Scientists discovered an incredibly resilient ancient mammal that is believed to have survived the extinction of the dinosaurs.
The previously unknown species, dubbed Kimbetopsalis simmonsae, comes from a small group of mammals that resembled modern day rodents, the University of Edinburgh reported. These animals originated 100 million years before the mass dinosaur extinction, and were characterized by a dental pattern composed of sharp incisors and molars with lots of cusps.
The ancient creatures appear to have survived the extinction of the dinosaurs, and spread across what is now Asia and North America before being replaced by modern rodents. The group is believed to have died out about 35 million years ago, possibly because competitive rodents dominated food sources and reproduced more rapidly.
"Finding this new mammal was a pleasant surprise. It helps fill an important gap in the record of this group of mammals. It's interesting that this odd, now extinct group, was among the few to survive the mass extinction and thrive in the aftermath. It may be because they were among the few mammals that were already well-suited to eating plants when the extinction came. This new species helps to show just how fast they were evolving to take advantage of conditions in the post-extinction world," said Thomas Williamson of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.
The discovery of the new species could help scientists gain a better understanding of mass extinction events, and has also updated the mammals' family tree. The ancient animal was potentially an ancestor of the largest species in this group, which resembled an enormous beaver.
"We could think of Kimbetopsalis as a primeval beaver, which lived only a few hundred thousand years after the asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs. The asteroid caused apocalyptic environmental change, but it seems like mammals began to recover pretty quickly afterwards," said Steve Brusatte, of the School of GeoSciences.
The findings were published in a recent edition of the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.
