masterwordsmith-unplugged

Just a while ago, my friend TO who lives in Hertford sent me a link that knocked me out.
According to that article, scientists claim that a mouse-like creature that scurried about in bushes and trees 160 million years ago gave rise to humans.

Apparently, that small, furry placental mammal lived in what is now north east China during the Jurassic era when dinosaurs ruled the Earth.

This proposition came about when its remarkably well preserved remains were dug up in the fossil-rich region of Liaoning Province which has also produced ancient evidence of feathered dinosaurs and primitive birds.

The fossil, named Juramaia sinensis, is the oldest ever found of a group of animals called the eutherians, or placentals, that give birth to live young.

Others include cows, rats, monkeys, lions, tigers, dogs, horses, whales and, of course, our own group of mammals, the primates.

Juramaia, hairy and about the size of a mouse, provides fossil evidence of the date when eutherian mammals diverged from other mammals - metatherians whose descendants include marsupials such as kangaroos and monotremes such as the platypus.




CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THIS VERY INTERESTING ARTICLE!

So far, there are 80 comments to that article! A must-read! Have a nice day!