Two 160 million-year-old mammal fossils discovered in China show that the forerunners of mammals in the Jurassic Period evolved to glide and live in trees. With long limbs, long hand and foot fingers, and wing-like membranes ...
Archaeology
Aug 9, 2017
0
1954
(Phys.org)—A team of researchers with the EcoHealth Alliance has narrowed down the list of animal species that may harbor viruses likely to jump to humans. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group outlines ...
It's a familiar story—the mighty dinosaurs dominated their prehistoric environment, while tiny mammals took a backseat, until the dinosaurs (besides birds) went extinct 66 million years ago, allowing mammals to shine. Just ...
Archaeology
Jun 7, 2016
10
907
The fossils of two interrelated ancestral mammals, newly discovered in China, suggest that the wide-ranging ecological diversity of modern mammals had a precedent more than 160 million years ago.
Archaeology
Feb 12, 2015
0
1161
(Phys.org)—A team of researchers in the U.S. has found evidence to support the notion that our pre-human ancestors were able to metabolize ethanol long before our later ancestors learned to take advantage of fermentation—to ...
The surprise discovery of the fossilized skull of a 66- to 70-million-year-old, groundhog-like creature on Madagascar has led to new analyses of the lifestyle of the largest known mammal of its time by a team of specialists ...
Archaeology
Nov 5, 2014
2
3
Paleontologists have described three new small squirrel-like species that place a poorly understood Mesozoic group of animals firmly in the mammal family tree. The study, led by scientists at the American Museum of Natural ...
Archaeology
Sep 10, 2014
2
1
For most people, mere mention of the word Jurassic conjures up images of huge dinosaurs chomping their way through lush vegetation – and each other. However, mammals and their immediate ancestors were also around in the ...
Archaeology
Aug 20, 2014
11
0
(Phys.org) —A team of researchers with Aarhus University in Denmark has concluded that the die-out of large mammals after the last ice-age was due more too human activity than a changing environment. In their paper published ...
(Phys.org) —A pair of researchers at Australian National University is suggesting in a paper they have had published in the journal Biology Letters, that in some instances, medium sized mammals may be more at risk of going ...
