Early Mammals Took to the Air, Fossil Suggests

[IGBT]

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From analysis of a fossil, the researchers concluded that this gliding mammal was unrelated to the modern flying squirrel and was unlike any other animal in the Mesozoic, the period best known for dinosaurs living in the company of small and unprepossessing mammals. They announced yesterday that the species qualified as a member of an entirely different order of mammals.

Richard L. Cifelli, a paleontologist at the Oklahoma Museum of Natural History in Norman who reviewed the findings for publication, said this ?wholly unexpected diversity of something adapted for gliding at this early time is absolutely astonishing.?

Until a couple of years ago, Dr. Cifelli said, most scientists held the view that such early mammals were simple shrewlike creatures that cowered in the shadows of the dominant dinosaurs, and now ?this adds a new dimension to our knowledge of early mammals.?

 

[aidanjm]

interesting

 

[ElFenix]

sweet


i wonder why every single dinosaur died out, but so much other stuff lived? there certainly isn't a lizard-like creature with the proper hip bones living today, and so far no fossils of one past the extinction point. a giant section of the animal kingdom wiped out. certainly birds appear to be close cousins, but were already branched off by the time of the asteroid strike.

 

[IAteYourMother]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
sweet


i wonder why every single dinosaur died out, but so much other stuff lived? there certainly isn't a lizard-like creature with the proper hip bones living today, and so far no fossils of one past the extinction point. a giant section of the animal kingdom wiped out. certainly birds appear to be close cousins, but were already branched off by the time of the asteroid strike.

because dinosaurs required so much damn food to support their bodies

 

[RapidSnail]

*Waits for Creationists to show how it was constructed from the toenail of an extinct lemur*

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: IAteYourMother
because dinosaurs required so much damn food to support their bodies

even the small ones? they certainly couldn't have required that much more food than mammals, reptiles, and birds.