News Paleontology

Earliest tree-dweller, burrower join mammal tree of life

Deep ancestors maybe not as boring ecologically as thought

Mammal ancestor climbs tree

HEY! UP HERE  A mammal ancestor about the size of a shrew already had the claws and elbows of a specialized tree climber roughly 165 million years ago.

April I. Neander/Univ. of Chicago

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

Meet two newly discovered ancestral mammals:  the oldest known subterranean specialist from the depths of mammalian history and the group’s oldest known tree-dweller.