Beast of five teeth: Chilean scientists unearth skunk that walked among dinosaurs
The Hindu
The animal is thought to have lived between 72 and 74 million years ago during the Upper Cretaceous period
A fossil of a skunk-like mammal that lived during the age of dinosaurs has been discovered in Chilean Patagonia, adding further proof to recent evidence that mammals roamed that part of South America a lot earlier than previously thought. A part of the creature’s fossilized jawbone with five teeth attached were discovered close to the famous Torres del Paine national park. Christened Orretherium tzen, meaning ‘Beast of Five Teeth’ in an amalgam of Greek and a local indigenous language, the animal is thought to have lived between 72 and 74 million years ago during the Upper Cretaceous period, at the end of the Mesozoic era, and been a herbivore.More Related News

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