Steve Brusatte writes of the evolutionary twists, catastrophes and luck that led to the warm-blooded animals of today With a head like a horse, a body resembling a giant bear and possessing huge, clawed knuckles upon which it walked like a gorilla, Anisodon_ _looks like a figure from Greek mythology. But it is not a beast of the underworld or a monster of nightmares. Instead it is one of a bizarre group of animals called Chalicotheres that roamed Earth from 46m years ago, with the last of the creatures surviving long enough to have been encountered by human ancestors. What’s more, Anisodon was a mammal. Just like us. Continue reading...
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