Latest news with #Swaindelphys
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
KU researchers discover ‘big possum' species from 60 million years ago in Texas
Paleontologists at the University of Kansas have discovered a new 'big possum' species that lived in the warm, tropical and vegetation-filled ecosystem of far west Texas 60 million years ago. The scientists discovered a new species of ancient near-marsupials, or Swaindelphys, while analyzing fossils from Texas' Big Bend National Park, according to a news release from KU. The 800,000 acre park is roughly 500 miles southwest of Fort Worth. The fossils were originally found decades ago, but they had not been thoroughly studied. The project's lead author, doctoral student Kristen Miller, was particularly interested in unknown molar fossils. She wanted to find out what species they represented. The researchers, who published their findings last week in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, were surprised at what they found. This new species, called Swaindelphys solastella, is remarkable for multiple reasons. First, it is much larger than any other similar species known from the Paleocene period, according to the release. This is the period that occurred just after the extinction of dinosaurs. The Swaindelphys solastella 'was gigantic by the standards of Swaindelphys,' but researchers estimate it was the size of a modern hedgehog. 'Since everything is bigger in Texas, this is perhaps not surprising,' said curator and professor Chris Beard, co-author of the study. Miller said the Swaindelphys solastella is also the youngest and most southern species from this time period. While the fossils were found in Texas, the ecosystem they came from was drastically different than the one we see today. Miller said the environment would have been warmer and more tropical than it is now, with lots of vegetation and rivers. The fossils were found in a deposit from an ancient river system, even though that river is long gone today. Researchers said Swaindelphys are very similar to early primates. So, they hope to use this new discovery to inform studies about early primates in the same ecosystems in Texas. Miller also said she wants to continue this research to see if ancient landscapes posed obstacles to species distribution, like the distribution of the Swaindelphys.
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
KU researchers discover ‘big possum' that lived around 60 million years ago
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A team led by University of Kansas paleontologists has unearthed a giant prehistoric predator that once roamed the Earth not long after the dinosaurs went extinct. According to a news release from KU, a species of Swaindelphys was found for the first time in Texas's Big Bend National Park; however, the environment in which it flourished during the Paleocene was very different from what exists today. Download WDAF+ for Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV The new species, Swaindelphys Solastella, is significantly larger than other Swaindelphys species that were known at the time. The peer-reviewed Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology published their report on the ancient species, which was enormous by Swaindelphys standards but still roughly the size of a modern hedgehog. KU said the lead author of the report is a doctoral student at the university. Kristen Miller is a student in KU's Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum and spent a year studying specimens collected decades ago in West Texas by the late Judith Schiebout, a paleontologist whose career was spent at Louisiana State University. According to a news release, Miller wanted to find out what kind of metatherians — the group that includes living marsupials and their extinct relatives — the Texas fossils represented. 'I compared them to a lot of other marsupials from around the same time period to see what they're most closely related to,' Miller said. 'It was a lot of morphological comparisons.' Download WDAF+ for Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV At first, the scientists believed the fossils were either the oldest of a group of Eocene metatherians that appeared a few million years later, or they were survivors of a group of large Cretaceous metatherians that somehow survived the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. Both theories were ultimately proven incorrect by Miller's analysis. The Texas specimens belong to a 'surprisingly large' species of Swaindelphys. 'Not only are they the largest metatherians from this time period, but they're also the youngest and located at the most southern latitude,' Miller said. 'Since everything is bigger in Texas, this is perhaps not surprising.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
