An animal the size of a squirrel that feeds on ants lived 150 million years ago
Scientists recently discovered fossils. of a termite-eating mammal that lived 150 million years ago, i.e. alongside the dinosaurs.
The study shows that the mammals evolved the specialization of nutrition from termites at least twice. Fruitafossor windscheffelia is separated by at least 100 million years from the most ancient relatives of modern anteaters such as the armadillo.
It had hollow teeth without the enamel glaze and front palps which it used for digging. The fossil was dated as mentioned to the end of the Jurassic period. This mammal probably lived alongside large dinosaurs such as Brachiosaurus, Stegosaurus and Allosaurus.
Animals that specialize in eating termites sit or stand on a termite colony and dig the insects out of the mud with their front paws. Then they drag them under their tongue and swallow them.
distant proximity
Termite nutrition does not require chewing so the teeth develop into hollow structures that lack the enamel coating that helps provide a good surface for chewing. The extinct mammal's hollow talipes and teeth resemble the talipes and teeth of hardbarks, the predecessors of armadillos.
The authors of the study, Zhe-Xi Luo and John Wible of the Kangee Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, USA, said that despite this important similarity to the anteaters of our day, the windscheffelia is only a distant relative.
"This reflects a type of convergent evolution, whereby animals far apart develop similar adaptations when faced with similar pressures of natural selection.
For news at the BBC
