We humans are mammals. After all, our offspring is born alive and initially receives breast milk as food. This is also case with mice, rats, pigs and dogs – all animals with whom we are related in broadest sense. Now scientists in Britain have discovered fossils of earliest known mammal ancestors of mankind. They found teeth of two small, rat-like mammals in county of Dorset in southwest of England. The animals lived an estimated 145 million years ago in age of dinosaurs, as researchers at University of Portsmouth Mitted. The scientists published ir study in journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica (Sweetman et al., 2017).

The discovery in cliffs on coast made a student of university. According to scientists, two teeth are likely to belong to oldest fossils, "which count towards mammalian lineage from which our own species developed". When student saw how highly developed excavated teeth of extinct animals were from Early Cretaceous Period, he was directly clear: y must originate from mammals that resembled species whose existence was previously suspected only from Late Cretaceous period. Because only from that time one had hirto found corresponding remains.

The animals were hairy and probably nocturnal. These rat mice, as could be called primal mammals, are also ancestors of most still living mammals from blue to dwarf shrew, researchers write in ir publication.

Professor David Martill of University of Portsmouth was most surprised that "a student, a beginner, is able to make a remarkable discovery in paleontology". One of two animals, whose remains student had studied, probably ate insects, and or is likely to plant. That could also be reconstructed from fund.

One of specimens to which teeth belonged, researchers named Charlie Newmann, landlord of a pub near site: it is now called Durlstorium Newmani. The or was named after Paul Ensom, a paleontologists from region: Dulstodon Ensomi.

Date Of Update: 08 November 2017, 12:03