THE PREHISTORIC WORLD
Prehistoric mammals
The dinosaurs’ neighbours
Tiny mammals lived alongside dinosaurs in the Mesozoic era. While
many are now extinct, some of their descendants are still alive today
Mammals are characterised in many different
ways, such as the possession of hair and mammary
glands that produce milk for their offspring. While
it is the formidable dinosaurs that people associate most
w ith the Mesozoic era, mammals also lived and evolved
during this era. For example, during the early Cretaceous
period, egg-laying mammals, such as the Teinolophos,
existed. Little is actually known about this mammal as only
a few partial lower-jaw bones have ever been discovered.
Certain characteristics of these jaw bones indicated that the
Teinolophos was indeed a monotreme – an egg-laying
mammal. The plat y pus and the echidna are the onlyremaining monotremes. They are found only in Australia,
where the Teinolophos lived around 120 million years ago.
Going further back into the late Jurassic period, there
existed the Multituberculata – a small rodent-like mammal
that occupied the northern hemisphere. Examples of these
mammals include Ptilodus, which largely resemble
modern-day squirrels thanks to their sharp claws that grip
onto the bark of trees and feet that can be reversed
back wards to allow the animals to climb down trees with
their heads pointing downwards. Here are just a
few example of the mammals that existed
throughout the Mesozoic era.Cretaceous, around 120
million years ago to present
The platypus is one of the
most unique mammals in the
world. It lays eggs instead of
giving birth and the males
have venomous spursDuck-billed
platypus
Mid-Cretaceous to early
Paleogene, around 105 to
66 million years ago
These creatures looked a lot
like modern-day shrews.
They mainly lived in what
would become North
America and were very smallPalaeoryctidae