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Three red fox kits died from highly pathogenic avian influenza in Michigan, which is the state's first confirmation of the virus in wild mammals. The fox kits, collected between April 1 and April 14, came from three separate dens in Lapeer, Macomb and St. Clair counties.The DNR received a report from a wildlife rehabilitator in southeastern Michigan about the fox kits exhibiting neurologic signs of avian influenza before death, according to the release. The kits were observed circling, tremoring and seizing. Two of the three died within hours of intake, while one appeared to respond to supportive therapy but then...

A massive walrus was spotted on the shore of western Ireland on Sunday — the first confirmed sighting of the tusked creature in the country, a report said. The marine mammal was discovered on the rocks along Valentia Island in Kerry, witnesses told the Irish Independent. SNIP Marine biologist Kevin Flannery, the director of a local aquarium, told the outlet that Sunday’s discovery, “is the first confirmed sighting of a walrus” in Ireland.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A revelatory cache of fossils dug up in central Colorado details as never before the rise of mammals from the post-apocalyptic landscape after an asteroid smacked Earth 66 million years ago and annihilated three-quarters of all species including the dinosaurs. The fossils, described by scientists on Thursday, date from the first million years after the calamity and show that the surviving terrestrial mammalian and plant lineages rebounded with aplomb. Mammals, after 150 million years of subservience, attained dominance. Plant life diversified impressively. With dinosaurs no longer eating them, mammals made quick evolutionary strides, assuming new forms and...

Dinosaur and Mammal Tracks Found Together February 1, 2018 | David F. Coppedge In what is being called the mother lode of Cretaceous tracks, mammals, dinosaurs and pterosaurs left their prints in a table-sized rock. Of all places: at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, a property representing the cutting edge of human technology, dinosaurs left their mark. Ray Stanford was dropping off his wife at work when he noticed an unusual rock outcrop. As an amateur paleontologist, he looked and saw a dinosaur track, so he began digging. Soon he had an 8′ x 3′ slab of rock that...

Ape shall never kill ape. The primate society in the 1973 film “Battle for the Planet of the Apes,” the fifth installment in the Planet of the Apes franchise, was governed by this central rule. It was a pleasant sentiment even when chanted from beneath a rubber mask. But such niceties never seem to last, particularly not in post-apocalyptic fiction. We hate to rock Dr. Zaius‘s world, but that rule does not exist in real-life mammal societies, either. As a new study published in the journal Nature demonstrated, not only does ape kill ape, but the mammalian world is full...

Skeleton of the Cretaceous mammal Spinolestes with preserved fur shadows. The outer ear can be seen at the upper edge of the photo (arrow). During preparation, the skeleton was transferred to a plastic matrix. Credit: Georg Oleschinski. With permission of Nature Publishing Group ====================================================================================================================== The discovery of a new 125-million-year-old fossil mammal in Spain has pushed back the earliest record of preserved mammalian hair structures and inner organs by more than 60 million years. The specimen, named Spinolestes xenarthrosus, was fossilized with remarkably intact guard hairs, underfur, tiny hedgehog-like spines and even evidence of a fungal hair infection. The unusually...

By Rebecca Morelle Science reporter, BBC News Advertisement See the footage of the rare, venomous mammal Rare footage of one of the world's most strange and elusive mammals has been captured by scientists.Large, and with a long, thin snout, the Hispaniolan solenodon resembles an overgrown shrew; it can inject passing prey with a venom-loaded bite. Little is known about the creature, which is found in the Caribbean, but it is under threat from deforestation, hunting and introduced species. Researchers say conservation efforts are now needed. The mammal was filmed in the summer of 2008 during a month-long expedition to the...

'Bizarre' new mammal discovered By Rebecca Morelle Science reporter, BBC News The curious-looking creature was caught on camera A new species of mammal has been discovered in the mountains of Tanzania, scientists report. The bizarre-looking creature, dubbed Rhynochocyon udzungwensis, is a type of giant elephant shrew, or sengi. The cat-sized animal, which is reported in the Journal of Zoology, looks like a cross between a miniature antelope and a small anteater. It has a grey face, a long, flexible snout, a bulky, amber body, a jet-black rump and it stands on spindly legs. "This is one of the most exciting...

A giant rodent five times the size of a common rat, has been found in the mountainous jungles of New Guinea.

TINY BONES REWRITE TEXTBOOKS: first New Zealand land mammal fossil Part of the fossilised jaw< Part of the fossilised femur Small but remarkable fossils found in New Zealand will prompt a major rewrite of prehistory textbooks, showing for the first time that the so-called "land of birds" was once home to mammals as well. The tiny fossilised bones - part of a jaw and hip - belonged to a unique, mouse-sized land animal unlike any other mammal known and were unearthed from the rich St Bathans fossil bed, in the Otago region of South Island. But the real shock to...

Did the air belong to mammals first? 13 December 2006 From New Scientist Print Edition. Time for some mammalian bragging. It appears, following the discovery of a unique fossil in Inner Mongolia, China, that mammals might have taken to the air before birds. The fossil contains the remains of a small, squirrel-like mammal that was able to glide with the help of a fur-covered membrane like those of modern-day flying squirrels (pictured). At 125 million years old, the fossil is 70 million years older than the most ancient existing fossil of a flying mammal, and roughly the same age as...

Mystery mammal discovered in Borneo’s forests 00:01 06 December 2005 NewScientist.com news service Shaoni Bhattacharya The new beast, with its dark red fur and long tail, could be a new species of marten or civet, or belong to a new group entirely (Image: Stephan Wulffraat, WWF) Experts are mystified by the new creature, with some saying it looks like a civet, and others say that it resembles a lemur (Image: Wahyu Gumelar/Stephan Wulffraat, WWF)The mammal, which is slightly larger than a domestic cat, has dark red fur and a long, bushy tail. It was snapped twice at night by a...

Prehistoric badger had dinosaurs for breakfast Michael Hopkin Fossil of a surprisingly large, carnivorous mammal is discovered in China. This artist's impression shows how the metre-long mammals might have looked. © Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Archaeologists have dug up a new species of mammal that roamed China during the reign of the dinosaurs. The creature was large enough to feast on young dinosaurs, exploding the myth that all of the mammals living back then were relatively tiny. Repenomamus giganticus, as the creature has been christened, was more than a metre long, about the size...

Mystery of the Eltanin Antenna 21-Jul-2001 Between 1962 and 1979 the NSF Polar Research Vessel Object Photographed by USNS Eltanin Eltanin surveyed Antarctic waters, studying the ocean and ocean bottom. In 1964, the ship photographed an unusual object at a depth of 13,500 feet. At the time, there was no submarine that could have carried a piece of technology to this depth. The object appears to be a pole rising from the ocean floor with twelve spokes radiating from it, each ending in a sphere. The spokes are at fifteen degree angles to each other. It is located approximately 1,000...