New fossil species found in Mozambique reveals new data on ancient mammal relatives
Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - 20:30
in Paleontology & Archaeology
In the remote province of Niassa, Mozambique, a new species and genus of fossil vertebrate was found. The species is a distant relative of living mammals and is approximately 256 million years old. This new species belongs to a group of animals called synapsids. Synapsida includes a number of extinct lineages that dominated the communities on land in the Late Permian (260-252 million years ago), as well as living mammals and their direct ancestors.