The specimen for the pangolin species Smutsia olteniensis is new. The University of Arkansas has a credit card.
The discovery of a new species of pangolin, previously thought to have existed in Europe during the early Pleistocene but not confirmed until now, has been made possible by deeper analysis of fossils from one of Eastern Europe's most significant paleontological sites.
The associate professor of anthropology at the University of Arkansas said that it was not a fancy fossil. It is a new species of weird animal, but it is just a single bone. The fossil record for pangolins is very sparse. This one is the youngest pangolin ever discovered from Europe and the only pangolin fossil from the last ice age.
The upper arm bone came from Grunceanu, a rich fossil deposit in the Olte River Valley of Romania. For nearly a decade, Terhune and an international team of researchers have focused their attention on Grunceanu and other sites of the Olte. The sites were originally discovered because of the 1960s and have produced fossils from a wide variety of animal species, including a large monkey, short-necked giraffe, rhinos and saber-toothed cats.
Terhune said that the fossils of pangolins had been lost, but that other researchers doubted their validity. pangolins were present in Europe at least 2 million years ago.
Pangolins are present in Asia and Africa. They look a lot like the armadillos that are found in the southern United States. Pangolins have scales from head to tail, but they are actually mammals and are related to animals. They are one of the most illegal animals in the world. The eight species of pangolins on two continents range from "vulnerable" to "critically threatened" according to the World Wildlife Fund.
The new pangolin fossil is between 1.9 and 2.2 million years old, which is within the range of the Pleistocene Epoch, which ran from roughly 2.6 million years ago to about 11,700 years ago. The identification of this fossil as a pangolin is significant because previous research suggested that pangolins disappeared from the European paleontological record closer to 10 million years ago. Pangolins were pushed toward more tropical and sub-tropical environments due to global cooling trends.
The new species of pangolin is the youngest and best documented fossil from Europe and the only fossil from the last ice age. The new species of Smutsia, called Smutsia olteniensis, shares many of the same characteristics with other members of the Smutsia family, which are only found in Africa.
This work was published in a journal.
Terhune collaborated with four people, one of which was the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
The youngest pangolin from Europe is described in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. There is a book called 10.1080/02724634.
The journal contains information about paleontology.
The fossil of a new species of pangolin was found in Europe on January 10, 2022.
The document is copyrighted. Any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research cannot be reproduced without written permission. The content is not intended to be used for anything other than information purposes.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
