Saber-Toothed Squirrel

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Saber-Toothed Squirrel

Postby Shadowwolf » Nov 4th, '11, 14:07

Paleontologist Guillermo Rougier, Ph.D., professor of anatomical sciences and neurobiology at the University of Louisville, and his team have reported their discovery of two skulls from the first known mammal of the early Late Cretaceous period of South America. The fossils break a roughly 60 million-year gap in the currently known mammalian record of the continent and provide new clues on the early evolution of mammals.

Details of their find are published Nov. 3 in Nature. Co-authors are Sebastián Apesteguía of Argentina's Universidad Maimónides and doctoral student Leandro C. Gaetano.

The new critter, named Cronopio dentiacutus by the paleontologists, is a dryolestoid, an extinct group distantly related to today's marsupials and placentals.


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111102161050.htm

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Re: Saber-Toothed Squirrel

Postby M Paul Lloyd » Nov 4th, '11, 14:22

Aye viscous wee beasties they are.......... :mrgreen:
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Re: Saber-Toothed Squirrel

Postby Flakkarin » Nov 4th, '11, 20:33

I clicked on the link purely to see the "artist's depiction", I love those things!
<pedantic> Incidentally, if that's an apatosaurus (brontosaurus) in the background then it's inaccurate, those guys lived in the Jurassic, not Cretaceous </pedantic>
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Re: Saber-Toothed Squirrel

Postby M Paul Lloyd » Nov 5th, '11, 07:25

Well spotted Flakkarin. ;)

They do look kind of cute don't they. In a sort of 'rip yer throat out given half a chance' kind of way. :mrgreen:
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Re: Saber-Toothed Squirrel

Postby Thinker » Nov 5th, '11, 14:11

Flakkarin wrote:I clicked on the link purely to see the "artist's depiction", I love those things!
<pedantic> Incidentally, if that's an apatosaurus (brontosaurus) in the background then it's inaccurate, those guys lived in the Jurassic, not Cretaceous </pedantic>


I watched an episode of Peppa Pig the other day (Anyone got little ones), Potato City is the precise episode and in it, a young animal asked why Mr. Potato had dinosaurs in the first place, to which he said "Becasue Dinosaurs...ate potatoes?". Then the young animal also said that Tricerotops was in the cretacious period rather that jurassic or something to that effect. I thought it was rather an intelligent comment on a kids programme aimed at children aged 2-5.

Sorry, slightly off topic! :mrgreen:
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Re: Saber-Toothed Squirrel

Postby M Paul Lloyd » Nov 5th, '11, 15:33

Thats exactly the sort of comment my youngest would make about dinosaurs as already she knew far more about them than is probably healthy for someone who was four years old. :?
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