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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Discovery of a 160-million-year-old fossil represents a new milestone in early mammal evolution

A remarkably well-preserved fossil discovered in northeast China provides new information about the earliest ancestors of most of today’s mammal species—the placental mammals. According to a paper published August 25, 2011, in the prestigious journal Nature, this fossil represents a new milestone in mammal evolution that was reached 35 million years earlier than previously thought, filling an important gap in the fossil record and helping to calibrate modern, DNA-based methods of dating the evolution. Click here to read full press release.

Illustration: Mark A. Klingler, Carnegie Museum of Natural History