Exciting and unique event ... 3D fossil of the weirdest mammal

Hicham boumejout

Researchers in a new study said that they found on the island of Madagascar the remnants of a strange animal from mammals, who had lived about 66 million years ago and then became extinct for unknown reasons, but surprisingly, its remains were found almost complete, and they are three dimensions, as it is believed to be the largest mammal that She lived in that era.

An exciting event
known to all the remains of animals or humans from ancient times that have been found so far with one dimension (flat), under the influence of the pressure of geological layers, except that the remains of this animal were three-dimensional and is an exciting event in itself.

"The discovery is very exciting because it is the first time that we have found almost complete animal remains," lead researcher Dr. David Cross of the University of Colorado's Institute of Earth Sciences said in a statement via e-mail to Island Net.

He added that "the animal seems somewhat strange because it differs from all the mammals that we know, which is the size of a large mouse, where we estimated its length by about 52 centimeters, and weighs about three kilograms, but we are more likely to have a greater weight because the remains we found belong to one of its young."

Crazy animal
Cross says, "We named this animal Adalatherium hui, a Malagasy local name that means" crazy animal "and has amazing properties, making flexible movements as if without a backbone.

He adds, "It differs in many features from other mammals, because it has cutting front teeth like rodents and posterior teeth to cut grass, which makes us believe that it is a grass animal and can dig to form burrows."

"The number of vertebrae formed for its spine exceeds the number of vertebrae formed for the rest of the animals in that era. We are already facing a rare animal that gives us a picture of the animals that lived in the islands at that time."

According to the study published in the journal Nature on April 29th, this animal belongs to a family of mammals called Gondwanatherians, and the first remains of this family were found in 1980 in Argentina, but the remains of this species discovered on the island of Madagascar are unique.

It is nowhere else to
have found these remains that were without a skull, says Dr. David Kroos, a Malagasy university student in June 1999 northeast of the island, and was preserved but only studied in early 2002.

But in 2014 the skull was found close to the first site and all the remains were subjected to the photos of the scanner, where the parts were installed, and more details about this animal will be published in the extensive study being prepared in the framework of a film about mammals.

Scientists say that the island of Madagascar previously lived on animals that we do not find anywhere else, managed to live and adapt in difficult and different circumstances, given that its area is limited.

It is noteworthy that the island of Madagascar was a piece of India, and it was separated geologically about a hundred million years ago, and before it became with the passage of time closer to Africa than to Asia, and this also constitutes a point of reflection where scientists aspire to study how the island animals lived while mobile.