Inner Mongolia Yields New Species, 'Living Fossil' (VIDEO)

Southern Methodist University

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Tiny teeth discovered in Inner Mongolia belong to the prehistoric ancestor of the modern-day birch mouse. The 17-million-year-old teeth belong to a new species of birch mouse, Sicista primus, identified by paleontologist Yuri Kimura, Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Kimura, a member of the scientific team that discovered the fossils, says the find distinguishes the genus Sicista as a "living fossil, placing it among some of the most unique rodents on earth -- those whose ancestry spans 2 to 3 times the average.

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