Fossilized Mammal Found With Venomous Bite (moved from ATSNN), page 1

posted on Jun, 23 2005 @ 01:29 PM

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A PH.d student at the University of Alberta made the discovery when examining the fossil for a thesis. It is the first mammal fossil found with a venom delivery system.

www.chicagotribune.com
Sorting through boxes of fossils collected 14 years ago, a Canadian PhD student discovered the deadly, poisonous bite of a 60 million-year-old mammal the size of a mouse

The first "venom delivery apparatus" ever found in an extinct mammal is described in the Thursday issue of the research journal Nature by the student, Craig Scott, and his professor, vertebrate paleontologist Richard C. Fox at the University of Alberta, Edmonton.

Why more mammals didn't continue to use poison into the modern era remains a mystery, he said.

A lab technician, Yong-Qin Sun, who was helping to remove the rock from the fossilized bones, first noticed the upper front canine teeth on the recovered jaw of Bisonalveus browni. Puzzled by the long grooves running the length of the teeth, she showed them to Scott.

Scott said he saw the groove as a system for delivering venom. "The groove in these teeth would have acted as a gutter, conducting fluid from its source in glandular tissues in the upper jaw down the height of the crown to its tip," he said

"This is an interesting discovery," said William Turnbull, emeritus curator of fossil mammals at the Field Museum. "Fox has also found isolated grooved teeth from another, larger mammal in the same formation, so it looks like there were a number of [venomous mammal species] out there

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

With this discovery, the question should be raise on how well these fossils are being looked at.
[edit on 23-6-2005 by Azathoth]

[edit on 23-6-2005 by Azathoth]

[edit on 23-6-2005 by Azathoth]

subz

posted on Jun, 23 2005 @ 01:37 PM

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The headline needs fixing, only the initial letters of each word need to be capitalized.

Also platypus are venomous mamals arent they? So I guess its pretty evident that, yes, if the need arises mamals will become venomous.

Merkeva

posted on Jun, 23 2005 @ 01:47 PM

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Interesting,im aware platapus has a poisons barb on its hind legs, but im not quite sure if its a mammel as it lays eggs.Generally a mammal is defined as giving birth to live young is it not, im not claiming to be an expert , nor can
I class it as anything else but mammal im just pointing out its debatable.

edit : It is a mammal, albeit a strange one , lays eggs but feeds its young on milk.

[edit on 23-6-2005 by Merkeva]

Odium

posted on Jun, 23 2005 @ 02:22 PM

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Platypus: "semiaquatic egg-laying mammal, Ornithorhynchus anatinus, of Tasmania and E Australia. Also called duckbill, or duckbilled platypus, it belongs to the order Monotremata (see monotreme), the most primitive group of living mammals."

So it looks like the older mammals might have had poison and as we began to evolve to either to be a carnivore, herbivore or omnivore we got rid of our ability to use this poison. Maybe due to the large split and the fact the carnivore's began to become larger, better hunters they lost the need for the poison?

Azathoth

posted on Jun, 23 2005 @ 02:37 PM

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yeah most snakes are carnivores. alot of lizards are omnivores. Frogs are carnivores too. In the bigger snakes like the anaconda and the boa constrictor they don't have venomous bites. I guess as you get bigger you can generally find other methods of killing prey