PRIYANKA CHAKRABORTY, AMITY UNIVERSITY KOLKATA
Scientists extracted remains from the Egg Mountain in Western Montana and studied the fossils of 22 individuals Filikomys primaeval (which translates to “youthful, friendly mouse”). The remains were about 75.5 million years old typically stuck together in groups of two to five, with at least 13 samples clustered within a 30 square-meter area in the same rock layer. Depending on how well preserved the fossils are, the type of rock they’re preserved in, and F. primaeval’ strong shoulders and elbows, scientists hypothesized that these animals lived in burrows and were stuffed together. Moreover, the animals found were a blend of multiple mature adults and young adults, suggesting these were truly social groups as contrasting to just parents raising their young ones.
Earlier it was thought that social interaction in mammals first emerged after the mass extinction that killed off the dinosaurs. Also, it was mostly in the Placentalia – the group of mammals humans belong to. But these fossils show mammals were socialising during the Age of Dinosaurs, and in a more ancient group of mammals – the multituberculates.
It is crazy to believe that social behaviour existed when dinosaurs were roaming the Earth and that the dawn of humans as a social animal goes way back to the family tree of the mammals. Multituberculates are one of the most primitive mammalian groups and they’ve been extinct for 35 million years, yet they were socialising in groups similar to what you would see in modern-day squirrels.
Scientists believe that social interaction is the basic human requirement and they are interested to understand the depths and patterns of it. The new fossils extracted are real game-changer and the scientists are now encouraged to bring out more discoveries from these prehistoric remains.
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Citation:
- Lucas N. Weaver, David J. Varricchio, Eric J. Sargis, Meng Chen, William J. Freimuth & Gregory P. Wilson Mantilla. Early mammalian social behaviour revealed by multituberculates from a dinosaur nesting site. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2020 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-020-01325-8
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