Chinese and American paleontologists discover a new Mesozoic mammal; Ear structure shows how mammalian ear evolution occurred while dinosaurs dominated the world

An international team of paleontologists has discovered a new species of mammal that lived 123 million years ago in what is now the Liaoning Province in northeastern China. The newly discovered animal, Maotherium asiaticus, comes from famous fossil-rich beds of the Yixian Formation. This new remarkably well preserved fossil, as reported in the October 9 issue of the prestigious journal Science, offers an important insight into how the mammalian middle ear evolved. The discoveries of such exquisite dinosaur-age mammals from China provide developmental biologists and paleontologists with evidence of how developmental mechanisms have impacted the morphological (body-structure) evolution of the earliest mammals and sheds light on how complex structures can arise in evolution because of changes in developmental pathways.

Click here to read the press release. Illustration: Mark A. Klingler, Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

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The mission of the Section of Vertebrate Paleontology at Carnegie Museum of Natural History is to expand the scientific understanding of fossil vertebrates through original research, to collect and preserve vertebrate fossils through field exploration and curation of our fossil collection, and to participate in science education through museum exhibitions, public education, and scientific lectures.

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