Top 10 Technological Advancements of CAGS 2013

Top8. Jurassic multituberculate mammal was discovered in Liaoning, China for the first time

Updated :03,05,2014

    Researcher Ji Q. with his team from the Institute of Geology Study, under the support of the 973 project, the Geological Survey Project and the U.S. Natural Science Foundation and University of Chicago, discovered a mammal fossil having complete dentation and skeleton that dates back to 160Ma in Jianchang, Liaoning. As the teeth of the fresh fossil show clear wrinkle texture and the mammal having closest relation with it is originated from the Jurassic strata in West Europe, it is named a completely new species - rugosodon eurasiaticus. The rugosodon eurasiaticus is a night-active mammal that lived in temperate lake shore environment. It is probably a terrestrial, phytophagous mammal that weighed about 78-68g. It is the earliest and most completely preserved multituberculata mammal so far. This finding was published in the world-famous "Science" magazine with important implications on the earliest evolution, feeding differentiation and motion-adaptive origin of multituberculates.

Restitute picture of the rugosodon eurasiaticus