Early mammal had newfangled fangs
By Sid Perkins
A tiny mammal that lived in Colorado about 150 million years ago had hollow teeth that lacked enamel, a characteristic that didn’t reappear in mammals for another 100 million years.
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Paleontologists report in the April 1 Science that they have unearthed the lower jaw, skull fragments, and about 40 percent of the rest of the skeleton of the chipmunk-size creature, a new species that its discoverers have dubbed Fruitafossor windscheffeli. The remains indicate the animal had a number of features previously unknown in mammals of its era, says Zhe-Xi Luo of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh.