Fossil Overturns Ideas of Jurassic Mammals

[hyphenate]

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer


WASHINGTON -- The discovery of a furry, beaver-like animal that lived at the time of dinosaurs has overturned more than a century of scientific thinking about Jurassic mammals.

The find shows that the ecological role of mammals in the time of dinosaurs was far greater than previously thought, said Zhe-Xi Luo, curator of vertebrate paleontology at Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh.

The animal is the earliest swimming mammal to have been found and was the most primitive mammal to be preserved with fur, which is important to helping keep a constant body temperature, Luo said in a telephone interview.

For over a century, the stereotype of mammals living in that era has been of tiny, shrew-like creatures scurrying about in the underbrush trying to avoid the giant creatures that dominated the planet, Luo commented.

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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-jurassic-beaver,1,2760.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[zonmoy]

1. Of course

this creature could simply be the exception to the rule. Exactly how many fossils of how many species have been found of mammals of that time.

[Faygo Kid]

3. I find this compelling

A large mammal of this type is one hell of an "exception." I love this stuff; always have. China is now the "hot" area for discoveries.

[hyphenate]

6. Probably because there are so many areas of

China which have never been open to exploration in the past, even by native Chinese. It's a humongous country, and unlike (for the most part) the other major continents, it has many hidden secrets and many things which have been kept from its own people.

[Faygo Kid]

8. Including the single greatest find: Tomb of Emperor Ch'in.

The greatest single archaeological find ever. This is the dude who unified China; the guy with the terra cotta army that was unearthed that stretches for miles. The Chinese government has it (it's been all over PBS). But as advanced as the technology is now, they still feel they cannot open this tomb. Google it. This is the kind of stuff that makes life so very interesting. And worth clinging to.

[xchrom]

2. beaver like?

i'm not registered -- so i can't tell what that means.

[papau]

4. more detail below

The animal is the earliest swimming mammal to have been found and was the most primitive mammal to be preserved with fur, which is important to helping keep a constant body temperature,....with a flat, scaly tail like a beaver, vertebra like an otter and teeth like a seal was swimming in lakes and eating fish.

Thomas Martin of the Research Institute Senckenberg in Frankfurt, Germany, said the discovery pushes back the mammal conquest of the waters by more than 100 million years.

It's the first evidence that some ancient mammals were semi-aquatic, indicating a greater diversification than previously thought, the researchers said.

The new animal is not related to modern beavers or otters but has features similar to them. Thus the researchers named it Castorocauda lutrasimilis. Castoro from the Latin for beaver, cauda for tail, lutra for river otter and similis meaning similar.

Weighing in at between 1.1 and 1.7 pounds, about the size of a small female platypus, Castorocauda is also the largest known Jurassic early mammal.

[xchrom]

5. thank you!

wonderful stuff!

so i wonder if this fossil has relatives or if there is speculation of relatives?

[papau]

7. I do not know - but now humans can be more than 3 inches tall in terms

of that early ancestor!

This is a major size increase for the world of mammals during the time of T-Rex.