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The story of two of the strangest animals on this planet got a bit strange person, thanks to the evidence revealed by a single fossil sample that scientists say now is a long predecessor. The new research can raise what is known as the development of the most primitive mammals alive today.
It is found in Australia and New Guinea, and it is called gnoine cells and echidna, which are unique as they are the only mammals that lay eggs.
The amphibious Platypus contains an invoice and two paved feet, such as ducks, and beaver tail. The small creature spends a lot of his time searching for food in water. Echidna – known appropriately as spinal anteater – lives completely on the floor, is covered in a pointed quols and has background feet facing back, kicking dirt while animal burrows are on the ground. There is no animal that has teeth, and although they produce milk, they secrete it through his skin (often pugles) to beat, because they lack nipples.
“There is a lot of strangeness to wander around these small things,” said Dr. Guirmo War Roger, a professor in the Department of anatomical Sciences and Neuroscience at Louisville University in Kentucky, who is studying early mammals’ development.
“It’s one of the distinctive mammals,” Roger said. “Typical mammals may share much more than dinosaurs in biology with a monochrome more than a horse, dog, cat, or ourselves.” Therefore, he said, Monotremes provides a window in the origins of mammals on the ground.
The outlook is inside an ancient fossil
This fossil humerus bone was discovered in 1993 in Dinosaur Cove. The researchers found that Al -Ahfouri had almost almost semi -Platib’s properties. – Museums Victoria
A new study published on Monday in the magazine The facts of the National Academy of Sciences It opens that window a little further. Research led by the excavation scientist Susan Hand, Fakhri Professor at the Faculty of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences at New South Wales University, reveals the inner structure of the only well -known fossil sample of Monotreim Cadbury, who lived more than 100 million years ago.
Al -Ahfar, the humerus, or the upper arm bone, was discovered in 1993 in the Dinosaur Cove in southeast Australia. From the outside, the sample looked more like a bone of Echidna land housing more than water -loving background cells. But when the researchers looked inside, they saw something different.
“By using advanced 3D photo methods, we were able to shed light on the previously invisible features of this old bone, and they have revealed a very unexpected story,” said Dr. Laura Wilson, a great lecture at the College of Biological Sciences and the Environment at the university.
The team found it internally, Al -Ahfouri had properties of semi -cut -cut cells: a thicker bone wall and a smaller central cavity. Together, these features make heavier, and they are useful in aquatic animals because they reduce floating, so it is easier for underwater diving creatures to feed for food. On the contrary, echidnas, which only lives on the floor, has much lighter and lighter bones.
This result supports the popular hypothesis, but not proven, that Kryorycts is a common predecessor for both PlatyPus and Echidna, and that at the time of dinosaurs, he might have lived at least in the water.
“Our study indicates that the amphibious lifestyle in modern Platipus had its origins at least 100 million years ago,” Hand said, “And that Echidnas has been committed much later to the entire lifestyle of the Earth.”
The development of background cells and echidnas tells the story of mammals
A comparison shows the cross (from the left) kryorycts (A), PlatyPus (b) and echidna (C) the humerus bone. Hand and others.
There are well-known examples of animals that develop from Earth to water-for example Land animals and Sharing proportions with river mares. But there are some examples that show the development of water to the ground. Wilson said that the transition requires “major changes in the muscles and bones system”, including the new locations of the ends of life on Earth and lighter bones to make the move less intensity in energy.
A transition from Earth to the waters can explain the outstanding outstanding echidna feet, which HAND said may have inherited from the swimming predecessor who used his background as vudes.
“I think it proves very elegant the suggestion that these animals have been adapted to an almost very early life,” said Roger, who did not participate in the study, although he was in contact with the authors during their research.
He said that the primitive history of these unusual animals is “truly decisive” for our understanding of how mammals (including humans).
He said: “Monotremes have been these live effects from a very long past. You and the back eternity are likely to be another common predecessor for more than 180 million years.” “There is no way to predict the biology of this last joint grandfather without animals like monotremes.”
Amanda Schobak is a scientific and health journalist in New York City.
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