After the reconstruction of the first flower from which all the others originated, some scholars have discovered how the first mammals of the planet earth that existed at the time of the dinosaurs must have been.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himAfter the reconstruction of the first flower from which all the others originated, some scholars have discovered how they must have been the first mammals of the planet earth existed at the time of the dinosaurs.
The ancestors of modern mammals appeared on earth millions of years ago and were similar to flying squirrels. This is the conclusion of some scientists who have managed to identify two new species of mammals that lived 160 million years ago together with dinosaurs.
This result was achieved thanks to the discovery, in the Liaoning region in China, of two very well preserved fossils that show the main characteristics of the oldest mammals in the world. These were winged animals that lived in the Jurassic period and that had developed the ability to glide through the air to escape the dinosaurs. The fossils found leave no room for doubt: they were species similar to squirrels with wings composed of thin membranes attached to the forelegs and hind limbs.
The ability to glide is just one of the many evolutionary changes that mammals have made in the course of their history to better adapt to life on earth and the various difficulties that presented themselves to them, including running away from predators and being able to find food more easily. inaccessible to other animals.
The species identified are the Maiopatagium furculiferum andAlianti Vilevolodon diplomalos, whose fossils and reconstructions were described in two articles published this week in Nature by an international team of scientists from the University of Chicago and the Beijing Museum of Natural History.
The two newly discovered creatures have characteristics in common with modern winged animals but also significant differences. Today, the hallmark of winged herbivorous mammals is their diet of seeds, fruit and other flowering plant parts. The two ancient species, which lived in the Jurassic world, instead had other available to feed in particular ferns and ancient plants such as cycads and conifers.
Even the diet of these animals, therefore, in about 100 million years has evolved according to their needs and different environmental conditions.
How much more do we have to discover about the origins and history of our planet and its inhabitants?
Photo: news.uchicago.edu
