Warm-bloodedness is the key to what makes mammals what they are today. That’s why working out when it emerged in mammal ancestors matters.
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Finding a fossil tooth embedded in bone is always great news for palaeontologists, as it is the gateway to some otherwise out-of-reach understanding of the behaviour of extinct animals.
These new finds indicate that Diictodon was burrowing and giving some parental care to its young. This was long thought to be unique to mammals.
The discovery of a fossilised large predator is a rare event that offers insight into these beasts from the past.
A study has found that a local event rather than a global shift in climate caused the mass extinction in South Africa.
Climate was the main factor that triggered the evolution of warm-bloodedness in mammals and the subsequent mammalian evolutionary success.
CT scanning allows scientists to observe and “dissect” fossils digitally using computer software - and to uncover secrets that are hundreds of millions of years old.
Much like the hair you carefully rearrange before a selfie, your cheek muscles and the accompanying smile date back about 250 million years.
Kontributor teratas
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Senior Researcher in Vertebrate Palaeontology, University of the Witwatersrand
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Postdoctoral researcher, Analytical, Environmental and Geo- Chemistry, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
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Curator of Karoo Palaeontology, Iziko Museums of South Africa
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Postdoctoral Fellow, University of the Witwatersrand
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Distinguished Professor, University of the Witwatersrand
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X-ray CT laboratory manager, Natural History Museum
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Junior Researcher, Universidade de Lisboa
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Lecturer, University of Chicago
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Postdoctoral Researcher, Natural History Museum
