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The original was posted on /r/worldnews by /u/DaRedGuy on 2024-05-26 23:56:47+00:00.
‘Enormously exciting’ fossils found in New South Wales opal field suggest Australia had ‘age of monotremes’
Submitted 1 year ago by bot@lemmit.online [bot] to worldnews@lemmit.online
autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] 1 year ago
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Some time about 100m years ago in what is now an Australian opal field, a weird, furry, egg-laying, rabbit-sized mammal was gliding through a waterhole across a massive polar floodplain.
This mammal – Opalius splendens, but which scientists have thankfully blessed with the nickname “echidnapus” – was among the ancient descendants of one of the planet’s most unique orders of animals, the monotremes.
Modern Australia is the stronghold for the only monotreme species – the supremely odd platypus, a nipple-free Aussie mammal with a duck-like bill, and the spiky echidna with its over-stretched snout, which also lives in Papua New Guinea.
“It’s like discovering a whole new civilisation,” said Prof Tim Flannery, the lead author of the research, published in palaeontology journal Alcheringa.
Prof Kris Helgen, director of the Australian Museum Research Institute, said Opalios splendens had characteristics of the earliest known monotremes but other features pointing to the modern echidna and platypus.
“Every significant monotreme fossil currently known fits into this evolutionary story, from Teinolophos, the tiny shrew-like creature in Antarctica 130m years ago, to the present day.”
The original article contains 756 words, the summary contains 179 words. Saved 76%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!