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A 3D view of early mammals

The unexpected discovery of a nearly complete skull from the Early Cretaceous epoch that has been preserved in three dimensions provides profound insights into the evolution and biogeography of early mammals.
  1. Simone Hoffmann

    1. Simone Hoffmann is in the Department of Anatomy, New York Institute of Technology, College of Osteopathic Medicine, Old Westbury, New York 11568, USA.

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  2. David W. Krause

    1. David W. Krause is in the Department of Earth Sciences, Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Denver, Colorado 80205, USA.

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The fossils that advance our understanding of evolutionary history often come from parts of the world that have not been well studied by palaeontologists. Occasionally, however, game-changing fossils are discovered in heavily surveyed regions by targeting poorly sampled rock layers in those areas. In a paper in Nature, Huttenlocker et al.1 present one such discovery from the Cedar Mountain Formation in North America — an Early Cretaceous rock formation in Utah dated to between 139 million and 124 million years ago. The authors describe a complete, 3D fossil skull from a previously unknown genus and species, which they name Cifelliodon wahkarmoosuch.

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Nature 558, 32-33 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-05134-9

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