7 Amazing Living Fossils
Want to see history? You could go to a museum--or you could go to the zoo and check out these animals that haven't changed for tens of millions of years. Researchers recently uncovered a new and remarkable animal in the fossil record in China: Rugosodon eurasiaticus, a chipmunk-like creature that was a member of the multituberculate family. The multitberculates, a sort of proto-rodent family, were eventually out-competed by the first rodents, and went extinct. But Rugosodon eurasiaticus is remarkable for its longevity. It's been found in the fossil record with examples dated from both 170 million and 35 million years ago, making it the longest-lived (and, by some definitions, therefore the "most successful") mammal known to science. There are lots of animals still around that are remarkably unchanged from millions of years ago. These are popularly called "living fossils," though that phrase is not usually used by scientists, and often give us...