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270-Million-Year-Old Saber-Toothed Gorgonopsian, Oldest Known Mammal Ancestor, Found in Mallorca

Dec 17, 2024, 02:07 PM

Scientists have unearthed the fossilized remains of the oldest known ancestor of mammals, a saber-toothed predator from the gorgonopsian group, on the Spanish island of Mallorca. The discovery, dating back approximately 270 million years to the Permian period, was made in the Serra de Tramuntana and includes fragments of the skull, vertebrae, ribs, and a well-preserved femur. This gorgonopsian, which lived during the Permian period on the supercontinent Pangea near the equator, is notable for being the earliest known of its kind. The animal, resembling a dog but lacking fur and ears, was a warm-blooded, egg-laying carnivore and is believed to have hunted large herbivorous reptiles like the Captorhinidae, including the species Tramuntanasaurus tiai, in a floodplain environment with temporary ponds. The findings were published in the journal Nature Communications.