Discovery Of Tiny Animals That Walked The Earth After Dinosaur Extinction Provides Clues About Diversification Of Mammals

(Photo : Getty Images/ Tauseef MUSTAFA / AFP)

Paleontologists from the United States have found the fossilized remains of a mammal species that roamed the planet approximately 65.5 million years ago.

Discovering Militocodon lydae

Following the extinction of the nonavian dinosaurs, a mammal like a chinchilla but more closely related to cows was discovered by scientish which they called Militocodon lydae.

The species was discovered from a portion of a skull and jawbone found at the Corral Bluffs fossil site in Colorado. It would have lived approximately 65 million years ago.

"Rocks from this interval of time have a notoriously poor fossil record, and the discovery and description of a fossil mammal skull is an important step forward in documenting the earliest diversification of mammals after Earth's last mass extinction," said Dr. Tyler Lyson, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

According to paleontologists, Corral Bluffs is situated inside the Denver Basin and is east of Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Corral Bluffs are a south-facing arc of exposures that are a portion of the Denver Formation's D1 sequence, which extends from the upper Cretaceous to the lower Paleocene.

The scientists employed advanced scanning methods, 3D reconstructions, and teeth comparisons-comparing the specimen's teeth to those of other fossils and contemporary animals-to place M. lydae is positioned correctly on the evolutionary tree.

Evidence indicating the animal's teeth were utilized for crushing and shearing rather than grinding was crucial to the study. That implies that the little animal would eventually give rise to modern cows, pigs, and deer.

In the last eight years, the researchers have only discovered a tiny number of M. lydae fossils; therefore, further research and findings are required to verify that this small and very adorable-looking species is, in fact, what we believe it to be.

Closes Significant Gaps

The study stressed that more specimens that do not cleanly fit into current taxonomic bins will most likely be found as early Paleocene archaic ungulates are discovered and studied, presenting us with an evolutionary history muddled by evolutionary grades and transitional species.

The discovery's scientists claim that the animal closes some significant gaps in our understanding of the Periptychidae family of early mammals, which rose to prominence following the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Experts have found it difficult to track the evolution of animals in the immediate aftermath of the extinction of the dinosaurs due to the scarcity of fossils from this era. Paleontologists have been excavating the Corral Bluffs site for decades, and it is becoming more and more useful in addressing that issue.

In the animal kingdom, it would have been a period of rapid and extensive diversification, especially for mammals. With the dinosaurs out of the way and the dust from the asteroid impact having settled, mammals like M. lydae seized the chance to prosper.

"The discovery and thorough descriptions and comparisons of the partial M. lydae skulls represent an important step toward unraveling the complex evolutionary history of periptychid mammals," said paleontologist Lucas Weaver of Kent State University in Ohio.