© Jörg Fröbisch, Kenneth D. Angielczyk, and Christian A. SidorThe illustration shows the geographic location of Kombuisia antarctica in Antarctica with a reconstruction of how the animal probably looked like in life.
The largest known mass extinction in Earth's history, about 252 million years ago at the end of the Permian Period, may have been caused by global warming.
A new fossil species suggests that some land animals may have survived the end-Permian extinction by living in cooler climates in Antarctica. Jörg Fröbisch and Kenneth D. Angielczyk of The Field Museum together with Christian A. Sidor from the University of Washington have identified a distant relative of mammals,
Kombuisia antarctica, that apparently survived the mass extinction by living in Antarctica.
The new species belongs to a larger group of extinct mammal relatives, called
anomodonts, which were widespread and represented the dominant plant eaters of their time.
"Members of the group burrowed in the ground, walked the surface and lived in trees," said Fröbisch, the lead author of the study. "However,
Kombuisia antarctica, about the size of a small house cat, was considerably different from today's mammals -- it likely laid eggs, didn't nurse its young and didn't have fur, and it is uncertain whether it was warm blooded," said Angielczyk, Assistant Curator of Paleomammology at The Field Museum.
Kombuisia antarctica was not a direct ancestor of living mammals, but it was among the few lineages of animals that survived at a time when a majority of life forms perished.
Comment: Nice to hear there are some that were skeptical. Not a pleasant thought since studies have indicted that wireless telephones have a biological effect on the brain. Now, your neighbors electrical system can do the same.