Fossil evidence of 'hibernation-like' state in 250-million-year-old Antarctic animal
Thursday, August 27, 2020 - 12:10
in Paleontology & Archaeology
Scientists report evidence of a hibernation-like state in Lystrosaurus, an animal that lived in Antarctica during the Early Triassic, some 250 million years ago. The fossils are the oldest evidence of a hibernation-like state in a vertebrate, and indicate that torpor -- a general term for hibernation and similar states in which animals temporarily lower their metabolic rate to get through a tough season -- arose in vertebrates even before mammals and dinosaurs evolved.