In 165-Million-Year-Old Fossil, Evidence That Fur Predates Mammals
Megaconus Illustration by April Isch Meet Megaconus mammaliaformis, a furry proto-mammal and, in the words of one researcher, "your great-great-grand uncle 165 million years removed." Meet Megaconus mammaliaformis, a 165-million-year-old proto-mammal recently discovered in Inner Mongolia, China. This squirrel-sized dude evolved long before the rise of modern mammals, but the hair and fur residue found preserved in its fossil indicate that those traits existed even back in the Jurassic era. Hair and fur have generally been considered unique to mammals, so it's exciting to find that they could have been around even before the first mammals arrived on the evolutionary scene. This bolsters the 2006 finding of one other pre-mammalian fossil with fur, the only other hairy ancestor we've discovered. Megaconus probably ambled around with a gait similar to a modern rock hyrax or an armadillo, and had teeth similar to modern rodents. On its heels, it had a long,...