Early mammals developed a literal “killer instinct” that helped their evolutionary success, suggests a new study.
The success of the first large predators that evolved on land was driven by their need to improve as killers, according to a new study. The forerunners of mammals ruled the planet for about 60 million years, long before the first dinosaurs. The new study presents important implications for the evolution of our ancient ancestors.
Scientists studied the jaw anatomy and body size of carnivorous synapsids (a group of ancient mammals) and used those traits to reconstruct and estimate what the feeding habits of these predators to chart their ecological evolution. The synapsid jaw function seemingly had a major shift 270 million years, and this has been linked to a significant shift towards predatory behaviours. Herbivores grew larger and faster while carnivores adapted to become bigger and better predators to survive.
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“Earlier synapsid predators such as the famous sail backed Dimetrodon, had fairly long jaws with lots of teeth to ensure that once they ensnared their prey, it wouldn’t escape. However, we saw a shift in jaw function toward shorter jaws with greater muscle efficiency and fewer teeth that were concentrated at the front of the jaw – these were jaws adapted to deliver deep, powerful bites,” said ,” Suresh Singh , lead author of the study which is published in Communications Biology.
According to Suresh, this shows that later synapsid carnivores gave more important to heavily their prey and therefore, killing their prey more quickly. Sabre-toothed tigers were among these first later synapsids. The changes over the years also means that predators faced new selective pressures from their prey.
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First uploaded on: 24-02-2024 at 12:54 IST
Shambhu Kumar is a science communicator, making complex scientific topics accessible to all. His articles explore breakthroughs in various scientific disciplines, from space exploration to cutting-edge research.
