016) rescored the analysis of Zaher "et al." and recovered similar results for everything but Nemegtosauridae, where the family dissolved into a more basal "Tapuiasaurus" outside Lithostrota and "Nemegtosaurus" outside Saltasauridae. While non-titanosaur phylogeny remained identical in every single result, the topology within Titanosauria was very labile and prone to change with minor adjustments.


title: Titanosauria

text: Also following the 2002 analysis of Wilson, José Carballido and colleagues published a redescription of "Chubutisaurus" in 2011, and utilized an updated Wilson matrix, expanded to 289 characters across 41 taxa, including 15 titanosaurs. The primary focus of the analysis was on the basal titanosauriform taxa, but Titanosauria was defined, as the most recent common ancestor of "Andesaurus delgadoi" and "Saltasaurus loricatus", and all its descendants, although the only autapomorphy of the group recovered was the absence of a prominent ventral process on the scapula. This same matrix and basis of characters was further utilized and expanded for analyses on "Tehuelchesaurus", "Comahuesaurus" and related rebbachisaurs, "Europasaurus", and "Padillasaurus", before being expanded upon once again in 2017 by Carballido "et al." during the description of "Patagotitan" to 405 characters and 87 taxa, including 28 titanosaurs (above and right). The definition of Titanosauria was preserved following Salgado "et al." (1997) as "Andesaurus" plus "Saltasaurus". Eutitanosauria (closer to "Saltasaurus" than "Epachthosaurus") was resolved as a very inclusive clade composed of two distinct branches, one leading to the larger-bodied lognkosaurs and the other to the smaller-bodied saltasaurs. On the lognkosaur branch of Eutitanosauria, there is a branch of lognkosaurs and one of Rinconsauria. Following Calvo, González-Riga and Porfiri (2007), Rinconsauria was defined as "Muyelensaurus" plus "Rinconsaurus", and Lognkosauria was defined as "Mendozasaurus" plus "Futalognkosaurus". Rinconsauria included taxa typically found within Aeolosaurini as well, so Aeolosaurini was redefined as "Aeolosaurus rionegrinus" plus "Gondwanatitan" to preserve the original restricted content, otherwise the entire rinconsaur-lognkosaur branch would be classified within Aeolosaurini. Lithostrotia, Saltasauridae and Saltasaurinae had their definitions preserved from earlier studies, and included their typical content.


title: Titanosauria

text: Philip Mannion and colleagues redescribed "Lusotitan" in 2013, creating a new analysis of 279 characters drawn from significant previous analyses by Upchurch and Wilson supplemented by other studies. 63 sauropods were included, focusing on non-titanosaurian sauropods, although 14 probable titanosaurs were included. Unique to Mannion "et al.", continuous characters were distinguished in a run of the matrix, which resolved almost all of Somphospondyli within Titanosauria because of "Andesaurus" placing very basal in a large group of Andesauroidea. Titanosauroidea was tentatively retained as the opposite clade of titanosaurs, which included all other traditional titanosaurs, although it was noted because of the invalidity of "Titanosaurus", Titanosauroidea should be considered an invalid name as well. While the original analysis didn't focus on titanosaurs, it was utilised during the descriptions of "Savannasaurus" and "Diamantinasaurus", "Yongjinglong", an osteology of "Mendozasaurus", and redescribing "Tendaguria". From these updates, an analysis of 548 characters and 124 taxa was published by Mannion "et al." in 2019 for a redescription of "Jiangshanosaurus" and "Dongyangosaurus", and additional revisions of "Ruyangosaurus" were made. No differentiation between continuous and discrete characters was made like performed by Mannion "et al." (2013), but a large clade of Andesauroidea was still resolved with implied weights. Both redescribed Asian taxa, as well as "Yongjinglong", previously considered derived titanosaurs related to Saltasauridae, were removed to outside the clade.


title: Titanosauria

text: In the description of "Mansourasaurus", Sallam "et al." (2017) published a phylogenetic analysis of Titanosauria including the most taxa of any analysis of the clade. In an updated version of the analysis, with the taxon "Mnyamawamtuka" added, Gorscak & O'Connor (2019) got similar results, with slightly different relationships within small clades.


title: Titanosauria

text: Fossilized dung associated with late Cretaceous titanosaurids from India has revealed phytoliths, silicified plant fragments, that offer clues to a broad, unselective plant diet. Besides the plant remains that might have been expected, such as cycads and conifers, discoveries published in 2005 revealed an unexpectedly wide range of monocotyledons, including palms and grasses (Poaceae), including ancestors of rice and bamboo, which has given rise to speculation that herbivorous dinosaurs and grasses co-evolved.


title: Titanosauria

text: A large titanosaurid nesting ground was discovered in Auca Mahuevo, in Patagonia, Argentina and another colony has reportedly been discovered in Spain. Several hundred female saltasaurs dug holes with their back feet, laid eggs in clutches averaging around 25 eggs each, and buried the nests under dirt and vegetation. The small eggs, about in diameter, contained fossilised embryos, complete with skin impressions. The impressions showed that titanosaurs were covered in a mosaic armour of small bead-like scales. The huge number of individuals gives evidence of herd behavior, which, along with their armor, could have helped provide protection against large predators such as "Abelisaurus".


title: Titanosauria

text: The titanosaurs were the last great group of sauropods, which existed from about 136 to 66 million years ago, before the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, and were the dominant herbivores of their time. The fossil evidence suggests they replaced the other sauropods, like the diplodocids and the brachiosaurids, which died out between the late Jurassic and the mid-Cretaceous Periods.


title: Titanosauria

text: Titanosaurs were widespread. In December 2011, Argentine scientists announced titanosaur fossils had been found on Antarctica—meaning that titanosaur fossils have been found on all continents. They are especially numerous in the southern continents (then part of the supercontinent of Gondwana). Australia had titanosaurs around 96 million years ago: fossils have been discovered in Queensland of a creature around long. Remains have also been discovered in New Zealand. One of the largest ever titanosaur footprints was discovered in the Gobi desert in 2016. One of the oldest remains of this group was described by Ghilardi et al. (2016). It was found from the Valley of the Dinosaurs, Paraíba state of Brazil, representing a 136-million-year-old subadult individual.


title: Titanosauria

text: "Ibirania", a nanoid titanosaur fossil from Brazil suggests that individuals of various genera were susceptible to diseases such as osteomyelitis and parasite infestations. The specimen hails from the late cretaceous São José do Rio Preto Formation, Bauru Basin, and was described in the journal "Cretaceous Research" by Aureliano et al. (2021). Examination of the titanosaur's bones revealed what appear to be parasitic blood worms similar to the prehistoric "Paleoleishmania" but are 10-100 times larger, that seemed to have caused the osteomyelitis. The fossil is the first known instance of an aggressive case of osteomyelitis being caused by blood worms in an extinct animal.


title: Mfecane

text: The Mfecane (isiZulu, ]), also known by the Sesotho names Difaqane or Lifaqane (all meaning "crushing, scattering, forced dispersal, forced migration") is a historical period of heightened military conflict and migration associated with state formation and expansion in Southern Africa. The exact range of dates that comprise the Mfecane varies between sources. At its broadest the period lasted from the late eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century, but scholarship often focuses on an intensive period from the 1810s to the 1840s. The concept first emerged in the 1830s and blamed the disruption on the actions of Shaka Zulu, who was alleged to have waged near-genocidal wars that depopulated the land and sparked a chain reaction of violence as fleeing groups sought to conquer new lands. Since the later half of the 20th century this interpretation has fallen out of favor among scholars due to a lack of historical evidence.


title: Mfecane

text: Traditional estimates for the death toll range from 1 million to 2 million, however these numbers are controversial, and some recent scholarship revises the mortality figure significantly downward and attributes the root causes to complex political, economic, and environmental developments. The Mfecane is significant in that it saw the formation of novel states, institutions, and ethnic identities in Eastern Southern Africa. The Mfecane's historiography itself is also historically significant, with different versions having been employed to serve a range of political purposes since its inception as a historical concept.


title: Mfecane

text: Theories vary as to the causes of the catastrophic warfare and migration of many ethnic groups in the area. Populations had increased greatly in Zululand following the Portuguese introduction of maize from the Americas in the late 17th century, reaching the inland around 1750. While maize was more productive than the grains from native grasses, it required more water during cultivation. The agricultural surpluses and increased population enabled Shaka to field more impis. By the end of the 18th century, the Zulus occupied much of their arable land. Declining rainfall and a ten-year drought in the early 19th century set off a competition for land and water resources among the peoples of the area. Another possible cause is the increased trade of ivory with the Portuguese in the Delagoa Bay. This led to deepening inequality within African societies which led people being even more vulnerable in a region that was already being hit by multiple droughts.


title: Mfecane

text: There were three major ethnic groups, the Ngwane, the Ndwandwe and the Mthethwa that occupied the areas now known as Nquthu, Babanango, Empangeni, Mtubatuba, Hlabisa, Nongoma, Pongola, Vryheid, Melmoth and Mahlabathini. They were respectively led by kings Sobhuza of Ngwane, Zwide of Ndwandwe, and Dingiswayo of Mthethwa and were the most powerful ethnic groups. The language now known as Zulu was spoken by the Ndwandwes. At that time, the Zulus were a very weak ethnic group under the leadership of Senzangakhona. These three ethnic groups are to this day found in the same areas. The Zulus were a weak minority occupying a small piece of land in the area now known as Makhosini near Babanango. The Ikhoshlo side of the Buthelezi led by Mvulane became instrumental in the defeat of Phungashe by Shaka. Mvulane's son Ngqengelele became Shaka's induna and chief advisor. Ngqengele's son, Mbangambi led his section of the Buthelezis against Hhamu of Ngenetsheni.


title: Mfecane

text: Oral history says that after the death of Mvulane, the younger brother of Phungashe, Mvulane's sons Khoboyela and Ngqengelele escaped being killed by Phungashe over their father Mvulane's estate and went to live with Senzangakhona in the Zulu royal court. Most of the members of the Buthelezi ethnic group had left with Khoboyela and Ngqengelele. When Shaka attacked the Ngwane, Sobhuza's men were outnumbered by the combination of the Mthethwas, the Buthelezis under Ngqengelele and the Zulus. In summary, the causes of mfecane are; the need for land, population growth in Natal, Shaka's military and expansionist strategy.


title: Mfecane

text: In about 1817, Chief Dingiswayo of the Mthethwa group in the south near the Tugela River, entered into an alliance with the Tsongas, who controlled the trade routes to Delagoa Bay (now Maputo). This alliance encroached on the routes used by the Ndwandwe alliance, who occupied the region in the north, near the Pongola River. Battles between the allied forces of Chief Dingiswayo and of Chief Zwide, and the Ndwandwe probably mark the start of what became the Mfecane.


title: Mfecane

text: Zwide defeated the Mthethwa and executed Chief Dingiswayo. Dingiswayo was a mentor to King Shaka. He took him in together with his mother Queen Nandi and gave them refuge. Many of the Mthethwa leaders formed a confederation with the Zulu clan, under the leadership of Shaka. The Zulus conquered and assimilated smaller clans in the area. Zwide attacked King Shaka and was defeated at the Battle of Gqokli Hill, which marked the start of Shaka's conquest of the Ndwandwe. The Zulu practice was to absorb only the women and young men of a clan or village. They killed the elderly and men of fighting age; the lucky ones escaped. Having learned Zulu tactics, the escapees in turn descended upon more distant clans unfamiliar with the new order.


title: Mfecane

text: Around 1821, the Zulu general Mzilikazi of the Khumalo clan defied Zulu king Shaka, and set up his own kingdom. He quickly made many enemies: not only the Zulu king, but also the Boers, and the Griqua and Tswana. Defeats in several clashes convinced Mzilikazi to move north towards Swaziland. Going north and then inland westward along the watershed between the Vaal and the Limpopo rivers, Mzilikazi and his followers, the AmaNdebele, (called Matebele in English) established a Ndebele state northwest of the city of Pretoria.


title: Mfecane

text: During this period, the Matebele left a trail of destruction in their wake. From 1837 to 1838, the arrival of Boer settlers and the subsequent battles of Vegtkop and Mosega, drove the Matebele north of the Limpopo. They settled in the area now known as Matabeleland, in present-day southern Zimbabwe. Mzilikazi set up his new capital in Bulawayo. The AmaNdebele drove the AmaShona of the region northward and forced them to pay tribute. This caused resentment that has continued to the current day in modern Zimbabwe.


title: Mfecane

text: At the Battle of Mhlatuze River in 1818, the Ndwandwe were defeated by a Zulu force under the direct command of Shaka. Soshangane, one of Zwide's generals, fled to Mozambique with the remainder of the Ndwandwe. There, they established the Gaza kingdom. They oppressed the Tsonga people living there, some of whom fled over the Lebombo Mountains into the Northern Transvaal. In 1833, Soshangane invaded various Portuguese settlements, and was initially successful. But a combination of internal disputes and war against the Swazi caused the downfall of the Gaza kingdom.


title: Mfecane

text: The Ngwane people lived in present-day Eswatini (Swaziland), where they had settled in the southwest. They warred periodically with the Ndwandwe.


title: Mfecane

text: Zwangendaba, a commander of the Ndwandwe army, fled north with Soshangane after his defeat in 1819. Zwangendaba's followers were henceforth called Ngoni. Continuing north of the Zambezi River, they formed a state in the region between lakes Malawi and Tanganyika. Maseko, who led another part of the Ngoni people, founded another state to the east of Zwangendaba's kingdom.


title: Mfecane

text: To the east, refugee clans and tribes from the Mfecane fled to the lands of the Xhosa people. Some of them such as the amaNgwane were driven back by force and defeated. Those who were accepted were obliged to be tributary to the Xhosas and lived under their protection. They were assimilated into the Xhosa cultural way of life, becoming part of the Xhosa people. After years of oppression by the Xhosas, they later formed an alliance with the Cape Colony.


title: Mfecane

text: Southern Tswana populations had experienced an increase in conflict as early as the 1780s. There was significant population growth in the region which lead to more competition for resources. There was an increasing amount of trade with the Cape colony and the Portuguese; this had the consequence of separate chiefdoms becoming more eager to conquer land for themselves in order to control trade routes. Dutch settlers from the Cape Colony encroaching upon the Khoikhoi and San into regions where Tswana people live resulted in the formation of the Korana who started to launch raids on other communities by the 1780s. The fact that many of them had access to firearms and horses likely exacerbated the devastation caused by their raiders. Xhosa who were escaping the already violent region of the Eastern Cape often launched their own raids as well. All of these of events led to making the region progressively more unstable. Missionary interference, internal politics, and raids by Dutch settlers also impacted the region. By the start of the 19th century, the most powerful Tswana chiefdom, the Bahurutse, were increasingly being challenged by the Bangwaketse.


title: Mfecane

text: Moshoeshoe I gathered the mountain clans together in an alliance against the Zulus. Fortifying the easily defended hills and expanding his reach with cavalry raids, he fought against his enemies with some success, despite not adopting the Zulu tactics, as many clans had done. The territory of Moshoeshoe I became the kingdom of Lesotho.


title: Mfecane

text: The Tswana were pillaged by two large invading forces set on the move by the Mfecane. Sebitwane gathered the Kololo ethnic groups near modern Lesotho and wandered north across what is now Botswana, plundering and killing many of the Tswana people in the way. They also took large numbers of captives north with them, finally settling north of the Zambezi River in Barotseland, where they conquered the Lozi people. The next force was the Mzilikazi and the Matebele who moved across Tswana territory in 1837. Both of these invading forces continued to travel north across Tswana territory without establishing any sort of state. In addition to these major kingdoms, a number of smaller groups also moved north into Tswana territory, where they met with defeat and ultimately vanished from history. Among those involved in these invasions were European adventurers such as Nathaniel Isaacs (who was later accused of slave trading).


title: Mfecane

text: In 1988, Rhodes University professor Julian Cobbing advanced a different hypothesis on the rise of the Zulu state; he contended the accounts of the Mfecane were a self-serving, constructed product of apartheid-era politicians and historians. According to Cobbing, apartheid-era historians had mischaracterised the Mfecane as a period of internally induced Black-on-Black destruction. Instead, Cobbing argued that the roots of the conflicts laid in the labour needs of Portuguese slave traders operating out of Delagoa Bay, Mozambique and European settlers in the Cape Colony. The resulting pressures led to forced displacement, famine, and war in the interior, allowing waves of Afrikaner settlers to colonize large swaths of the region. Cobbing's views were echoed by historian Dan Wylie, who argued that colonial-era white writers such as Isaacs had exaggerated the brutality of the Mfecane to justify European colonialism.


title: Mfecane

text: Cobbing's hypothesis generated an immense volume of polemics among historians; the discussions were termed the "Cobbing Controversy". While historians had already embarked upon new approaches to the study of the Mfecane in the 1970s and 1980s, Cobbing's paper was the first major source that overtly defied the hegemonic "Zulu-centric" explanation at the time. This was followed by fierce discourse in the early 1990s prompted by Cobbing's hypothesis. Many agree that Cobbing's analysis offered several key breakthroughs and insights into the nature of early Zulu society. The historian Elizabeth Eldredge challenged Cobbing's thesis on the grounds that there is scant evidence of the resumption of the Portuguese slave trade out of Delagoa Bay before 1823, a finding that undermines Cobbing's thesis that Shaka's early military activities were a response to slave raids. Moreover, Eldredge argues that the Griqua and other groups (rather than European missionaries as asserted by Cobbing) were primarily responsible for the slave raids coming from the Cape. Eldredge also asserts that Cobbing downplays the importance of the ivory trade in Delagoa Bay, and the extent to which African groups and leaders sought to establish more centralised and complex state formations to control ivory routes and the wealth associated with the trade. She suggests these pressures created internal movements, as well as reactions against European activity, that drove the state formations and concomitant violence and displacement. She still agreed with Cobbing's overall sentiment in that the Zulu-centric explanation for the Mfecane is not reliable. By the early 2000s, a new historical consensus had emerged, recognizing the Mfecane to be not simply a series of events resulting from the founding of the Zulu Kingdom but rather a multitude of factors caused before and after Shaka Zulu came into power.


title: Harry Connick Sr.

text: Joseph Harry Fowler Connick (born March 27, 1926) is an American attorney who served as the district attorney of Orleans Parish (New Orleans), Louisiana from 1973 to 2003.


title: Harry Connick Sr.

text: His son, Harry Connick Jr., is an American musician. Connick is also a singer, long performing a few nights a week at local clubs as a hobby.


title: Harry Connick Sr.

text: Joseph Harry Fowler Connick was born in Mobile, Alabama, the second of eight children of Jessie Catherine (née Fowler, 1898–1985) and James Paul Connick (1901–1979). Both his parents and grandparents were from Mobile. His father worked for the United States Army Corps of Engineers. When Harry was two years old, the family moved to New Orleans.


title: Harry Connick Sr.

text: Music was a large part of his early life, and he was particularly influenced by Glenn Miller. After high school, he served in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific during World War II. After the war, he returned to New Orleans and graduated from Loyola University New Orleans with a degree in business administration.


title: Harry Connick Sr.

text: He later joined the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a civilian employee, where he met his future wife, Anita Livingston, an accomplished flute player who became a lawyer and judge. She was one of the first female judges in the city of New Orleans. They married in Tunisia, and spent time in Casablanca, where Connick Sr. contracted tuberculosis. They were sent back to the United States and eventually ended up in New Orleans again. When Harry and Anita Connick returned to New Orleans, they opened a record store. Ultimately they owned two stores while simultaneously pursuing law degrees, one working in the store while the other was at school. They also had a daughter, Suzanna, and a son, Harry Jr.


title: Harry Connick Sr.

text: Connick is still involved in New Orleans music and culture. In 1993, he and his son were part of the group that founded the Krewe of Orpheus, a superkrewe that participates in annual Mardi Gras parades. He was nicknamed "The Singing District Attorney" by "Time" magazine. This nickname was given to him because he spent many nights singing in clubs in the French Quarter, including Maxwell's Toulouse Cabaret.


title: Harry Connick Sr.

text: In 1973, Connick defeated incumbent New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, who had recently been tried and acquitted of corruption charges.


title: Harry Connick Sr.

text: As district attorney, he was the defendant and petitioner in "Connick v. Myers", a free speech case in public employment law. In the case, Connick asked Sheila Myers to take a transfer to another position in his office. She had resisted, finally saying she would consider it after a meeting with Connick. Later the same day she distributed a questionnaire on issues of employee morale to her fellow prosecutors, after which Connick fired her.


title: Harry Connick Sr.

text: Myers sued in federal court, alleging Connick violated her First Amendment rights by firing her. He maintained she had been fired for refusing the transfer, but judge Jack Gordon of the Eastern District of Louisiana held that the distribution of the questionnaire was speech on a matter of public concern and thus constitutionally protected. Since the facts indicated to him that Myers had been fired for it, he ordered her reinstated. After the Fifth Circuit affirmed Gordon, the Supreme Court granted "certiorari" and narrowly reversed the ruling, holding that Myers' questionnaire largely touched on matters internal to the office that were not of public concern and thus she was lawfully fired.


title: Harry Connick Sr.

text: In 1987, Connick waged an unsuccessful challenge to incumbent William J. "Billy" Guste Jr. for the position of Louisiana Attorney General. Guste prevailed over Connick, 516,658 (54%) to 440,984 (46%). Both were registered Democrats, but in Louisiana a general election can feature two members of the same party.


title: Harry Connick Sr.

text: In 1989, Connick was indicted on racketeering charges for aiding and abetting a gambling operation by returning gambling records to an arrested gambler. He stated that he returned the records to the man in question because he needed them to file tax returns. On July 25, 1990, he was acquitted.


title: Harry Connick Sr.

text: In 1995, while District Attorney, Connick promised to the Assassination Records Review Board and at a public meeting in New Orleans that he would donate the Garrison investigative files which were still in his office. According to the Review Board's final report, Connick instructed one of his investigators Gary Raymond to destroy these documents after he took office. Raymond took them home instead and kept them because he didn't feel good burning the records stating, "It's not every day you are assigned to burn the records of investigations into the assassination of a President," until he found out about the Review Board in 1995 after which he gave the records to the television reporter Richard Angelico for Angelico to deliver the records to Congress stating, "When Congress asks for all documents, they mean all documents." A battle ensued between Connick and the Review Board after Connick demanded that the papers were returned to him and threatening to withhold the investigation papers. After many subpoenas going both ways, and with the help of the Justice Department, the Review Board won and all of the documents in question are in the JFK Collection.


title: Harry Connick Sr.

text: In 2003, Connick did not seek re-election and was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield.


title: Harry Connick Sr.

text: There are several allegations of systemic misconduct by Connick and his prosecutors. "According to the Innocence Project, a national organization that represents incarcerated criminals claiming innocence, 36 men convicted in Orleans Parish during Connick's 30-year tenure as DA have made allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, and 19 have had their sentences overturned or reduced as a result."


title: Harry Connick Sr.

text: In the case of Shareef Cousin, Connick's attorneys withheld a key witness statement from the defense, arguing that the prosecution was under no legal obligation to disclose such information. As a result, Cousin was put on death row at the age of 16, but the conviction and death sentence was overturned after four years, in 1999.


title: Harry Connick Sr.

text: In 2007, John Thompson, who was wrongfully convicted of murder by Connick's DA office due to evidence withholding, was awarded a $14 million verdict by a federal court jury. The jury found "that Thompson's 18 years behind bars (14 of which he spent in solitary confinement on death row) were caused by Connick's deliberate failure to train his prosecutors on their obligations to turn over exculpatory evidence." The Orleans Parish DA's office appealed and the case, "Connick v. Thompson", was orally argued before the U.S. Supreme Court during the October 2010 term. By a 5–4 vote split along ideological lines, the Supreme Court overturned the $14 million award in a decision issued on March 29, 2011. The majority opinion, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, construed the series of admitted violations to not amount to a pattern of "similar" violations of "Brady v. Maryland" (1963), and such a pattern was necessary to hold Connick liable for the incompetence of his employees. The dissenting opinion, read from the bench by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, noted that Connick's office had in fact committed a pattern of violations, failing to disclose exculpatory blood type evidence, failing to disclose audio tapes of witness testimony, failing to disclose a deathbed confession of evidence destruction by the prosecuting attorney Gerry Deegan, and failing to disclose eyewitness identification of the killer that did not match Thompson. Ginsburg noted that the office had employee turnover so high a young attorney could advance to a senior supervisory position within four years, thus the office offered little training in ongoing developments in criminal procedure law despite its large number of inexperienced attorneys.


title: Harry Connick Sr.

text: Connick's first wife, Anita Frances Livingston (née Levy), was Jewish (her parents had emigrated from Minsk and Vienna, respectively). They raised their two children, Suzanna and Harry, Jr., in the Lakeview neighborhood of New Orleans.; Harry Connick Jr. is an American musician. Anita Livingston died of ovarian cancer in July, 1981.


title: Harry Connick Sr.

text: Connick is the uncle of Jefferson Parish District Attorney Paul Connick and State Senator Patrick Connick, also of Jefferson Parish.


title: Qatar Grand Prix

text: The Qatar Grand Prix is a Formula One motor racing event which is held in Qatar. It was held for the first time on 21 November as part of the championship at the Losail International Circuit, and after not taking place during the season due to the 2022 FIFA World Cup taking place in Qatar, it will rejoin the calendar in under a 10-year contract. The race was established as the fourth full night race on the Formula One calendar, following the Singapore, Bahrain and Sakhir Grands Prix.


title: Qatar Grand Prix

text: The Formula One season was initially planned over 23 races. The opening round of the season, the Australian Grand Prix, was initially postponed due to COVID-19 restrictions in the country before being cancelled.


title: Qatar Grand Prix

text: The cancellation of the Australian Grand Prix occurred late during the season and left a vacancy in the calendar, and the inaugural Qatar Grand Prix was announced as its replacement in October 2021.


title: Qatar Grand Prix

text: The inaugural edition of the Qatar Grand Prix took place on 21 November, in place of the cancelled Australian Grand Prix.


title: Qatar Grand Prix

text: After a one year absence in , due to the 2022 FIFA World Cup to be staged in Qatar between November and December, the Qatar Grand Prix will return to the calendar on a 10-year contract from . A new purpose-built circuit was initially proposed for the 2023 race, before being retained in Lusail.


title: Qatar Grand Prix

text: The Grand Prix has received criticism from Amnesty International on the grounds of human rights in Qatar.


title: Helltaker

text: Helltaker is a freeware indie puzzle-adventure game with dating-sim elements designed by Polish developer Łukasz Piskorz, also known as vanripper. It was released in May 2020 for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux, and is described as ""a short game about sharply dressed demon girls.""


title: Helltaker

text: The player proceeds through a series of puzzle stages with the end goal of reaching a demon girl, answering her question appropriately, and incorporating her into the player's demon harem. Each puzzle stage involves pushing stones and skeleton soldiers around a two-dimensional top-down grid akin to "Sokoban" while keeping within a set turn limit, while also avoiding spike traps and collecting key items. After reaching the goal, the demon girl for that particular stage will ask a question in which the player must infer the correct answer based on her personality, and an incorrect answer may result in a bad ending such as death, taking the player back to the beginning of the stage.


title: Helltaker

text: The final boss level (featuring the demon Judgement, the High Prosecutor) includes phased bullet-hell-like mechanics with chains across the screen.


title: Helltaker

text: Narrated by Beelzebub, the plot follows the player character, known only as "The Helltaker," in his descent to hell to acquire a harem of demons. As the game progresses, the harem becomes increasingly dysfunctional, with the Helltaker admitting that all he can offer is ""coffee, turn based strategies and chocolate pancakes."" The final level, ""Epilogue,"" shows the harem on earth, with one of two endings; the ""Regular Ending"" in which the Helltaker opens the front door of the house to police outside, and the ""Abysstaker Ending"" where the Helltaker opens a portal utilizing three stone tablets, which have a set of moves inscribed on each of them that the player must start to perform in the middle of the carpet located in the Helltaker's house in the epilogue. The player can collect them in three of the stages during the main game.


title: Helltaker

text: Vanripper has posted comics on his Twitter account that canonically take place before the ""Epilogue"" as well as some that take place after the ""Abysstaker Ending."" A level pack, called ""Examtaker,"" featuring harder stages and a continuation of one of the comic arcs was released in 2021 to celebrate the game's one year anniversary.


title: Helltaker

text: Łukasz Piskorz, known on Twitter as "vanripper", developed the entirety of the game by himself over an estimated one-year period and was the game's artistic director. According to Piskorz, Helltaker is somewhat reminiscent of the "Leisure Suit Larry" video game series, as the main characters of both games have characteristics reminiscent of each other.


title: Helltaker

text: The game can be played for free and includes an art book and the recipe for the pancakes, which can also be bought separately as a means of supporting the developer.


title: Helltaker

text: Although the video game is only officially available in English, Piskorz has supported the translations made by the community, explaining how to make them and making one in Polish himself.


title: Helltaker

text: An additional chapter was added to the game on May 11, 2021, in celebration of the game's first anniversary.


title: Helltaker

text: On July 1, 2020, a fanmade port for the Nintendo Switch, authorized by Piskorz, was released via GitHub. On September 7 of that same year, it was followed by a fanmade port for the PlayStation Vita.


title: Shapour Bakhtiar

text: Shapour Bakhtiar (, ; 26 June 19146 August 1991) was an Iranian politician who served as the last Prime Minister of Iran under the Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. In the words of historian Abbas Milani: "more than once in the tone of a jeremiad he reminded the nation of the dangers of clerical despotism, and of how the fascism of the mullahs would be darker than any military junta". In 1991, he and his secretary were murdered in his home in Suresnes, France, by agents of the Islamic Republic.


title: Shapour Bakhtiar

text: Bakhtiar was born on 26 June 1914 in southwestern Iran into a family of Iranian tribal nobility, the family of the paramount chieftains of the then powerful Bakhtiari tribe. His father was Mohammad Reza Khan ("Sardar-e-Fateh"). His mother was Naz-Baygom, and both of his parents were Lurs and Bakhtiaris. Bakhtiar's maternal grandfather, Najaf-Gholi Khan Samsam ol-Saltaneh, had been appointed prime minister twice, in 1912 and 1918.


title: Shapour Bakhtiar

text: Bakhtiar's mother died when he was seven years old. His father was executed by Reza Shah in 1934 while Shapour was studying in Paris.


title: Shapour Bakhtiar

text: He attended elementary school in Shahr-e Kord and then secondary school, first in Isfahan and later in Beirut, where he received his high school diploma from a French school. He attended Beirut University for two years. He and his cousin, Teymour Bakhtiar, then went to Paris for additional university education at the Faculty of Law. There, he attended the College of Political Science.


title: Shapour Bakhtiar

text: Being a firm opponent of totalitarian rule, he was active in the Spanish Civil War for the Second Spanish Republic against General Francisco Franco's fascism. In 1940, he volunteered for the French army– rather than the French Foreign Legion– and fought in the 30th Artillerie Regiment of Orléans. According to "MEED", Bakhtiar did 18 months' military service. While living in Saint-Nicolas-du-Pélem, he fought with the French Resistance against the German occupation. In 1945, he received his PhD in political science as well as degrees in law from the Faculty of Law of Paris and philosophy from the Sorbonne.


title: Shapour Bakhtiar

text: Bakhtiar returned to Iran in 1946 and joined the social democratic Iran Party in 1949 and led its youth organization. In 1951 he was appointed director of the labor department in the Province of Isfahan by the ministry of labor. He later held the same position in Khuzestan, center of the oil industry. In 1951 Mohammad Mosaddeq had come to power in Iran. Under his premiership Bakhtiar was appointed deputy minister of labor in 1953. After the Shah was reinstated by a British-American sponsored coup d'état, Bakhtiar remained a critic of his rule.


title: Shapour Bakhtiar

text: In the mid-1950s he was involved in underground activity against the Shah's regime, calling for the 1954 Majlis elections to be free and fair and attempting to revive the nationalist movement. In 1960, the Second National Front was formed and Bakhtiar played a crucial role in the new organization's activities as the head of the student activist body of the Front. He and his colleagues differed from most other government opponents in that they were very moderate, restricting their activity to peaceful protest and calling only for the restoration of democratic rights within the framework of a constitutional monarchy. The Shah refused to co-operate and outlawed the Front and imprisoned the most prominent liberals. From 1964 to 1977, the imperial regime refused to permit any form of opposition activity, even from moderate liberals like Bakhtiar. In the following years Bakhtiar was imprisoned repeatedly, a total of six years, for his opposition to the Shah. He was also one of the prominent members of central council of the illegal Fourth National Front in late 1977, when the group was reconstituted as the Union of National Front Forces with Bakhtiar as head of the Iran Party (the largest group in the Front).


title: Shapour Bakhtiar

text: At the end of 1978 (as the Shah's power was crumbling), Bakhtiar was chosen to help in the creation of a civilian government to replace the existing military one. He was appointed to the position of Prime Minister by the Shah, as a concession to his opponents, especially the followers of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Although that caused him to be expelled from the National Front, he accepted the appointment, as he feared a revolution in which communists and mullahs would take over the country, which he thought would ruin Iran.


title: Shapour Bakhtiar

text: In his 36 days as premier of Iran, Bakhtiar ordered all political prisoners to be freed, lifted censorship of newspapers (whose staff had until then been on strike), relaxed martial law, ordered the dissolution of SAVAK (the regime's secret police) and requested for the opposition to give him three months to hold elections for a constituent assembly that would decide the fate of the monarchy and determine the future form of government for Iran. Despite the conciliatory gestures, Khomeini refused to collaborate with Bakhtiar, denouncing the premier as a traitor for siding with the Shah, labeling his government "illegitimate" and "illegal" and calling for the overthrow of the monarchy. Bakhtiar was accused by some of making mistakes during his premiership such as allowing Khomeini to re-enter Iran. In the end, he failed to rally even his own former colleagues of the National Front.


title: Shapour Bakhtiar

text: His government was overwhelmingly rejected by the masses except for a very small number of pro-Shah loyalists and a handful of moderate pro-democratic elements. The opposition was not willing to compromise. The Shah was forced to leave the country in January 1979; Bakhtiar left Iran again for France in April of the same year.


title: Shapour Bakhtiar

text: Shortly after the revolution, Ayatollah Sadegh Khalkhali, a religious judge and later chairman of the Revolutionary Court, announced to the press that the death sentence had been passed on members of the Pahlavi family and former Shah officials, including Bakhtiar.


title: Shapour Bakhtiar

text: In July 1979, Bakhtiar emerged in Paris. He was given political asylum there. From his base in Paris, he led the National Movement of Iranian Resistance, which fought the Islamic Republic from within the country. Between 9 and 10 July 1980, Bakhtiar helped organize a coup attempt known as the Nojeh coup plot, prompting the Islamic Republic to issue a death sentence on him.


title: Shapour Bakhtiar

text: On 18 July 1980, he escaped an assassination attempt by a group of three attackers in his home in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris, in which a policeman and a neighbor were killed. The five-man assassination team with ties to the newly formed Islamic republic led by Anis Naccache, a Lebanese, was captured. They were given life sentences, but French President François Mitterrand pardoned them in July 1990. They were sent to Tehran.


title: Shapour Bakhtiar

text: On 6 August 1991, Bakhtiar was murdered along with his secretary, Soroush Katibeh, by three assassins in his home in the Parisian suburb of Suresnes. Both men were killed with kitchen knives. Their bodies were not found until at least 36 hours after death, even though Bakhtiar had heavy police protection and his killers had left identity documents with a guard at his house. Two of the assassins escaped to Iran. A third, Ali Vakili Rad, was apprehended in Switzerland, along with an alleged accomplice, Zeynalabedin Sarhadi, a great-nephew of the president of Iran at the time, Hashemi Rafsanjani. Both were extradited to France for trial. Vakili Rad was sentenced to life in prison in December 1994, but Sarhadi was acquitted. Rad was paroled on 19 May 2010, after serving 16 years of his sentence. He was received as a "hero" by Islamic Republic officials.


title: Shapour Bakhtiar

text: The release of Rad had happened only two days after Tehran freed Clotilde Reiss, a French student accused of spying by the Islamic regime. Both the French and Iranian governments deny the two affairs are linked.


title: Shapour Bakhtiar

text: Hours after the assassination of Bakhtiar, a British hostage was released from Lebanon, presumably held by Hezbollah, but a French hostage was taken. Although many in the Iranian exile community speculated of official French complicity in Bakhtiar's death, the second kidnapping is said to cast a shadow over such theories. The French would seem unlikely to support an operation that included the kidnapping of another French hostage in Lebanon, but there is no apparent connection between the two events.


title: Shapour Bakhtiar

text: He published a memoir in addition to many articles. Bakhtiar's books include "Ma Fidélité" (in French) and "37 Days after 37 Years" (in Persian), his biography (highlighting his political career and his beliefs, up to the Iranian Revolution). His writings are of special interest regarding society and politics in the Pahlavi Era and the period of riots and turbulence just before the fall of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.


title: Shapour Bakhtiar

text: Bakhtiar was first married to a French woman with whom he had three children, a son Guy and two daughters, Viviane and France. Viviane died of a heart attack at the age of 49 in Cannes in August 1991. Guy is a French police intelligence unit officer.


title: Shapour Bakhtiar

text: Shortly before his death, Bakhtiar divorced his wife and married a young Iranian woman. His second wife was Shahintaj, and they had a son, Goudarz. He also had a stepdaughter named Manijeh Assad. As of 2001, all three were United States citizens.


title: Izzo (H.O.V.A.)

text: "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" (often referred to as "H to the Izzo") is the first single released by Jay-Z from his sixth album "The Blueprint". It is among his most popular singles. This was the second song released off "The Blueprint", after the diss track "Takeover", but the lead single from it. The song reached number eight on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in the US. It was Jay-Z's first top 10 single as a lead artist.


title: Izzo (H.O.V.A.)

text: The song, produced by Kanye West, prominently features a sample of "I Want You Back" by The Jackson 5, the second major hit in 2001 to sample that song (after "My Baby" by Lil' Romeo).


title: Izzo (H.O.V.A.)

text: The song was later mashed up with Linkin Park's "In the End" for their collaborative EP, "Collision Course".