earliest known common mammal ancestor
Maintained by pioweb@ucsc.edu. The common ancestor of placental mammals probably looked like Eomaia scansoria, the earliest known placental mammal, shown here in an artist's reconstruction based on a 125-million-year-old fossil skeleton found in China in 2002.aintained by pioweb@ucsc.edu. The common ancestor of placental mammals probably looked like Eomaia scansoria, the earliest known placental mammal, shown here in an artist's reconstruction based on a 125-million-year-old fossil skeleton found in China in 2002.
Named the Jurassic mother from China (Juramaia sinensis), the newfound fossil species is the earliest known ancestor of placental mammalsâanimals, such as humans, that give birth to relatively mature, live youngâaccording to a new study.See: Earliest Known Ancestor of Placental Mammals Discovered.) Both lineages started out small and got lucky breaks when they moved up into the forest canopy, out of reach of most dinosaurs and other mammals that stalked the ground, Luo said.