The skunk-like mammal inhabited southern Patagonia alongside dinosaurs.
By REUTERSUpdated: APRIL 9, 2021 20:29Researchers discover 74-million-year-old mammal. Credit: REUTERS / RENE QUINAN HANDOUT / MAURICIO ALVAREZ HANDOUT
Researchers in Chile have discovered a skunk-like mammal from the dinosaurs era that could data as far back as 74 million years.The researchers uncovered a fossilized jawbone with five teeth which belonged to a species called Orretherium tzen.The skunk-like mammal inhabited southern Patagonia alongside dinosaurs."More than anything else, this and other discoveries will also allow us to know about the future. I believe this is revealing the enormous potential of paleontology in the southernmost part of Chile, and that will probably be in a scientific region because we are finding things we did not expect to find," Sergio Soto, a paleontologist who participated in the dig said."That will help us to answer many questions that we have had for a long time about dinosaurs, mammals and other things that we are finding."