In Depth The significant thing about the discovery of Juramaia is that here you have a placental mammal appearing thirty-five million years earlier than the previously known contender Eomaia, a primitive mammal described in 2002 that was also discovered in Liaoning Province. This has helped researchers who are slowly piecing together a more complete picture … Read more
In Depth The title of biggest known rodent often gets assigned to the related Phoberomys; however the discovery of a new skull of Josephoartigasia revealed that it was quite a bit larger. These estimates however have to be based upon comparing the size of the skull of Josephoartigasia to those of other known rodents with … Read more
In Depth Further Reading Further reading- Ancient DNA evidence for the loss of a highly divergent brown bear clade during historical times. – Molecular Ecology 17 (8): 1962–1970. S. Calvignac, S. Hughes, C. Tougard, J. Michaux, M. Thevenot, M. Philippe, W. Hamdine & C. Hanni – 2008.
In Depth To begin we’ll address the on-going confusion between the validity of the names Paraceratherium, Indricotherium and Baluchitherium. These are all separate genera’s established as homes for fossil material belonging to huge terrestrial mammals that are very similar to one another in form. In fact they are so similar that many palaeontologists consider them … Read more
In Depth Further Reading – Preliminary report on the vertebrate type locality of Cita Canyon and the description of an ancestral coyote. – American Journal Science (5)35:383-390. – C. S. Johnston – 1938.
In Depth Bear dogs can often be divided into North American and Eurasian genera, but Cynelos is one of the few genera that what active across both of these areas as well as Africa, a range proven by the discovery of multiple remains on all of these continents. Because Cynelos was a large Miocene era … Read more
In Depth Further Reading – Nuralagus rex, gen. et sp. nov., an endemic insular giant rabbit from the Neogene of Minorca. – Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 31 (2): 231–240 – Josep Quintana, Mike Kohler, Salvador Moya-Sola – 2011. – Palaeontology: The giant rabbits of Minorca. – Nature 472: 9 – Meike Kohler – 2011. – … Read more
In Depth Mitredon is a genus of cynodont that lived in what is now Greenland during the late Triassic. Further Reading - A cynodont from the Upper Triassic of East Greenland: tooth replacement and double-rootedness. - Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 156:49-58. - M. D. Shapiro & F. A. Jenkins - 2001.
In Depth Fossils of Indarctos were first discovered in India, hence the genus name, but as time went on it was discovered that this prolific genus of bear was actually living across most of the old world continents of Africa, Asia and Europe, and even the new world continent of north America, especially the western … Read more
In Depth Although Hyracodon looks a lot like a primitive horse, this genus actually represents a form of prehistoric rhino. Hyracodon is the type genus of the Hyracodontidae, a group of so called ‘running rhinoceroses that fulfilled a similar ecological niche as primitive horses such as Mesohippus. Hyracodon seem to have inhabited a variety of … Read more