Chinese Fossils Reveal the Evolution of Mammals | SLICE SCIENCE | FULL DOCUMENTARY

For a long time, paleontologists believed that mammals had won the battle of evolution by default, expanding unheeded after the demise of the dinosaurs. But discoveries in China at the beginning of the 21st century prove that our ancestors prepared their weapons long before that. But exactly when did mammals first appear? For the last decade, the debate has raged between geneticists and paleontologists.

Until the end of the 20th century, ancient mammals were known only through fragments of teeth but Jurassic deposits in Liaoning, China finally delivered remarkably well-preserved complete fossils: Eomaia scansoria (2002), the ancestor of placental mammals, Repenomamus giganticus (2005) the size of a dog and Volaticotherium antiquus (2006), a kind of flying squirrel. By using innovative technology such as 3D scanners scientists are able to trace the origins of their evolutionary advantages: lactation, hair, teeth and hearing. But despite these discoveries, the scientific community continued to argue over the family tree of our Mesozoic ancestors. For ten years, the debate raged between two opposing teams in the pages of the scientific publication, Nature. To understand our origins one crucial question remained unanswered: when did the now-dominant placental mammals separate from marsupials? Then in 2011, Juramaia sinensis meaning “Jurassic Mother from China” was discovered. This fossil pushed our family tree back another 35 million years, proving that our ancestors were around almost 160 million years ago…

Documentary : A New Prehistory EP3 : The Dawn of Mammals
Directed by : Emma Baus & Bertrand Loyer
Production : Saint Thomas Productions

#freedocumentary #documentary #sciencedocumentary #mammals #dinosaurs #evolution #fossils #mesozoic

[asthemoonturns]

The minute they called a Triassic animal a ´mammal-like-reptile´, I wondered: Why do people still use that phrase? They were never reptiles to begin with. Synapsids (or proto mammals) diverged from other Amniotes at least 318 million years ago, in the Carboniferous. Even before the oldest fossils of true reptiles. And yes, the first ones did look like early reptiles. Because they did share a common ancestor. But by the mid-Permian, they were all very diverse and more mammalian than reptilian.

[VocalChainsStudio]

Good stuff, my fellow mammals. Not all shoulders we stand on are big. Credit to the these first mammals for surviving in various challenging environments and still finding time to take naps.

[sforza]

I wish more paleontology docs would put scientific names of the animals with text on the screen. It would allow for better understanding of the names.

[cyirvine]

This was GEAT! The animation was awesome. Kudos to prof. Zhe-Xi Luo on his meticulous pronunciation, especially the r!

[JessicaLynch-pblv]

I thought all mammals living among dinosaurs were small. I would never have imagined a wolf sized mammals at that time. Wolves are pretty big.

[janetchennault]

Great documentary - love the 3D mammals running around the labs and entertaining the paleontologists.

I am certainly betting on the molecular clock presenting the more accurate paradigm.

[Unit-rlev]

The thing I love about Paleontology is, there's no definite answer to the question of when we "became human".

[RobertGotschall-yf]

I was told in class that they sifted through ant hills to find the teeth. They were described as either hairy lizards or scaley rats in the 70s. Egg-laying proto mammals.

[billsmart]

Brilliant series! So much new information. Animations are fantastic! One problem with the script: predators are silent when stalking or they would never catch prey. You're portraying them breathing heavy, roaring loudly and making a spectacle of themselves. All too Hollywooden.

[prototropo]

There are NO mammalian reptiles! That is preposterously inaccurate. Mammals derive from synapsids, reptiles from sauropsids, both of which descended from the amniotes, not from each other.

[tristanwilliams]

i really Love Mammal like Reptiles, Such Amazing Proto Mammals

[catha.j.stuart]

Great summary of our knowledge of early mammals

[andrewstrongman]

I found this very interesting, but I was a little disappointed when the otherwise realistic looking therapod was depicted with pronated wrists. We understood that therapods could not turn their wrists well before we found evidence of proto-feathers on them.

[nigelworters]

29 minutes in the landscape is Kerosene Creek. A thermal river and waterfall west of Rotorua in New Zealand. Very popular with backpacking tourists and us locals😅

[PetroicaRodinogaster]

250 million years ago and it probably took longer than that to reach the stage they did. wrap your brain around that! hurts!

[zollen]

I have eaten enough fried chicken to not feel sorry for dinosaurs.

[kryts]

The synapid mammals appeared probably in the late Triassic from (cyanodont pre-mammal reptiles). This makes them an older class of amneotic vertibrates than birds (Aves), which probably evolved in the Jurassic. They are the only surviving synapids to modern times.

[nyahanan]

Mammals coexists a long time with dinosaurs. But it is interesting that a German zoologist pointed out that there are still more species of reptiles than of mammals! So he doubted that so-called success of mammals above reptiles!

[robertharris]

Please no back ground music..very distracting.

[yanina.korolko]

what is absolutely brilliantly exciting to me is that soon these x-ray devices will be taken to the locations of archaeological finds… soon there will be no more digging blindly through millions of years of petrified deposits