This well-preserved fossil a 55-million-year-old extinct mammal, Labidolemur kayi, was recovered from freshwater limestone in the Bighorn Basin near Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. The specimen helped University of Florida scientists write a comprehensive analysis of L. kayi's cranial anatomy, scheduled to appear in the Oct. 11 online edition of the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. [Kristen Grace]
University of Florida vertebrate paleontologist Jonathan Bloch examines the full skeleton of Labidolemur kayi, a 55-million-year-old extinct mammal with odd ecological adaptations. Reddish-brown epoxy was used during the preparation process to hold the skeleton together. The UF study of L. kayi's cranial anatomy is scheduled to appear in the Oct. 11 online edition of the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. Researchers determined L. kayi shares a common ancestor with rodents and primates, including humans. [Kristen Grace]
University of Florida vertebrate paleontologist Jonathan Bloch holds two cranial fragments of the extinct mammal L. kayi to show how the complete skull would have looked, similar to the skull of the present-day Pen-tailed Tree Shrew from Southeast Asia, right. Unlike the cast of an extinct apatemyid in the background, the specimens used in the UF study scheduled to appear in the Oct. 11 online edition of the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society are preserved in three dimensions. Researchers determined L. kayi shares a common ancestor with rodents and primates, including humans. [Kristen Grace]
