This crazy beast that lived with the dinosaurs was unlike other creatures
The unusual 66-million-year-old mammal called Adalatherium bends and even breaks a lot of rules, researchers say. Listen - 02:20 Andrey Atuchin
Scientists say they re baffled by the strange appearance of a 66-million-year-old opossum-sized mammal dubbed the Adalatherium which translates as crazy beast. Knowing what we know about the skeletal anatomy of all living and extinct mammals, it is difficult to imagine that a mammal like Adalatherium could have evolved, David Krause, of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, said in a release. It bends and even breaks a lot of rules.
Adalatherium (Credit: Andrey Atuchin)
(CN) Archeologists have uncovered another puzzle piece of the history behind prehistoric mammals following the discovery of a well-preserved fossil of a curious little creature whose name directly translates to “crazy beast.”
According to a 20 year-long study, published Thursday in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, the fossil named Adalatherium, fills in some important blanks about ancient mammals from the supercontinent of Gondwana 66 million years ago.
The study was conducted by a team of 14 international researchers, led by David Krause from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, and Simone Hoffmann from the New York Institute of Technology.
On September 29, 2020, Eric K. Lund, the paleontology conservation lab manager at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences gave a virtual talk for
American Scientist’s lunchtime seminar series on his research with horned (or ceratopsian) dinosaurs. After, he was interviewed by Brian Malow. A podcast of the interview is below, followed by a summary of the live tweets that highlighted points of the talk.
Could the horns and frills on dinosaurs have be used for thermoregulation? Imaging of fossils shows many pits and lines indicating blood vessels on the frills, as reconstructed at above right. These were big animals, and the thin skin over bony plates (