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An artist’s visualization of Megacauda, a 165-million-year-old mammal predecessor from China, which had strong hind limbs and a broad tail for swimming. A team of UChicago scientists announced the new Jurassic-era species, which resemble otters.<\/p>\n
Illustration by April I. Neander\/University of Chicago<\/p>\n
The U of C explained that all modern mammals, humans included, have hyoid bones linking the mouth and throat passage to the esophagus and larynx. These bones are arranged in a U-shaped saddle, and suspended to the skull by a chain of bony segments, the university explained.<\/p>\n
This structure allows mammals to use their throat muscles to chew food one lump at a time, instead of having to gulp down enormous bites or even entire prey animals like an alligator might. The structure also allows baby mammals to suckle their mothers’ milk.<\/p>\n
UChicago explained that Megacauda comes from the extinct lineage of “docodonts,” which are relatives of mammals from the Mesozoic era. Luo and his colleagues found a smaller docodont with similar hyoid bones in 2019, but Megacauda is a larger creature \u2014 40 to 50 centimeters long and 1 to 2 kilograms in weight.<\/p>\n
Its palatal and pharyngeal anatomy is similar to the throat muscles of a modern opossum, study co-author Peishu Li, who earned his Ph.D. in Integrative Biology at UChicago and is now on the faculty at Ohio University, was quoted in the release.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the back legs had long outer digits like a platypus with wide, H-shaped vertebrae and a broad tail outline, indicating that Megacauda was a good swimmer with a “semi-aquatic” lifestyle. The skull and robust canine and shearing cheek teeth indicated that Megacauda could cut and chew meat in its mouth differently from most modern carnivorous mammals, UChicago said.<\/p>\n
Megacauda even had bits of vertebrate bones in its stomach, which may have meant it could prey on small animals like salamanders, the university said.<\/p>\n
The fossil was found in the Inner Mongolia region of China, and imaged with CT scanning and X-ray fluorescence photography amid the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
The fossil slab was separated into pieces for scanning, and UChicago scientific artist and CT imaging expert April Neander visualized the creature’s structures in fine detail.<\/p>\n
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