Anannya Roy, Amity University Kolkata
Two new species of Mammal-like burrowing animals have been discovered in Northeastern China. These animals lived around 120 million years ago, and though both are distantly related, they have independently evolved the traits for digging. Paleontologists call them the first “Scratch-diggers” of the ecosystem.
Organisms live underground for a variety of reasons which ranges from maintaining a constant body temperature, protecting themselves against predators as well as for searching foods like insects and plant roots.
The fossils belong to organisms, which are said to be the predecessors of mammals. They were discovered in JeholBiota that represents the early Cretaceous epoch that was around 145 to 100 million years ago.
One of the organisms discovered was called Tritylodontid and is a mammal-like reptile. Interestingly it is the first of its kind to be identified in this Biota. The length is around one foot. Its scientific name is “Fossiomanussinesis”. Fossio is the Greek word for digging and Manus means ‘hand’, sinesis, “from China”.
The other organism discovered is “Jueconodoncheni” (Jue means Digging and Conodon refers to Cuspate teeth). This is aeutriconodontan, who is a distant cousin of MordernPlancental mammals and marsupials. The length is 7 inches.
Borrowing mammals including the ones discovered have special features which are unique to them. The main features include short limbs, short forelimbs with robust hands and short tails. These traits allow them to dig efficiently. Besides these hallmark features, they also have an elongated vertebral column, which the scientists found remarkable. Typical mammals have 26 vertebrae but Fossiomanus have 38. Looking through records of studies in developmental biology, it was found that the variations were due to a genetic mutation in the early stages of embryonic development.
Also read: World day for safety and health at work 2021
Source : Mao, F., Zhang, C., Liu, C. et al. Fossoriality and evolutionary development in two Cretaceous mammaliamorphs. Nature 592, 577–582 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03433-2 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03433-2
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