Paleontologists have discovered a new species of early gorgonopsian therapsid that was part of the ancient summer humid biome of equatorial Pangea.
Recreating the life of the Gorgonopsians of Mallorca in a floodplain environment. Image credit: Henry Sutherland Sharpe.
Therapsids were a major component of Permian terrestrial ecosystems around the world, eventually giving rise to mammals in the early Mesozoic Era.
However, little is currently known about when and where it originated.
“Therapsids are a diverse and ecologically successful clade of tetrapods, of which the modern representatives are mammals,” says paleontologist at the Museum of Science and Nature in Barea and the Paleontological Institute of Catalonia. said Dr. Rafel Matamares and colleagues.
“The roots of this clade date back to the late Paleozoic era, when non-mammalian therapsids were important components of terrestrial ecosystems.”
“The oldest distinct therapsids known to date were Laranimus dashankoensisprobably from the Rhodian (Late Middle Permian) deposits of Central East Asia.
“However, phylogenetic analyzes consistently show that therapsids are a sister group to the pterosaur ‘perisaurian’ class monoapsids, which originated in Pennsylvania (about 320 million years ago). It suggests that
“This implies a long lineage of therapsid ghosts spanning about 40 million years.”
The newly discovered therapsid is the oldest of its kind, and possibly the oldest therapsid ever discovered.
This dog-like saber-toothed animal does not yet have a species name, but it belongs to a group of therapsids called gorgonopsids.
“Gorgonopsids are more closely related to mammals than to other modern animals,” said Dr. Ken Angielczyk, a paleontologist at the Field Museum.
“They have no modern descendants and are not our direct ancestors, but they are related to species that were our direct ancestors.”
“The oldest known gorgonopsids lived about 265 million years ago, but the newer fossils date from 270 to 280 million years ago.”
“This is probably the oldest chrysophyte on Earth,” said Dr. Josep Fortuny, a paleontologist at the Miquel Crusafont Catalan Institute of Paleontology.
This fossil was discovered on the Spanish island of Mallorca in the Mediterranean Sea. However, during the time of the Gorgonopsians, Mallorca was part of the supercontinent Pangea.
“The amount of bone remains is surprising,” Dr. Matamares said.
“We found everything from fragments of skulls, vertebrae and ribs to a very well-preserved femur.”
“In fact, when we started this excavation, we did not expect to find so many fossils of this type of animal in Mallorca.”
“If you saw this animal walking down the street, you would think it would look a little like a medium-sized dog, maybe about the size of a husky, but that’s not entirely true,” says Dr. Angielczyk.
“It didn’t have any fur, and it probably didn’t have dog ears.”
“But this is the oldest animal with long, blade-like canine teeth that scientists have ever discovered.”
“These saber-like teeth suggest that this gorgonopsid was the top predator of its time.”
The fact that this gorgonopsian is tens of millions of years older than its closest relatives has changed scientists’ understanding of the evolutionary time of therapsids, key milestones to the emergence of mammals, and, by extension, where we came from. It tells us something about Tanoka.
“Before the age of dinosaurs, there was the age of our ancient mammalian relatives,” Dr. Angielczyk said.
“Most of those ancient mammal relatives looked nothing like what we think of as mammals today.”
“But they were really diverse and had different ecological roles.”
“This new fossil discovery is another piece of the puzzle of how mammals evolved.”
This finding is reported in the following article: paper Published in a magazine nature communications.
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R. Matamares-Andrew others. 2024. Early-Middle Permian Mediterranean gorgonopsids suggest an equatorial origin for therapsids. Nat Commune 15, 10346; doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-54425-5
Source: www.sci.news
