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Ancestor of All Placental Mammals Revealed
sciencehabit writes "The ancestor of all placental mammals—the diverse lineage that includes almost all species of mammals living today, including humans—was a tiny, furry-tailed creature that evolved shortly after the dinosaurs disappeared, a new study suggests. The hypothetical creature, not found in the fossil record but inferred from it, probably was a tree-climbing, insect-eating mammal that weighed between 6 and 245 grams—somewhere between a small shrew and a mid-sized rat. It was furry, had a long tail, gave birth to a single young, and had a complex brain with a large lobe for interpreting smells and a corpus callosum, the bundle of nerve fibers that connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain. The period following the dinosaur die-offs could be considered a 'big bang' of mammalian diversification, with species representing as many as 10 major groups of placentals appearing within a 200,000-year interval."
Just sayin'.
A *POSSIBLE* ancestor that a study suggests *MIGHT* be what they thing. Maybe. Possibly.
In other words, the headline is, as usual, misleading.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
in this.
I'd like to call this ancestor ... "Bob".
The rough group of placentals from the wrong side of the tracks has a young placental who falls in love with a nice placental from the meadow.. but their parents disapprove...
Damn them whacky scientists. Me and my girl didn't come out some squirrel's butthole !
...it turned out to be Betty White.
Public money has been borrowed from future generations to give to researchers to generate conclusions.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
Within the past 200,000 years of human history, we're aware that Homo Sapiens Sapiens existed alongside other members of the Homo genus, including Homo Neanderthalis and Homo Floresiensis.
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
Rapid speciation occurs when niches are vacated via rapid environmental change and mass extinction. Without an existing species adapted to a given niche, odd mutations and within-species variation allows individuals of other species to adapt to the new niche (without being out-competed by existing well-adapted species). Look up sources on adaptive radiation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_radiation) as well as island biogeography and evolution if you are interested in learning more about the underlying mechanisms.
The fox, the ox, giraffe and shrew, echidna, caribou.
There is this video from discovery channel which shows the hypothetical furry creature as one of evolutionary steps to mankind, I personally find it interesting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwxCnV2PL2k
The Ornithorhynchus is a mamall but lay eggs. How does it relates?
Placentals are so mainstream when there exist monotremes.
I hate them, with their long tails and their stupid twitchy noses.
"The hypothetical creature, not found in the fossil record but inferred from it..." I know this is /., but c'mon.
Life is short; think quickly.
log10(6 / 245) = 1.6 orders of magnitude in their range for the weight of this animal. They might as well have said "it fits in a breadbox."
had a complex brain with a large lobe for interpreting smells and a corpus callosum, the bundle of ... etc
Somehow my brain kept interpreting this akin to the concerto for smells and a corpus callosum, interpreted by the brain rather than a large lobe, to interpret the smells, and a corpus callosum; the later is the bundle of... I reckon its something to do with commas and the mixed nature of details: purpose (for smell) with details of structure (the bundle etc).
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
and others would have us believe always existed alongside Homo sexuals as well.
Consider a hypothetical "evolutionary space", which has room for a certain number of instances of traits. For example, an ecosystem might be able to support 5k big awesome carnivores, or 20k small lame ones, or some ratio of the two. Now imagine such a space as it stood right near the end of the dinosaurs. When the dinosaurs were around, the "space" was full, the only evolutionary "improvements" that could take place were ones that were super effective. Then poof! dinos are gone; a lot more space is available. There is an explosion in evolution. Think of it this way: if there are suddenly no highly evolved and effective dinosaurs around, there are fewer competitors for resources, so evolutionary traits that might otherwise have been less effective (and bred out of the gene pool) are suddenly not so bad; so they're allowed to hang around. And those traits can lead to other wacky traits, and the diversity grows exponentially, until it's your own children who are consuming the resources/out-evolving their siblings/filling the space.
Speculation is not science. We are seeing more and more of this style of pseudo-science in the media lately.
Remember a short time ago, when biologists were *shocked* to discover how drastically divergent chimpanzee and human Y chromosomes are?
Guys, we can't even properly infer the genetics of species that *still exist*. "Premature" barely even begins to cover this.
1. Scientists describe new evolutionary theory to assembled dignitaries from across the universe
2. Leading Anti-Evolutionist looks really pissed.
3. Cut to scene of Anti-Evolutionist ships massing over a lush, green planet
4. Lens flare
5. Anti-Evolutionist soldiers shoot all sorts of ray gun zappers at the scientists below, shouting "Die, wasters of money!"
6. Lens flare
7. After wicked battle, scientists are rescued by Yoda-trained hero.
8. Lens flare
9. Leader of Anti-Evolutionist armies wails in frustration, shouting "That is NOT evidence!!!"
10. Lens flare
11. Anti-Evolutionist armies plot massive attack from Death Stars.
12. Lens fare.
13. Great place to end Part One so that everyone needs to see Part Two in a few years.
I deny that I have not avoided attaining the opposite of that which I do not want.
LOL.
"not found in the fossil record but inferred from it"
Whatever. Maybe the Creationists were right!
Scrat: the unify-er of all, continet rifting, evolution of species, dinasour extinction, even Mount Rushmore
Uh.... I though the placental lineages extended well within the Cretaceous (????).
Pony. We are all descended from Ponies.
"...not found, but inferred" - sounds like the perfect evolutionist result. Who needs proof!
Today's education system even impacts /. when a "hypothetical" creature "not found" in the fossil record, but "inferred" by it, is now put forth as a revelation as to the origin of all mamals, including humans.
By not being found in the fossil record, we have no concrete evidence. By being inferred, we have reasoned it's existence. That makes the use of the term "revealed" quite correct, as that is exactly the same process early man used to determine their various deities.
I don't doubt the scientific method in proposing a hypothesis or theory. But the reporting of it in this way sure is weak and only strengthens the view that science is anything but accurate (evolution is just a theory and debatable, for instance). Even the recent article on Richard III where DNA "proved" it was him was wrong, it did no such thing. It confirmed it, based on the other evidence, but by itself did not prove it.
Scientific reporting needs to be accurate and able to stand being scrutinized. That might mean that there are people who will not understand what is being reported. That is a shame. On the otherhand, it is better than them thinking they understand what is being reported when the report is not accurate. That does nobody any good.
Here's a thought: Instead of dumbing down scientific reporting (and intellectual thought) so the average person can understand it (even if that misinforms them as to what is being communicated), how about educating people, so they can actually understand it in the first place?
from the wiki on platypus :
"The platypus and other monotremes were very poorly understood, and some of the 19th century myths that grew up around themâ"for example, that the monotremes were "inferior" or quasireptilianâ"still endure.[60] In 1947, William King Gregory theorised that placental mammals and marsupials may have diverged earlier, and a subsequent branching divided the monotremes and marsupials, but later research and fossil discoveries have suggested this is incorrect.[60][61] In fact, modern monotremes are the survivors of an early branching of the mammal tree, and a later branching is thought to have led to the marsupial and placental groups.[60][62] Molecular clock and fossil dating suggest platypuses split from echidnas around 19â"48 million years ago"
Seeing that the article is speaking of older time, the split happenned after that common ancestor.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
SlashDot puts its reputation at risk when it claims "fact revealed" when only "one study suggests".
Actually I have inferred that the Garden of Eden was in a coal mine in my back yard here in Coal Township, PA
We all know the Earth is only 6000 years old and that humans were created by God in his image. At least that's what Fox News and the 700 Club tell me. Why should I believe science when I have Fox News to tell me the truth?
Typical God-less, evolutionary bullcrap! "...study suggests....hypothetical creature....not found in fossil record...." blah blah blah. Anything but the simplest explanation for you narrow-minded, delusional, brain-washed atheists! That a highly intelligent and powerful being had a hand in creation! It takes more faith to believe the myth of evolution than this humble Christian can muster!
Eh. I was well on my way anyway, they needn't have expended the effort.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
It's not like the dinasaurs all died and nothing else changed.
What you're missing is that evolution happens slowly without drastic environmental change. It's not like all the dinasaurs were sitting in Mexico and the asteroid squished 'em, but that the resulting fires and ejecta and the "nuclear winter" it caused killed a large percentage of the flora. The big animals all starved, the little animals were merely hungry. By the time the plants started comong back good, the big animals were all dead.
Plus, the little winged dinasaurs also survived. We call them "birds".
Within the past 200,000 years of human history, we're aware that Homo Sapiens Sapiens existed alongside other members of the Homo genus, including Homo Neanderthalis and Homo Floresiensis.
Where do homo sexuals fit in?