User:Highfields/MP/1

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Five views of a Viviparus georgianus shell

Viviparus georgianus, commonly known as the banded mystery snail, is a species of large freshwater snail in the family Viviparidae, the river snails. It is native to North America, generally found from the northeastern United States to Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, and thrives in eutrophic lentic environments such as lakes, ponds and some low-flow streams. The snail has two distinct sexes and reproduces more than once in a lifetime, with females laying eggs singly in albumen-filled capsules. It feeds on diatom clusters found on silt and mud substrates, but it may also require the ingestion of some grit to be able to break down algae. This image shows five views of a 2.1 cm high (0.83 in) V. georgianus shell, originally collected in the U.S. state of Georgia and now in the collection of the State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe in Germany.

Photograph credit: H. Zell

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Hurricane Calvin
Hurricane Calvin

Eighteen tropical cyclones formed during the 1993 Pacific hurricane season, an event in the annual formation of tropical cyclones over the Pacific Ocean north of the Equator and east of the International Date Line. Fifteen cyclones developed into named tropical storms, of which eleven became hurricanes and nine became major hurricanes (Category 3 or higher on the Saffir–Simpson scale). The season officially began on May 15 in the Eastern Pacific proper (east of 140°W) and June 1 in the Central Pacific (140°W to the International Date Line), and ended on November 30. The most impactful storm of the season was Hurricane Calvin (pictured), which made landfall near Manzanillo in the Mexican state of Colima as a Category 2 hurricane; it killed more than 30 people, mainly due to significant flooding, and damages amounted to $32 million. (Full list...)