Palaeontology 🦖

920 readers

11 users here now

Welcome to c/Palaeontology @ Mander.xyz!

🦖 Notice Board

2023-06-23: We are looking for mods. Send a dm to @[email protected] if interested! This is a work in progress, please don't mind the mess.

🦖 About

Paleontology, also spelled palaeontology[a] or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossils to classify organisms and study their interactions with each other and their environments (their /c/paleoecology. Read more...

🦖 Rules

Don't throw mud. Be kind and remember the human.
Keep it rooted (on topic).
No spam.

🦖 Resources

Smithsonian's Paleobiology website
University of California Museum of Paleontology
The Paleontological Society
The Palaeontological Association
The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology
The Paleontology Portal
"Geology, Paleontology & Theories of the Earth" – a collection of more than 100 digitised landmark and early books on Earth sciences at the Linda Hall Library

🦖 Sister Communities

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Larger-than-expected prehistoric mammal species uncovered in Patagonia (phys.org)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

3 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

To summarize the new animal size -

Patagomaia chainko is described as medium-sized by today's standards, around the size of an Andean fox, and the species was estimated to weigh 2-25 kg (4-51 lbs).

It is one of the largest mammals from the Late Cretaceous period, around 70 million years ago. Most mammals during that time were under 100g(.22 lbs), with few reaching 1kg(2.21 lbs).