AudioPod

Jun 15, 2022 | biology, trending

About this episode

It may be surprising to know, that you – and all other mammals – are technically cynodonts. The first cynodonts appeared approximately 260 million years ago as small creatures about the size of a house cat. A particular group of cynodonts evolved to become more ‘mammal-like’, eventually evolving into the first true mammals. Dr Jennifer Botha from the National Museum, Bloemfontein in South Africa studies the anatomy and life history of specimens along the cynodont–mammalian transition, to gain key insights into the origins and evolution of mammals.

Original Article Reference

This SciPod is a summary of the paper ‘Osteohistology of Late Triassic prozostrodontian cynodonts from Brazil’, from PeerJ. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5029

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