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During the era of the dinosaurs, most mammals were tiny and weighed by usually less than half a kilo. A recent paleontological discovery gave to the skull of a mammal of Madagascar comparatively huge, it would have weighed nearly 10 kilos.
“He was a monster. It looks like a giant sloth,” said paleontologist David Krause, State University of New York at Stony Brook and director of the team that made the discovery.
It is the second heaviest mammal knows-from the age of dinosaurs 250 million years ago to 65 million years ago, and the most massive of that period in the southern hemisphere.
Krause felt that the creature could measure 50 to 60 inches long and lived sometime 66-72000000 for years
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Krause and colleagues gave the child the name Vintana sertichi .
The first term, which means “luck” in the language of Madagascar, was chosen because skull appeared unexpectedly. When the scientists performed a CT scan of a huge block of sandstone for fossils of fish, “we found that we were watching,” Krause said. “We were astonished.”
The second term is a tribute to Joseph Sertich, now curator at the Museum of Nature and Science in Denver, who picked up the block in 2010.
skull 12.5 inches long gives scientists the first glimpse of an ancient group of mammals of the southern hemisphere called Gondwanatheria , which is only known by some isolated teeth and pieces of jaw. These creatures became extinct without leaving descendants much
The remains allow scientists to visualize how this mamíifero was head. The skull is large compared to the length and brain was bent at an odd angle not seen in other animals. The orbits of the eyes are large.
Analyses suggest that Vintana was herbivorous and agile with good eyesight and sense of smell developed.
” It would be a good snack for a dinosaur, “surmised Krause.
The research was published in the latest issue of the journal Nature .
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