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The smooth toadfish (Tetractenos glaber) is a species in the pufferfish family Tetraodontidae. It is native to shallow coastal and estuarine waters of southeastern Australia, where it is widespread and abundant. French naturalist Christophe-Paulin de La Poix de Fréminville described the species in 1813, though early records confused it with what is now the only other member of its genus, the common toadfish (T. hamiltoni). Up to 16 cm (6+1⁄4 in) long with distinctive leopard-like dark markings on its upperparts, the smooth toadfish has a flattened belly and an elongate body tapering to a slender tail. Its back and fins are rounded. Unlike most of its relatives, it does not have prominent spines on its body. Like other pufferfish, it can inflate itself with water or air. It forages for its preferred foods—molluscs and crustaceans—in sandy or muddy sediment. The smooth toadfish's flesh contains the poison tetrodotoxin, and eating it can be fatal. (Full article...)

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Hurricane Otis

Hurricane Otis (satellite image shown) makes landfall near Acapulco, Mexico, leaving at least 39 people dead.
In the United States, 18 people are killed in a mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine.
The Sakharov Prize is awarded to Mahsa Amini and the Iranian Woman, Life, Freedom movement.
Daniel Noboa is elected President of Ecuador.

On this day

October 28

Flight spare of Prospero

1707 – The Hōei earthquake ruptured all segments of the Nankai megathrust simultaneously – the only earthquake recorded to have done so.
1776 – American Revolutionary War: As George Washington's Continental Army retreated northward from New York City, the British Army captured the village of White Plains.
1928 – Indonesian composer Wage Rudolf Supratman introduced "Indonesia Raya", now the country's national anthem.
1971 – Prospero (flight spare pictured), the first British satellite launched on a British rocket, lifted off from Launch Area 5B in Woomera, South Australia.
2013 – The first terrorist attack in Beijing's recent history took place when members of the Turkistan Islamic Party drove a vehicle into a crowd, killing five people and injuring thirty-eight others.

Ibas of Edessa (d. 457)
Johann Karl August Musäus (d. 1787)
Bill Gates (b. 1955)
Lucy Bronze (b. 1991)

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Today's featured picture

The red-tailed squirrel (Sciurus granatensis) is a species of tree squirrel. It is found in Central and South America – including Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela – and the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago and Margarita. It has also been introduced and is invasive in Cuba, but this is a small population found around some parts of the margin of Rio Almendares in Havana that escaped from the Havana Zoo. This is a common squirrel with a stable population and a vast range consisting of different habitats, including human-influenced environments, thus it is not thought to be under threat. This male red-tailed squirrel was photographed in the Caldas Department in Colombia.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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