image: Mesozoic mammaliaforms are long-extinct relatives to the extant mammals (crown Mammalia). Docodonts are such a lineage of mammaliaforms. Morphologies of Mesozoic mammaliaforms provide evidence of the ancestral condition from which modern mammals have evolved. The newly discovered Jurassic mammaliaform Microdocodon offers the earliest-known evidence of the derived, mammal-like hyoids in the Mesozoic mammal evolution. This material relates to a paper that appeared in the 19 July issue of Science, published by AAAS. The paper, by C.-F. Zhou at Shenyang Normal University in Shenyang, China, and colleagues was titled, "New Jurassic mammaliaform sheds light on early evolution of mammal-like hyoid bones." view more
Credit: April I. Neander, the University of Chicago