Image of the Day: Baby Boom
Researchers describe the remains of a clutch of extinct mammal-like animals.
Sukanya Charuchandra
Originally from Mumbai, Sukanya Charuchandra is a freelance science writer based out of wherever her travels take her. She holds master’s degrees in Science Journalism and Biotechnology. You can read...
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Aug 31, 2018
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.
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.
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