University of Colorado Boulderresearchers have discovered the fossilized remains of a teeny mammal in Canada that could well be the modest known coinage of Erinaceus europaeus . The species , which was previously unknown to science , has been namedSilvacola acares , which means “ tiny forest dweller . ” The findings have been published in theJournal of Vertebrate Paleontology .
research worker discovered the ancient hedgehog dodo whilst working at a site in British Columbia promise Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park . The tiny specimen was around 2 inches farsighted and dates back to the Early Eocene , roughly 52 million years ago . Due to the divers plant life discovered within fossils here , it ’s thought that the area would have been a dense forest during this period which marked the height of planetary warming .
The scientists hypothecate that the shrew size mammalian believably fed on insects , plants and maybe seeds . Did this species don spine like innovative solar day hedgehogs ? “ We ca n’t say for indisputable , ” lead generator Jaelyn Eberle said in anews - release . “ But there are transmissible hedgehogs living in Europe about the same time that had bristly hair covering them , so it is plausibleSilvacoladid too . ”
The researchers also discovered the fossilized remains of a small tapir - similar mammal , Heptodon , at the same site . According to Eberle , this mintage would have been around half the size of it of modern day tapir and also lack the characteristic trunk that we see today . “ ground upon its tooth , it was probably a leaf - feeder , which fits nicely with the rain forest environment betoken by the fossil plants at the site,”she add .
While fossils of various different leave , Fish and louse had previously been set up in the Driftwood Creek beds , no mammals had been discover here before . This meant that researcher antecedently knew slight about mammalian diversity in North America during the former Eocene .
“ Driftwood Canyon is a windowpane into a lost world , an evolutionary experimentation where palms grew beneath spruce trees and the insects included a mixed bag of Canadian and Australian species , ” enounce co - author David Greenwood . “ Discovering mammals allows us to paint a more complete ikon of this world . ”
