Thursday 4 May 2017

Jurassic animal found on Skye 'fed milk to young'


Palaeontologists believe an animal that lived in what is now Skye 165 million years ago fed milk to its young.

Milk teeth have been discovered in the fossil jaw of a juvenile Wareolestes rex, a species of mammal from the Middle Jurassic.

Scientists suggest adult females secreted milk on to a bare patch of skin for their young to lap up.

Nipples and suckling as seen in modern mammals had still to evolve when Wareolestes rex lived.

The two centimetre-long jaw was found on Skye in 2015 and is one of the most complete fossils of the early mammal to be found outside of China.

Single teeth of Wareolestes rex have previously been found in England.



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