"Proto-mammal" Fossil Sheds Light on Early Mammal Evolution
Aug 09, 2013 Email"> PrintText Size
The newly discovered fossil of a "proto-mammal" unearthed in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has shed light on the evolution of the world's earliest mammals.
Scientists believe that the well-preserved fossil of the Megaconus mammaliaformis, an herbivore with hair and fur that lived during the Jurassic era about 165 million years ago, was about 30 cm long and weighed an estimated 250 grams.
Zhou Changfu, a scientist with the Paleontology Museum of Liaoning and Shenyang Normal University, led the research program with scientists from the University of Bonn and the University of Chicago.
Zhou said in an interview with Xinhua on Thursday that the rare evidence of the animal's fur proves that it had the skin texture of a mammal, but it is still unknown whether it had a bare midriff that enabled it feed a newborn cub or if had a brood pouch.
The earliest mammaliaform groups are long-extinct relatives of modern mammals that co-existed with feathered dinosaurs in the Jurassic era. Prior to the discovery of the fossil, no complete fossils of the earliest mammals had ever been discovered, he said.
He said the animal's lower jaw, thoracic vertebra, lumbar vertebra and ankle joint all suggest that it had evolved from reptile to proto-mammal, Zhou said.
The fossil was unearthed from the Daohu Groove in Ningchen County, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, where scientists have also unearthed other fossils of early mammals such as the Jurassic beaver, which, however, appeared after the Megaconus mammaliaformis.
An article on the discovery was published in the Aug. 8 issue of Nature. (Xinhua)
The newly discovered fossil of a "proto-mammal" unearthed in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has shed light on the evolution of the world's earliest mammals.
Scientists believe that the well-preserved fossil of the Megaconus mammaliaformis, an herbivore with hair and fur that lived during the Jurassic era about 165 million years ago, was about 30 cm long and weighed an estimated 250 grams.
Zhou Changfu, a scientist with the Paleontology Museum of Liaoning and Shenyang Normal University, led the research program with scientists from the University of Bonn and the University of Chicago.
Zhou said in an interview with Xinhua on Thursday that the rare evidence of the animal's fur proves that it had the skin texture of a mammal, but it is still unknown whether it had a bare midriff that enabled it feed a newborn cub or if had a brood pouch.
The earliest mammaliaform groups are long-extinct relatives of modern mammals that co-existed with feathered dinosaurs in the Jurassic era. Prior to the discovery of the fossil, no complete fossils of the earliest mammals had ever been discovered, he said.
He said the animal's lower jaw, thoracic vertebra, lumbar vertebra and ankle joint all suggest that it had evolved from reptile to proto-mammal, Zhou said.
The fossil was unearthed from the Daohu Groove in Ningchen County, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, where scientists have also unearthed other fossils of early mammals such as the Jurassic beaver, which, however, appeared after the Megaconus mammaliaformis.
An article on the discovery was published in the Aug. 8 issue of Nature. (Xinhua)
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