125 MYA Fossil Mammal Found

[Richard W Travsky <rtravsky@uwyo.edu>]

Three links.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/mammal020424.html

Scientists say they've found the earliest known ancestor of an
evolutionary lineage that includes most of today's mammals, a mouselike
creature that lived 125 million years ago.

The fossil, found in northeastern China, is so well-preserved it shows
traces of fur, giving researchers some of their best evidence yet on how
mammals evolved during the age of dinosaurs.



http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992210

Our earliest mammalian ancestor was a dormouse-like creature that liked to
rummage around in small shrubs. The tiny animal, discovered stunningly
preserved in a Chinese lake bed, could fit in the palm of your hand. 

   
Modern dormice also clamber nimbly through bushes (HPA) 
Unusually, it reveals not only when placental mammals split from
marsupials, but also how they lived. Eomaia, which means "ancient mother,"
comes from the Yixian formation, the source of the famous feathered
dinosaurs. 

For most early mammals all we have to go on are a few tiny teeth. But the
nearly complete skeleton of Eomaia includes tiny hand and toe bones, plus
a clearly recognisable coat of longer hair overlaying shorter fur. 

About 16 centimetres long and 10 cm from nose to rump, Eomaia resembled a
large dormouse. Its long fingers and claws could wrap around small twigs
and grasp bark. Skeletal features show it was closer to modern placental
mammals than to marsupials, so the two groups must have split before
Eomaia came into existence about 125 million years ago. 



http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,4196095%255E1702,00.html

SCIENTISTS have found a 125-million-year-old fossil of a placental mammal
- the group which includes humans - the oldest such discovery to date, the
journal Nature reports in today's issue.
...
It has been given the scientific name Eomaia scansoria, from the Greek Eo
for dawn, maia for dawn and scansoria, from Latin for its specialised
features it used for climbing.