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Pocket mouse evolution8/5/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() This resembles living kangaroo rats and pocket mice, but is very different from large, burrowing pocket gophers, all of which are closely related rodents, descended from an ancestor shared with this fossil.ĭr Rob Asher and PhD student Aime Rankin, along with colleagues from the University of Durham and the Smithsonian Institution found that living pocket gophers from the Americas, up to 1kg in size and living almost entirely underground, evolved from tiny, pocket-mouse-like rodents that lived over 35 million years ago and weighed just a few grams. Students review key concepts and mechanisms of evolution, including mutation, gene flow (or migration), genetic drift, and natural selection. This tiny rodent, with a skull slightly over half-an-inch (17mm) long, weighed just a few grams and shows an elongate ankle and hindlimb, indicative of a terrestrial locomotion adapted for speed and jumping. evolution of coat color phenotypes in different rock pocket mouse populations. The fossil is in situ, inside original block in which it was CT scanned, with a human hand and 10mm bar for scale. The first image (right) is of a fossil skeleton of Heliscomys ostranderi (USNM PAL 720183) from Jenny’s Pocket, Flagstaff Rim, Wyoming, about is 34 million years in age. Two ancient fossils found in Wyoming have been rigorously investigated using a Micro CT scanner combined with DNA from recent species to test if fossil morphology corresponds with the tree of living animals (and it does). Researchers in the Department have discovered that the bones and teeth from the oldest, most complete rodent fossils related to pocket mice and squirrels are consistent with DNA from living mammals in supporting one evolutionary Tree of Life.
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