The best of the week

Haflinger horses, from the new featured article

Featured articles

A hospital ruined by the earthquake in Ambato, Ecuador, from the new featured article. Almost three-quarters of the city's remaining buildings had to be demolished.

An ant trapped in baltic amber, a new featured picture

1949 Ambato earthquake (nom), a brief but compelling story of this disaster that killed more than 5,000 Ecuadorians (nominated by Ceranthor)

Haflinger (horse) (nom), an Austrian/Italian breed of which every member traces back to one foundation stallion born in 1874, but remarkably, with little genetic evidence of inbreeding (Dana boomer).

Choice of the week. The Signpost asked FA and FL nominator and reviewer PresN to select the best of this week's and last week's new promotions (five in all).

"I considered Haflinger (horse), as it was a good read and we have so few mammal FA's as a percentage of the overall population, but ultimately I'm going to go with the Biddenden Maids. A fun read on a weird, obscure subject, it demonstrates the strength of Wikipedia– that here sometimes you can find good articles with more information on a subject than can be found anywhere else in the world."

Featured pictures

Two images were promoted. Medium-sized images can be viewed by clicking on "nom":

Ant Trapped in Baltic Amber (nom), 40–50 million years old; the ant is about 8 mm long (created by Baltic-amber-beetle, edited by AmericanXplorer13).

Moon jellyfish (nom), translucent, usually about 25–40 cm across, and recognisable by its four horseshoe-shaped gonads that are easily seen through the top of the bell (Dante Alighieri).

Choice of the week. We asked Alvesgaspar, a reviewer and nominator at featured picture candidates, to name the favourite from this week's and last week's five promotions:

Richard Bartz (also known as "Macro Freak") is best-known for his macro pictures of insects, where he usually combines excellent image quality with careful compositions and lighting. These characteristics are apparent in his depiction of a couple of mallards. Notice how both animals are shown in perfect focus, even though they stand in different planes. This is due to the fact that the shot was made at a considerable distance from the subjects, using a telephoto lens. The delicate colours and fine detail of this picture somehow reminds me of an old Japanese woodblock print.

Featured picture Choice of the week, Richard Bartz's Mallard, a dabbling duck (which feeds mainly at the surface rather than by diving). The picture was among last week's promotions, which are included in the judgement with this week's new FPs. Last week we displayed the cropped version of the image; this week, we show the full version, which has better composition, although it is less appropriate for infobox use.