Tag Archives: vertebrates

It was the power of the eyes — not the limbs — that first led our ancient aquatic ancestors to make the leap from water to land, according to a team of scientists led by Northwestern University Professor Malcolm MacIver and Lars Schmitz of Claremont McKenna, Scripps and Pitzer Colleges. …

When you’re a small pre-mammalian creature, sometimes the only way to protect yourself against fearsome predators like saber-toothed carnivores is to turn your saliva into a venomous cocktail. That is exactly what a therocephalian therapsid called Euchambersia mirabilis did about 257 million years ago (Permian period) in what is now …