Mixodectes pungens, a species of small mammal that inhabited western North America in the early Paleocene, was a mystery. What little was known about them had been mostly gleaned from analyzing ...

Newly analyzed fossil skeleton of Mixodectes pungens reveals its tree-dwelling lifestyle, dietary habits, and ties to ...

Fossil discoveries provide valuable insights into extinct species, revealing their behaviors, environments, and relationships to modern animals. One such mystery surrounded Mixodectes pungens, a small ...

Australia and South America were isolated from other continents during much of the Tertiary, and marsupial mammals thrived and diversified there, while placental mammals took over similar roles on ...

A mammal is an animal that feeds its young milk. The ones that give birth to well-developed babies are called placental mammals. We are placental mammals and so are dogs, cows and whales.

CREDIT: Chester et al. 2025 “This fossil skeleton provides new evidence concerning how placental mammals diversified ecologically following the extinction of the dinosaurs,” study co-author ...

The marsupials have a yolk sac placenta (the initial stage in the development of the placenta in placental mammals. In placental mammals, the chorion and the allantois together form the fetal side of ...

And marsupials solve the immune problem by delivering their embryos early. Recent DNA studies suggest placental mammals began to diverge from marsupials as early as 175 million years ago.

For more than 140 years, Mixodectes pungens, a species of small mammal that inhabited western North America in the early Paleocene, was a mystery. What little was known about them had been mostly ...