Amazing Zoology

This article was originally posted at Amazing Zoology . View original article at http://amzoo.in/gxegk Reconstruction of ancestral placental mammal. Image Credit: Carl Buell Placental mammals are mammals chatacterised by the presence of a plaenta during development. A Mass extinction in the Cretaceous period (K/Pg Boundary) led to the extinction of non avian dinosaurs. The ancestors of placental mammals were present during this period. The extinction of carnivorous and herbivorous dinosaurs opened a variery of dietary niches. Existing mammals utilized the opportunity and radiated into all the available niches. This is the story of evolution of placental mammals as we have learned from fossils. Now a recent scientific study concluded that the ancestoral placental mammal was an insectivore or insect eater. But how did they reach the conclusion? Let’s see. The body of almost all insects is covered with a tough carbohydrate material called chitin. So every animal that feeds on insects...

This article was originally posted at Amazing Zoology . View original article at http://amzoo.in/4yfu- Image Credit: Authors of the publication at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gr.2017.06.001 Scientists have recently made an incredible discovery of a piece of amber that contained well preserved remains of an alomost complete bird hatchling. The discovery was made from Burma. The research team suspects that the little bird fell into a pool of conifer sap in the early stages of its development, mostly soon after it hatched, and got trapped in the glue like plant sap. The amber had fossilied remains of head, neck, wings and tail of a bird hatchling. The interesting thing is that the amber had perfectly preserved the feathers, claws and flesh. The arrangement of feathers and its attachemnt in skin, microstructure of the feather and pigmentation patters could easily be studied from the specimen. The hatchling had an unusual kind of feather arrangement where the flight feathers were combined wit...

This article was originally posted at Amazing Zoology . View original article at http://amzoo.in/lstu1 Image Credit: Joe Tucciarone/Science Photo Library Name:   Brachiosaurus ‭ (‬Arm lizard‭). Phonetic:  Brak-he-o-dore-us. Named By:  Elmer S.‭ ‬Riggs‭ ‬-‭ ‬1903. Classification:  Chordata,‭ ‬Reptilia,‭ ‬Dinosauria,‭ ‬Saurischia,‭ ‬Sauropoda,‭ ‬Titanosauriformes,‭ ‬Brachiosauridae. Species:   B.‭ ‬altithorax  (type). Type:  Herbivore. Size:  Approximately‭ ‬26‭ ‬meters long. Known locations:  USA,‭ ‬Morrison formation. Time period:  Kimmeridgian of the Jurassic. Fossil representation:  Several specimens,‭ ‬the most complete of which is believed to have come from a sub adult. The sauropod dinosaur Brachiosaurus earned its name from the fact that the ar...