Did you know that tiny mammals living over 150 million years ago had a clever way to avoid hungry dinosaurs? 🦖 It’s true! Recent studies show that these early mammals had dark, dusky brown fur that helped them blend into the night. 🌙
Imagine being a small creature in a world dominated by gigantic dinosaurs. Scary, right? 😱 To survive, these ancient mammals needed a special trick. By having dark-colored fur, they could hide in the shadows and stay safe from predators. This is called camouflage, which means using colors or patterns to blend in with the surroundings.
Scientists from the Chinese mainland and Belgium teamed up to study fossils of these early mammals. 🧑🔬🔬 They examined tiny structures called melanosomes in the fossils. Melanosomes are parts of cells that contain melanin, the pigment that gives color to skin, hair, and fur. By looking at the shapes of these melanosomes, the scientists could tell what color the fur was millions of years ago!
They discovered that these early mammals had simple, dark fur without any fancy patterns. This dark fur was perfect for nighttime hiding. 🌌 Just like modern animals such as bats and moles, our ancient furry friends were most active at night to escape the attention of day-time dinosaurs.
But that’s not all! Having dense melanin in their fur also helped these mammals keep warm and made their fur stronger. This was super important for survival back then. 💪
After the dinosaurs went extinct, mammals began to show up in all sorts of colors and patterns—just think of zebras with their stripes or the bright orange of tamarins! 🦓🦧 But during the time of dinosaurs, staying hidden was the key to staying alive.
Isn’t it amazing how scientists can use tiny clues from fossils to learn about the lives of creatures from so long ago? 🔍 Who knows what other secrets we’ll uncover about our ancient ancestors!
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
