)
This 'Crazy Beast' From Madagascar Was a Weird Early Mammal That Lived Among Dinosaurs
News 18Researchers have uncovered the fossil of an early mammal named the “crazy beast” that lived 66 million years ago alongside dinosaurs and giant crocodiles on Madagascar, and it’s unlike any mammal ever known, living or extinct. “Knowing what we know about the skeletal anatomy of all living and extinct mammals, it is difficult to imagine that a mammal like Adalatherium could have evolved; it bends and even breaks a lot of rules,” said David Krause, lead study author, senior curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and professor emeritus at Stony Brook University, in a press call in April. Krause said its back teeth “are from outer space.” The animal’s backbone contained more vertebrae than any known mammal from the Mesozoic era. This allowed animals and dinosaurs on Madagascar, like Adalatherium, “ample time to develop its many ludicrous features,” Krause said.
History of this topic
Giant salamander-like monster with huge teeth and a head shaped 'like a toilet seat' roamed Africa’s swamps 40 million years before the dinosaurs, scientists say
Daily Mail
Small mammals may have hunted dinosaurs for food, a new study says
Hindustan Times
Dramatic fossil shows mammal attacking dinosaur
The Hindu
Scientists Exhume Ancient Cat-sized Mammal Named After The Hobbit's 'Beorn'
News 18
Scientists discover new species of giant rhino ‘taller than giraffe’
The IndependentDiscover Related
