"You and me baby ain't nothing but mammals..." - Bloodhound Gang
Scientists may have just found mankind's oldest relative -- the
"Jurassic mother from China", Juramaia sinensis. The fascinating
beast fills in crucial missing details in the fossil record of
history's evolutionary tree. I. A Tiny Rat, A Giant The skeleton
of the rat-like creature was discovered in Liaoning Province, a
northern province of China that borders North Korea. The
skeleton was then analyzed by Zhe-Xi Luo, a Carnegie Museum of
Natural History paleontologist; Chong-Xi Yuan and Qing-Jin Meng,
Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences researchers; and Qiang
Ji, a paleontologist at the Beijing Museum of Natural History.
The fossil including impressions of soft residual tissues like
hair, an incomplete skull, and a partial skeleton. The skeleton
contained the forepaw bones (the "hand" bones in a mammal paw)
and the skull contained a full set of teeth -- both valuable in
identifying the creature's Examining those bones allowed the
researchers t