A New Contender For Oldest Known Mammal

linxx points to this Discover article, writing: "A 195 million year old mammal the size of a paper clip is thought to run around the earth along with the dinosaurs." Not everyone is convinced yet that this is a true mammal, either -- but like other aspects of science, it's an ongoing attempt to find a line of best fit.

Re:Oldest known mammal...

[Anonymous Coward]

>Bob Dole?

No way! It's gotta be Strom Thurman... oh, wait. He's a reptile. Nevermind.

Re:Oldest known mammal...

[PD]

Nope, he's on viagra!

Paperclip? Wow.

[TheLink]

I heard you shrink with age. I suppose that's what you'd get for being 195 million years old.

Extinction?

[Woefdram]

Now what I think is interesting, is the question whether this paperclip was extinct in the same period as the dinosaurs or if it survived the meteor-impact that is supposed to have put an end to the dinosaurs. Or maybe it developed so quickly that after just a few centuries it had evolved into something like a mouse? After all, animals can develop rather quickly if the conditions are right. If so, we're never going to find remnants of it that are younger than 40 million years (that's when the dinosaurs disappeared, if I'm right).

further coverage of little mammal ancestor...

[jeffsenter]

The BBC also had an article on it a few days ago here [bbc.co.uk].
The Washington Post has this little piece [washingtonpost.com] on the creature.
The NYTimes didn't seem to have anything. Discover as linked in the story has the best coverage [discovery.com], but the font the story is in is really small.

Oldest known mammal...

[AntiNorm]

Bob Dole?

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Re:further coverage of little mammal ancestor...

[BMazurek]

The CBC Radio One science program Quirks and Quarks [radio.cbc.ca] has an MP3 audio interview [radio.cbc.ca] with Dr. Zhe-Xi Luo (the leader of the team that described this animal) in their archived show listing for May 26, 2001 [radio.cbc.ca].