Dan Lagiovane, Media Relations Manager
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Carnegie Museum Contact: Dan Lagiovane
Tel: (412) 622-3361; Email: Lagiovaned@CarnegieMNH.org

May 24, 2001

Carnegie Museum of Natural History Researcher Discovers Fossil of Tiny Mammal
Discovery provides important new evidence on the earliest evolution of mammals

Available Images

Image 1	4KB color GIF, 72dpi, 200px x 140px 20KB color JPEG, 72dpi, 501px x 350px 296KB color TIFF, 300dpi, 2.1" x 1.5"
Location of the fossil site of the new mammal Hadrocodium wui: Lufeng Basin (Lufeng County), Yunnan Province, China. The fossil is from the Lower Lufeng Formation (Early Jurassic, 200~190 million years). This newly described mammal is at least 195 million years old.
Image 2	12KB color JPEG, 72dpi, 200px x 173px 656KB color JPEG, 72dpi, 501px x 434px 1004KB color TIFF, 300dpi, 2.0" x 1.8"
Location of the fossil site of the new mammal Hadrocodium wui: Lufeng Basin (Lufeng County), Yunnan Province, China. The fossil is from the Lower Lufeng Formation (Early Jurassic, 200~190 million years). This newly described mammal is at least 195 million years old.
Image 3	8KB color JPEG, 72dpi, 200px x 150px 148KB color JPEG, 72dpi, 500px x 375px 1.5MB color TIFF, 400dpi, 2.1" x 1.6"
(by Klingler/CMNH) - The tiny skull of the new mammal Hadrocodium (Illustration by Mark A. Klingler, Carnegie Museum of Natural History). Skull is only about ~13 millimeter (mm) or ~0.5 inch long. It is in comparison to a regular-sized paper clip (32mm or 1.25 in). The skull of Hadrocodium is the smallest of all Mesozoic mammals, and one of the smallest mammals yet known.
Image 4	12KB color JPEG, 72dpi, 200px x 259px 88KB color JPEG, 72dpi, 500px x 647px 42.8MB color TIFF, 400dpi, 8.5" x 11"
(Klingler/CMNH) -- The artistic reconstruction of the new mammal Hadrocodium (Illustration by Mark A. Klingler, Carnegie Museum of Natural History). The reconstruction of body and skull is in juxtaposition with a regular-sized paper clip (32mm or 1.25 in). The estimated weight of the whole animal is about 2 grams
Image 5	4KB color GIF, 72dpi, 200px x 110px 48KB color GIF, 72dpi, 500px x 276px 7.4MB color TIFF, 300dpi, 7.2" x 4"
(Luo/CMNH) -- Position of the newly described mammal Hadrocodium on the mammalian famiy tree. Hadrocodium's skull shows that it is very advanced for its early age. It is more closely related to the living mammals than other mammaliaforms (extinct but very close relatives to extant mammals) and non-mammalian cynodonts (primitive "mammal-like reptiles"). Hadrocodium is the closest relative ("sister taxon") to the living mammals (consisting of the living monotremes such as the platypus, the marsupial kangaroo and human).
Image 6	16KB color JPEG, 72dpi, 200px x 267px 248KB color JPEG, 72dpi, 480px x 640px 1.3MB color TIFF, 300dpi, 2" x 2.7"
Dr. Zhe-Xi Luo is holding up the tiny skull of Hadrocodium for a close look.
Image 7 (by Klingler/CMNH) Dr. Zhe-Xi Luo is holding up the tiny skull of Hadrocodium for a close look.	12KB color JPEG, 72dpi, 200px x 150px 84KB color JPEG, 72dpi, 320px x 240px 816KB color TIFF, 300dpi, 2" x 1.5"
Image 8 (by Klingler/CMNH) Dr. Zhe-Xi Luo is holding up the fossil specimen of Hadrocodium.	16KB color JPEG, 72dpi, 200px x 267px 180KB color JPEG, 72dpi, 450px x 601px 452KB color TIFF, 300dpi, 1.1" x 1.5"
Image 9 (by Klingler/Luo/CMNH) The tiny skull of Hadrocodium is smaller than even a human thumb nail.	8KB color JPEG, 72dpi, 200px x 149px 112KB color JPEG, 72dpi, 462px x 345px 888KB color TIFF, 300dpi, 2.1" x 1.57"
Image 10	12KB color JPEG, 72dpi, 200px x 124px 100KB color JPEG, 72dpi, 500px x 311px 6.9MB color TIFF, 400dpi, 4.93" x 3"
Dr. Zhe-Xi Luo (Carnegie Museum of Natural History) and Dr. Alfred W. Crompton (Harvard University) working in the Early Jurassic sediments of the Lufeng Basin, Yunnan, China. Another member of the research team is Professor Ai-Lin Sun of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing) (not in photograph).