About 250 million years ago, a Susie-looking animal with paw digits, a beak like a litter, and two tusks, would have survived the winter in Antarctica’s chili, not in vain for food, but in a sleep-like state, meaning most animals on record. Is Hibernate, Finds a new study.
Analysis of this Triassic Vertebrate’s ever-evolving stories revealed that he may have spent part of the year hibernating, a strategy still used by modern winters to make long winters tough. Like the living hibernators today, these ancient animals, which are an endangered species Listrosorus, Slowed their metabolism when conditions became rough and passed periods of minimal activity.
“Animals living near or near the poles have always been exposed to the extreme environments present there,” said Megan Whitney, lead study author at the Harvard University’s Department of Organic and Evolutionary Biology. Said in a statement. “These preliminary findings suggest that entering a state like hibernation is not a relatively new type of adaptation. It is an ancient one,” said Whitney, who is doing research as a doctoral student at the University of Washington’s University of Biology.
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Listrosorus, Ancient relative of mammals, can grow up to 8 feet (2.4 m) in length. The genus managed to survive the largest mass extinction on the planet, which happened late Permian Period About 252 million years ago and killed 70% of the Earth’s spinal cord. Listrosorus Remains have been found in India, China, Russia, Africa and Antarctica, the statement said.
Researchers at Harvard University and Washington University in Washington compared the Antarctic to the cross-section (the idea of cutting a tree trunk). Listrosorus And four South Africans Listrosorus. The team found that the tusks of both regions had patterns of growth consisting of concentric circles of dentin of uniformly hard, gad bone tissue. But scientists have also noted that the Tuscan fossils in Antarctica contained some thick, near-distance rings that South African fossils did not.
These gargling rings represent less of a dentist and indicate that the animals went through a longer period of stress, according to the statement.
“We can find the closest analog for the ‘stress marks’ we saw in Antarctica Listrosorus Tusks are signs of stress in the teeth associated with hibernation in some modern animals, “Whitney said in a statement.
But if these animals actually went through hibernation it is not certain from the fossils, as the traces of stress in their tusks may be due to a similar torpedo or a decrease in activity.
According to the statements, the findings also suggest that these strange, hairy, four-legged animals may be warm-blooded. Cold-blooded animals often shut down their metabolism completely during the hibernation season, but many warm-blooded animals frequently reactivate their metabolism during the season, an example of what researchers observed in this ancient tusk.
At the time when these animals lived, the planet was very hot and even the forests in parts of Antarctica may have been a refuge. However, Antarctica still experienced a long absence of the sun, so many other ancient vertebrates living at high altitudes also had to use torpedoes, Whitney said.
However it is not easy for researchers to find evidence of tortoises like extinct animals Dinosaurs Because these creatures do not have teeth or tusks that grow during their lifetime. And so, even though his remains are still found today, the story of his life is always lost.
The findings were published in the journal August 27 Communications Biology.
Published on Original Living Science.
