Image of the Day: Baby Boom
Researchers describe the remains of a clutch of extinct mammal-like animals.
Aug 31, 2018
Sukanya Charuchandra
ABOVE: Left to right: CT scans of the skulls of a tuatara hatchling (modern reptile), offspring of the mammal-like Kayentatherium wellesi, and a 27-day-old opossum (modern mammal)
EVA HOFFMAN
Apaper published August 29 in Nature describes the discovery of a mammal-like adult creature, named Kayentatherium wellesi, and 38 of its probable young, fossilized in the early Jurassic, 184 million years ago in present-day Arizona. These offspring are the youngest mammal-like creatures discovered in fossil form to date.
CT scans of the skulls of a tuatara hatchling (left) and a 27-day-old opossum (right)
EVA HOFFMAN
E.A. Hoffman, T.B. Rowe, “Jurassic stem-mammal perinates and the origin of mammalian reproduction and growth,” Nature, doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0441-3, 2018.
