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Meet the Saber-Toothed Squirrel

Posted by samzenpus on from the we're-going-to-need-a-bigger-acorn dept.

sciencehabit writes "Researchers have discovered the fossil remains of a 94-million-year-old squirrel-like critter with a long, narrow snout and a pair of curved saber-fangs that it would have likely used to pierce its insect prey. The creature, pieced together from skull fragments unearthed in Argentina and dubbed Cronopio dentiacutus, was not ancestral to us or any living mammal. Instead, it belonged to an extinct group called dryolestoids, a cadre of fuzzy mammals that scurried about in the shadow of long-necked dinosaurs."

5 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. Did they find? by camperdave · · Score: 5, Funny

    Did they find it clutching a fossilized acorn?

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    When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    1. Re:Did they find? by owlstead · · Score: 2

      No, it is actually *in the article* that it didn't.

    2. Re:Did they find? by Cryacin · · Score: 2

      You must be a real hoot at parties.

      --
      Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
  2. Already Discovered in Tennessee! by Mister+Transistor · · Score: 2

    Yes, it's called a Jackalope - did it have antlers, too?

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    -- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
  3. Re:Bah! by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 2

    Oh, it's just a harmless little squirrel, isn't it? Well, it's always the same. But do they listen to me?

    Those dinosaurs better not risk a frontal assault. That squirrel's dynamite!

    (ref)