A prehistoric creature, named after The Hobbit character Beorn, is one of three new discoveries suggesting the more rapid evolution of mammals after dinosaur extinction.
These prehistoric mammals roamed North America during the earliest Paleocene Epoch, the period immediately after the extinction of dinosaurs.
The creatures discovered are Miniconus jeanninae, Conacodon hettingeri, and Beornus honeyi, which vary in size, but are much larger than the mostly small mammals that lived before.
Each animal has unique dental features that differ from each other.
Beornus honeyi, in particular has been named in homage to The Hobbit character Beorn, due to the appearance of the inflated (puffy) molars (cheek teeth).
The new animals belong to a diverse collection of placental mammals called archaic ungulates, primitive ancestors of today’s hoofed mammals – horses, elephants, cows, hippos.
Paleontologists from the University of Colorado in Boulder unearthed parts of lower jaw bones and teeth – which show the animals belong to the family Periptychidae that are distinguished by their teeth, which have swollen premolars and unusual vertical enamel ridges.
Several mammals appeared for the first time immediately afterwards the mass extinction that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs 66 million years ago. For this reason it is generally acknowledged as the start of the Age of Mammals.
Lead author Madelaine Atteberry, from the University of Colorado geological sciences department, said: “When the dinosaurs went extinct, access to different foods and environments enabled mammals to flourish and diversify rapidly in their tooth anatomy and evolve larger body size.
“They clearly took advantage of this opportunity, as we can see from the radiation of new mammal species that took place in a relatively short amount of time following the mass extinction.”
- The findings are published in the Journal Of Systematic Palaeontology.
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