‘Remarkably complete’ fossil found in Colorado gives clues to life after dinosaurs
Fossils from a newly discovered species of mammal in Colorado may offer clues into how life rebounded after Earth’s last mass extinction that killed off the dinosaurs, researchers say.
The new species is called Militocodon lydae and was about the size of a chinchilla, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science said in a May 3 news release. It is part of a group of animals that would eventually lead to all modern hoofed mammals, including deer, cows, and pigs, researchers said.
Researchers uncovered “remarkably complete” fossils from the skull and jaws of the mammal in rocks that date back to the period just after the extinction of the dinosaurs in the Corral Bluffs area at the edge of Colorado Springs, the group said.
Researchers haven’t been able to figure out exactly how and when life started bouncing back after the dinosaur extinction because of “notoriously poor fossil record.”
The Militocodon lydae discovery “provides important clues about the explosive diversification of mammals” after dinosaurs and may allow researchers to “paint a vivid picture of how and when life rebounded after Earth’s darkest hour,” researchers said.
“Rocks from this interval of time have a notoriously poor fossil record and the discovery and description of a fossil mammal skull is an important step forward in documenting the earliest diversification of mammals after Earth’s last mass extinction,” said Dr. Tyler Lyson, the museum’s curator of vertebrate paleontology.
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