SCI/TECH: 115-Million-Year-Old Bone Reveals A New Angle On The Evolution Of Mammals, page 1

Palaeontologists has found bones to a relative of the platypus that is 115 million years old.
Their findings had shown a crucial stage in the evolution happened independently in marsupials and monotremes.

www.abc.net.au
A newly uncovered bone that belonged to a 115-million-year-old relative of the platypus has shed new light on the evolution of mammals.

The bone has revealed that a crucial stage in the evolution of the middle ear happened independently in marsupials and monotremes, an order of egg-laying mammals consisting of only the platypus and the echidna.

"What it means is that our egg-laying mammals branched off from the rest of them much earlier than we thought and at a much more primitive stage than we thought and that's why it's exciting," Dr Rich said.

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This is very exciting. The theory of evolution has been a big part of debates recently. This evidence really gives us a better time line of when other mammals split off from monotremes. More and more we are finding surprises in Palaeontology such as the 'hobbit' skeleton.
It amazes me that after all these years of digging up the earth we are still finding new species.

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