A Beast Crazy Enough to Live with Dinosaurs
At one time, Australia, South America, Antarctica, the Indian subcontinent, Africa, and the Arabian Peninsula were merged into a supercontinent now known as Gondwana. Scientists are still learning about how mammalian evolution progressed there. Reporting in the
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, researchers have now described a strange mammal that lived during the time of the dinosaurs about 66 million years ago. The study is based on a nearly complete skeleton that has been preserved as well or better than any ever found in the southern hemisphere from before the dinosaurs went extinct.
This animal is called Adalatherium, from the Malagasy and Greek languages for crazy beast, and it s a large relative of the typically mouse-sized mammals that lived in the Cretaceous period about 145 - 66 million years ago. Adalatherium was about the size of an opossum and was from what s now Madagascar. It s a gondwanatherian, a now-extinct group of
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology describes a bizarre 66 million-year-old mammal that provides profound new insights into the evolutionary history of mammals from the southern supercontinent Gondwana recognized today as Africa, South America, Australia, Antarctica, the Indian subcontinent, and the Arabian Peninsula.
Named
Adalatherium, which, translated from the Malagasy and Greek languages means crazy beast, it is described based on a nearly complete, exquisitely preserved skeleton, the most complete for any mammal yet discovered in the southern hemisphere prior to the extinction of the dinosaurs.
The research, carried out over 20 years, demonstrates that
Adalatherium was a giant relative to the mostly shrew- or mouse-sized mammals that lived during the Cretaceous period.
As detailed in a new study published last week in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, a 14-member team of international researchers headed up by Dr. David Krause of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and Dr. Simone Hoffmann of the New York Institute of Technology described their intensive analysis of the odd, opossum-sized animal that existed near the end of the Cretaceous period on the island of Madagascar.
Credit: Andrey Atuchin
These new revelations delve deep into the evolutionary history of mammals from the prehistoric supercontinent of Gondwana known currently as Africa, South America, Australia, Antarctica, the Indian subcontinent, and the Arabian Peninsula.
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.