BIOL 1500 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Megazostrodon, Space Rock, Carpolestes
8 Jul 2015
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Type example: megazostrodon (200mya) with characteristic early mammalian features: single lower jaw bone, endothermic, hairy, heterodont dentition. All these features are adaptations to living a burrowing, nocturnal, omnivorous lifestyle (niche). Even though the niches of mammals have diversified, we all retain these features (or hints of it check out whether a whale has hair!) 75 million years ago: first almost-primate: carpolestes simpsoni (toenails, but sideways facing eyes). The dust cloud would have blocked the sun for at least a year and a radiation pulse would have killed all exposed life. Fires would have affected the atmospheric composition in the short-ish term. The geological record supports a fast mass extinction: producers and carnivores and herbivores suffered, insectivores and omnivores and decomposers survived. Side note: a type specimen is a particular specimen that carries the scientific taxonomic designation due to its features. She was discovered in 1983 in a quarry near.
