Amniotes split into the sauropsids (leading to birds and reptiles) and synapsids (leading to mammal-like reptiles). These small early mammals developed hair, homeothermy, and lactation (red lines).

They acquired certain traits that would characterize mammals ever afterward: limbs positioned under the body, an enlarged brain, a more complex physiology, milk-producing glands, and a diverse ...

The mammalian backstory isn’t just one of gaining new features. Some ancient traits were lost and had a major influence on ...

What features distinguish primates from other mammals? This question is of central importance to Biological Anthropology - the study of primate adaptation and evolution. In addition to having ...

leading to the evolution of 'mammalian' traits independently in various lineages. The early evolution of mammals, it turns ...

Chemicals in the tooth enamel of Australopithecus suggest the early human ancestors ate very little meat, dining on vegetation instead.

Mammals branched off from other amniotes very early. Several mammalian characteristics are ancestral. The first sauropsid diapsid reptile appeared in the fossil record in the Late Carboniferous: a ...

Ring-tailed lemurs look different! They retain a number of primitive mammalian traits. For example: Reflective tapetum lucidum, which is a layer of cells in the wall of the eye that reflects light ...

From the top of Shifting Sands dune in the Serengeti Plain of Africa a million mammals are in motion. Wildebeests. Zebras. Gazelles. The plain is black with them. It is wildebeest calving season ...