Scientists have discovered the earliest known cylindrical-toothed rat fossils in Asia in Inner Mongolia

BEIJING, July 14 (Xinhua Sun Selffa) In the field of ancient animal evolution, the traditional view has been that the extinct cylindrical toothed rodents originated in North America. However, scientists at the
Institute of Paleontology and Paleoanthropology
in China, led an international team that recently discovered the earliest known fossil evidence of cylindrical-toothed rats in Asia in Inner Mongolia, and believe there is a possibility of finding more primitive cylindrical-toothed rats in Asia.
reporters learned from the
Paleontology Institute on the 14th, the Institute's Li Xi researchers and other recently published in the international professional academic journal Journal of Paleontology ,Vertebrate Paleontology, Paleo-Biodiversity and Paleoenvironments and Paleo-Vertebrates, online published a number of research papers on the fossils of cylindrical rats in inner Mongolia.
Li Xi researcher, cylindrical toothed rodents are a class of extinct, semi-cave or cave type rodents, distributed in Asia and North America, fossils in North America is the most abundant, from the beginning of the new to the new have been found. Much of the research on cylindrical-toothed rats in the past has focused on North America, and Asia has had sporadic reports in recent years, so North America has long been considered the origin and primary habitat of such animals.
2005, an international cooperation team led by researcher Wang Yuanqing of the
Ancient Spine Institute has been conducting comprehensive surveys of the Second Lian Basin in Inner Mongolia for more than a decade, including rock, biology, isotopes and magnetic stratology. Through several years of accumulation, a variety of cylindrical toothed rat fossil materials of different eras were found in the Second Lian Basin.
Among them, the Gobi cylindrical toothed mice found in the Ulaususi profile, after morphological and system developmental studies, determined that they are located in the base dry position of cylindrical-toothed rats, is the most primitive cylindrical toothed rat known in Asia. The discovery of Gobi cylindrical-toothed mice not only provides new fossil evidence for the evolution of early cylindrical-toothed rats in Asia, but also gives new consideration to the origin of cylindrical-toothed rats.the
international cooperation team also found cylindrical toothed rats such as Gobi cylindrical tooth rats, primitive Altin rats, false cylindrical tooth rats and Altin rats in the middle and late Neo-cystic formations of Erden's cylindrical profiles and Eyre and Su-step sites, and the cylindrical-toothed rats found in the late Cystic strata were first discovered in China and are the most primitive prosthetic cylindrical toothed rats known in Asia.the
team believes that the different types of cylindrical-toothed rats found in different layers of the Iilian Basin in Inner Mongolia suggest that cylindrical-toothed rodents may have their relatively continuous evolutionary sequences in Asia, and provide new evidence for the study of migration and exchange between the two continents of North America and Asia.
" is certain to say that the origin and diffusion of cylindrical-toothed rats is much more complex than previously understood. The discovery of a growing number of cylindrical-toothed rat fossils in Asia is of great importance in solving their origins and communication between different continents. Lissie said.