{"id":103195,"date":"2020-11-02T19:00:08","date_gmt":"2020-11-02T16:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/new-study-finds-earliest-evidence-for-mammal-social-behavior\/"},"modified":"2020-11-02T19:00:08","modified_gmt":"2020-11-02T16:00:08","slug":"new-study-finds-earliest-evidence-for-mammal-social-behavior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/new-study-finds-earliest-evidence-for-mammal-social-behavior\/","title":{"rendered":"#New study finds earliest evidence for mammal social behavior"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#New study finds earliest evidence for mammal social<\/a> behavior<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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\n An artistic reconstruction of a social group of Filikomys primaevus<\/i> in a burrow while dinosaurs romp above. Credit: Misaki Ouchida
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A new study led by paleontologists at the University of Washington and its Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture indicates that the earliest evidence of mammal social behavior goes back to the Age of Dinosaurs.<\/p>\n


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The evidence, published Nov. 2 in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution<\/i>, lies in the fossil record of a new genus of multituberculate\u2014a small, rodent-like mammal that lived during the Late Cretaceous of the dinosaur era\u2014called Filikomys primaevus<\/i>, which translates to “youthful, friendly mouse.” The fossils are the most complete mammal fossils ever found from the Mesozoic in North America. They indicate that F. primaevus<\/i> engaged in multi-generational, group-nesting and burrowing behavior, and possibly lived in colonies. Study co-authors\u2014including lead author Luke Weaver, a UW graduate student in biology, and senior author Gregory Wilson Mantilla, a UW professor of biology and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Burke Museum\u2014analyzed several fossils, all about 75.5 millioin years old, and extracted from a well-known dinosaur nesting site called Egg Mountain in western Montana.<\/p>\n

Fossil skulls and skeletons of at least 22 individuals of F. primaevus<\/i> were discovered at Egg Mountain, typically clustered together in groups of two to five, with at least 13 individuals found within a 30 square-meter area in the same rock layer. Based on how well preserved the fossils are, the type of rock they’re preserved in, and F. primaevus<\/i>‘ powerful shoulders and elbows\u2014which are similar to today’s living burrowing animals\u2014Weaver, Wilson Mantilla and co-authors hypothesize these animals lived in burrows and were nesting together. Furthermore, the animals found were a mixture of multiple mature adults and young adults, suggesting these were truly social groups as opposed to just parents raising their young.<\/p>\n

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\n A life-like reconstruction along with identified fossilized bones found of Filikomys primaevus<\/i>. Its powerful shoulders and elbows suggest it was a burrowing mammal. Credit: Misaki Ouchida
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“It was crazy finishing up this paper right as the stay-at-home orders were going into effect\u2014here we all are trying our best to socially distance and isolate, and I’m writing about how mammals were socially interacting way back when dinosaurs were still roaming the Earth!” said Weaver. “It is really powerful, I think, to see just how deeply rooted social interactions are in mammals. Because humans are such social animals, we tend to think that sociality is somehow unique to us, or at least to our close evolutionary relatives, but now we can see that social behavior goes way further back in the mammalian family tree. Multituberculates are one of the most ancient mammal groups, and they’ve been extinct for 35 million years, yet in the Late Cretaceous they were app<\/a>arently interacting in groups similar to what you would see in modern-day ground squirrels.”<\/p>\n

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\n A block of Filikomys primaevus<\/i> fossils analyzed from the Egg Mountain Formation in western Montana. This particular block includes skulls and skeletons of two adult and one subadult individuals. Credit: Luke Weaver
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Previously, scientists thought social behavior in mammals first emerged after the mass extinction that killed off the dinosaurs, and mostly in the Placentalia\u2014the group of mammals humans belong to, which all carry the fetus in the mother’s uterus until a late stage of development. But these fossils show mammals were socializing during the Age of Dinosaurs, and in an entirely different and more ancient group of mammals\u2014the multituberculates.<\/p>\n

“These fossils are game<\/a> changers,” said Wilson Mantilla. “As paleontologists working to reconstruct the biology of mammals from this time period, we’re usually stuck staring at individual teeth and maybe a jaw that rolled down a river, but here we have multiple, near complete skulls and skeletons preserved in the exact place where the animals lived. We can now credibly look at how mammals really interacted with dinosaurs and other animals that lived at this time.”<\/p>\n\n

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Tooth marks and lost teeth offer insights into dinosaur feeding behavior\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n More information:<\/strong>
\n Early mammalian social behaviour revealed by multituberculates from a dinosaur nesting site, Nature Ecology & Evolution<\/i> (2020). DOI: 10.1038\/s41559-020-01325-8<\/a> , www.nature.com\/articles\/s41559-020-01325-8<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n
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\n University of Washington
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Citation<\/strong>:
\n New study finds earliest evidence for mammal social behavior (2020, November 2)
\n retrieved 2 November 2020
\n from https:\/\/phys.org\/news<\/a>\/2020-11-earliest-evidence-mammal-social-behavior.html<\/p>\n

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