In the new work, the authors studied the teeth and lower jaw bones of 29 ancient ungulates, or condylartrae, from
As a result, it became known about three new species of ancient mammals, they were named:
- Miniconus jeanninae,
- Conacodon hettingeri,
- Beornus honeyi.
All three species belong to the family of periptychids -These are extinct placentals. The largest representative was the size of a modern domestic cat, but during the time of dinosaurs, mammals were even smaller. This suggests that their extinction provided an opportunity for mammals to evolve.
When dinosaurs become extinct, access to foodnutrition and other environmental resources allowed mammals to develop rapidly, diversify anatomy and increase body size. They clearly seized the opportunity, as we can see from the diversity of new mammalian species that arose in a relatively short time after the mass extinction.
Madeleine Atteberry, lead author of the study
According to the authors of the new work, mammals were omnivores, so they developed teeth with which they could grind both plant and animal food.
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