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.
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This crazy beast was a weird early mammal that lived among dinosaurs
Researchers have uncovered the fossil of an early mammal named the crazy beast that lived 66 million years ago alongside dinosaurs and giant crocodiles on.
Posted: Dec 18, 2020 9:52 AM
Updated: Dec 18, 2020 12:15 PM
Posted By: CNN
Researchers have uncovered the fossil of an early mammal named the crazy beast that lived 66 million years ago alongside dinosaurs and giant crocodiles on Madagascar, and it s unlike any mammal ever known, living or extinct.
This mammal, about the size of an opossum, had a mix of strange characteristics that haven t been seen together before. It highlights evolutionary strangeness that can arise when evolution occurs in isolation on islands like Madagascar, which is home to other species, living and extinct, found nowhere else in the world.
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