Warm-bloodedness is the key to what makes mammals what they are today. That’s why working out when it emerged in mammal ancestors matters.
In contrast, our results suggest that it appeared in mammalian ancestors some 33 million years prior to the origin of mammals. The new date is consistent withthat many of the traits usually associated with “mammalness”, such as whiskers and fur, also evolved earlier than previously expected. And according to our results, endothermy evolved very quickly in geological terms, in less than a million years.
In the same way as a piece of butter turns from solid to liquid in a warm pan, or honey becomes thicker when it is cold, the viscosity of the endolymph changes with body temperature. That means the endolymph’s viscosity would normally be altered by the evolution of a higher body temperature. But the body has to adapt because changing viscosity would prevent the semicircular canals from working properly. In mammals, the canals adapt to higher body temperature by changing their geometry.
They needed fossils to test their hypothesis – and that’s where South Africa’s wealth of fossils fromThe arid Karoo region preserves a treasure trove of fossils, many of them belonging to mammalian ancestors. These fossils offer an unbroken record of the evolution of life over a period of almost 100 million years. They document the transformation from reptilian-like animals to mammals in exquisite detail.Discover a treasure trove in the Great Karoo.
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