Ancient Swamp Dweller: New Mammal Fossil Found in Colorado
Colorado paleontologists have unearthed a rare mammal fossil, Heleocola piceanus, dating back 70 to 75 million years, shedding light on the diverse life forms that shared the planet with dinosaurs.
The discovery, announced inthe journal PLOS ONE, was made by a team led by Jaelyn Eberle of the University of Colorado Boulder near Rangely, Colorado. The fossil, consisting of ajawbone and three molars, reveals a mammal roughly the size of a muskrat that roamed the ancient swamps of Colorado during the Late Cretaceous period.
Colorado is a great place to find fossils, but mammals from this time period are oftenvery rare, said Eberle, curator of fossil invertebrates at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and professor in the Department of Geological Sciences. So, it’s really remarkable to see this kind of preservation from this slice of time inColorado.
Heleocola piceanus, whose name translates to swamp dweller in Latin, lived in a time when much of the western United States was submerged beneath the Western Interior Seaway. This newly discovered species was surprisingly large for its time, exceeding the size of most other mammals that coexisted withgiants like Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops.
The discovery of Heleocola piceanus highlights the richness and diversity of ancient ecosystems, particularly in areas like Rangely, Colorado, often overlooked in paleontological research.
It’s a small town, but in my experience as a paleontologist, a lot of cool stuff comes from rural settings, said Eberle. It’s great to see exciting discoveries coming out of western Colorado.
This find contributes to a more complete picture of Colorado’s ancient past, a time when the state was vastly different from the landscapes we know today.
References:
- Eberle, J. A., Foster, J. R., & Sampson, S. D. (2024). A new species of heleocolid mammal (Mammalia, Peramuridae) from the Late Cretaceous of Colorado, USA. PLOS ONE, 19(10), e0267974.
- Sampson, S. D., Loewen, M. A., Farke, A. A., Roberts, E. M., & Sertich, J. J. W. (2010). New horned dinosaur remains from the Judith River Formation(Late Cretaceous, Campanian) of Montana. PLOS ONE, 5(11), e13902.
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