|
 Scientists on Tuesday described fossils from Canada of a hedgehog
the size of a shrew about 2 inches (5 cm) long - that lived 52
million years ago in a rainforest in northern British Columbia
during an especially warm time on Earth.
The creature, Silvacola acares, lived roughly 13 million years after
an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs and left the mammals as the
dominant land animals. About the length of a person's thumb, it ate
insects, plants and maybe seeds, the researchers said.
"We were surprised by its tiny size, and frankly it threw me for a
while and made it difficult to identify," said University of
Colorado paleontologist Jaelyn Eberle, one of the researchers in the
study published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Its scientific name means "tiny forest dweller."
"Today's hedgehogs, and especially the ones that are kept as pets,
are considerably larger. The smallest living hedgehogs are about 4
to 6 inches (10 to 15 cm) long, not including the tail, Eberle said,
"but the moonrats (close cousins) can actually be upwards of 18
inches long (46 cm) and weigh a few pounds."
Hedgehogs are known for the quills they use to protect themselves.
The fossils were not complete enough to show whether or not
Silvacola possessed quills. Eberle said primitive hedgehogs that
lived in Europe around the same time had bristly hair, so Silvacola
may have had it as well. Today's hedgehogs also can curl up into a
ball for protection.
Instead of being removed from the surrounding rock, the delicate
upper jaw was examined with a high-resolution CT scanner at Penn
State University to avoid damaging the tiny cheek teeth.
The earliest known member of the family that includes hedgehogs and
moonrats lived about 58 million years ago. Today's hedgehogs and
their relatives live in Europe, Asia and Africa.
[to top of second column] |
The researchers described another interesting mammal called Heptodon
found at the same site, Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park. It was a
tapir-like creature about as big as a medium-sized dog. It was a
herbivore about half the size of today's tapirs but lacking the
short trunk usually seen in these mammals.
The half-pint hedgehog and trunk-less tapir lived in a rainforest
along the edges of a lake, but it was not tropical, the researchers
said. Rather it was a cooler, upland rainforest, more akin to
today's climate in Portland, Oregon in the U.S. Pacific Northwest,
about 700 miles (1,100 km) south of this location.
"Driftwood Canyon is a window into a lost world, an evolutionary
experiment where palms grew beneath spruce trees and the insects
included a mixture of Canadian and Australian species, said David
Greenwood of Canada's Brandon University, another of the
researchers. "Discovering mammals allows us to paint a more complete
picture of this lost world."
(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
