By the time of early mammaliaforms like Morganucodon, the mammal-line body plan was already starting to feel familiar: small, furry, warm-blooded, long-tailed, and likely active at night. It was not a modern mammal, but it may have looked less like a “reptile” and more like a shrew-like or mouse-like creature from the deep past.
First Mammaliaforms: Morganucodon
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First Mammaliaforms: Morganucodon
203 Million years ago (+/- 3 million)
Differentiated teeth and true mammalian jaw
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Morganucodon was an early mammaliaform from about 200 million years ago. Crown mammals emerged from within this group about 170 million years ago.
Subject: Evolution.
Appearing in the evolutionary record about 203 million years ago, the Morganucodon already had that familiar mouse-shrew body plan. It was not a crown mammal, but it belonged to the broader mammal-like world from which crown mammals later emerged. Crown mammals—the last common ancestor of all mammals alive today and all its descendants—likely appeared by about 170 million years ago.
Flashcard.
What evolutionary trait identifies a mammaliaform from a cynodont?.
Answer. Mammalian jaw joint..
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