All about dinosaurs, fossils and prehistoric animals by Everything Dinosaur team members.
30 04, 2020

What Makes “Crazy Beast” So Crazy

By | April 30th, 2020|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Dinosaur Fans, Main Page, Photos/Pictures of Fossils|0 Comments

The Very Strange Adalatherium hui

This week, has seen the publication in the journal “Nature” of a scientific paper describing a new species of bizarre mammal from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar.  Named Adalatherium (A. hui), this cat-sized animal shared its island home with a variety of predators such as abelisaurid dinosaurs, crocodilians and snakes.  At an estimated three kilograms, Adalatherium was no giant, but the fossilised remains, which represent a near complete skeleton of an individual, indicate that this mammal was not yet fully mature when it died and as such, it is one of the largest members of the crown group of mammals described from Upper Cretaceous material.

Adalatherium hui

A Life Reconstruction of Adalatherium (A. hui)

Adalatherium life reconstruction.
A life reconstruction of Adalatherium hui.

Picture credit: Reuters

Madagascar became isolated from the rest of Gondwana around 88 million years ago.  Animals on the island were effectively marooned and many pursued a different evolutionary route compared to related forms on the rest of the super-continent.  Classified as a member of the Gondwanatheria, an extinct group of mammaliaforms confined to the southern hemisphere and up until now, only known from isolated teeth and fragmentary bones, the Adalatherium lineage developed an unusual and unique set of characteristics never seen before in a tetrapod.

“Crazy Beast”

The backbone has more vertebrae than any other Mesozoic mammal and one of its rear leg bones (tibia) was bowed.  How this animal moved around is a bit of a mystery, but the authors of the scientific paper suggest that this animal lived in burrows (fossorial).  The snout shows a mixture of primitive and very advanced anatomical traits.  Adalatherium had more foraminia, small holes in the nasal cavity that served as passageways for nerves and blood vessels, than any other mammal extinct or living today.

The snout was probably extremely sensitive and covered in whiskers, they may have helped it find its way about underground.  One foramen (hole for nerves or blood vessels), at the top of the snout has no know parallel with any other mammal.

These strange characteristics inspired the researchers to name this animal “crazy beast” from the local Malagasy and from the Greek.

The Preserved Skeleton of Adalatherium and Accompanying Line Drawing

Adalatherium fossil material and interpretative line drawing.
The articulated remains of Adalatherium hui and an accompanying line drawing.  Note scale bar in (a) equals 5 cm.

Picture credit: Krause et al.

Adalatherium hui – Bending and Breaking a Lot of Rules

Corresponding author, Dr David Krause (Denver Museum of Nature and Science), commented:

“Knowing what we know about the skeletal anatomy of all living and extinct mammals, it is difficult to imagine that a mammal like Adalatherium hui could have evolved, it bends and even breaks a lot of rules.”

Dr Krause is no stranger to bizarre prehistoric animals from Madagascar.  In 2008, Everything Dinosaur wrote a blog post about the “frog from Hell”, a research team led by Dr Krause had discovered the fossilised remains of a giant frog that inhabited the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar.

To read more about this: Beelzebufo ampinga – a frog that could jump continents!

The scientific paper: “Skeleton of a Cretaceous mammal from Madagascar reflects long-term insularity” by David W. Krause, Simone Hoffmann, Yaoming Hu, John R. Wible, Guillermo W. Rougier, E. Christopher Kirk, Joseph R. Groenke, Raymond R. Rogers, James B. Rossie, Julia A. Schultz, Alistair R. Evans, Wighart von Koenigswald and Lydia J. Rahantarisoa published in the journal Nature.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur.

30 04, 2020

“Crazy Beast” Lived Amongst the Last of the Dinosaurs

By | April 30th, 2020|General Teaching, Key Stage 1/2, Key Stage 3/4|Comments Off on “Crazy Beast” Lived Amongst the Last of the Dinosaurs

Adalatherium hui – “Crazy Beast” from Madagascar

Scientists have published a scientific paper in the academic journal “Nature” that describes a cat-sized mammal that lived alongside the dinosaurs at the very end of the Cretaceous.  The furry little creature has been named Adalatherium hui and its fossils have been found on the island of Madagascar.

Madagascar started to  break away from the super-continent of Gondwana around 88 million years ago and so animals such as Adalatherium evolved in relative isolation, separated from other populations of mammals on larger landmasses.  At around three kilograms in weight and not being fully grown when it died, it challenges the perception that all mammals were very small during the time of the dinosaurs.

A Life Reconstruction of the Late Cretaceous Mammaliaform Adalatherium hui

Adalatherium life reconstruction.
A life reconstruction of Adalatherium hui.

Picture credit: Reuters

“Crazy Beast”

Adalatherium lived around 72 million to 66 million years ago (Late Cretaceous).  The genus name translated from the Greek and native Malagasy means “crazy beast”, as the discovery of skull and postcranial fossil material of this badger-like creature challenges a lot of scientific assumptions about the evolution of mammals during the latter stages of the Mesozoic.

The snout had a large congregation of nerves within it, making the nose of this animal extremely sensitive.  This suggests that sense of smell was very important and therefore, it has been proposed that Adalatherium lived underground, that it was a burrowing animal (fossorial – an animal adapted to digging and living in burrows).

Adalatherium shared its island home with a number of predatory dinosaurs, including abelisaurids, dromaeosaurs and noasaurids as well as at least three species of crocodilians, both ancient forms and distant relatives of today’s living crocodiles (Neosuchian crocodilians).

Perhaps living underground was a very sensible strategy when surrounded by large predators.

Teaching Extensions Associated with Adalatherium

  • Make a list of animals alive today that live in burrows
  • What similarities do they have?  What differences can you spot?
  • Can you design a dinosaur that could live underground?  What sort of adaptations would this animal have?

For further information about educational resources: Email Everything Dinosaur.

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