Researchers in Chile unearth 74 million year old mammal teeth
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[June 12, 2020]
By Fabian Cambero
SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chilean and Argentine
researchers have unearthed teeth in far-flung Patagonia belonging to a
mammal that lived 74 million years ago, the oldest such remains yet
discovered in the South American country, the Chilean Antarctic
Institute reported on Thursday.
Scientists uncovered the tiny teeth, which belonged to a species called
Magallanodon baikashkenke, on a dig near Torres del Paine National Park,
a remote area of Patagonia famous for its glacier-capped Andean spires
and frigid ocean waters.
The small mammal would have lived in southern Patagonia during the late
Cretaceous era, alongside dinosaurs, crocodiles, turtles and birds,
according to an article published in the bulletin of the Natural History
Museum of Chile.
It is the southernmost record of Gondwanatheria, a group of long-extinct
early mammals that co-existed with dinosaurs.
Alexander Vargas, a researcher at the University of Chile, described the
mammal as an evolutionary stepping stone between "egg-laying mammals,
like the platypus ... and marsupial mammals."
Vargas said the beast was not a rodent but had evolved "rodent-like
chewing teeth."
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![](../images/061220pics/news_L21.jpg)
Researchers perform work on fossils, in Torres Del Paine National
Park, Patagonia, Chile, in this picture taken February 2020 and
provided on June 11, 2020. Felipe Trueba/EPA/Handout via REUTERS
![](../images/ads/current/fitzpatrick_lda_SPONSOR_2017.png)
Gondwanatheria remains from the Cretaceous era are extremely rare,
particularly in this part of southern South America, according to
the Chilean Antarctic Institute.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2020/Jun/12/images/ads/current/charrons_bch041713.png)
(Reporting by Fabian Cambero, writing by Dave Sherwood; Editing by
Steve Orlofsky)
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