Haramiyavia clemmenseni It was named after geologist, Lars
Clemmensen who dated the fossiles to 212 mio (late Triassic). It
represents the the earliest known haramiyid, an early offspring of
the multituberculates - a sister group to therian (or modern)
mammals (one theory), or a group of early mammals unrelated to
multituberculates (another theory). The find in Eastern Greenland,
1997 was a sensation because it represented the first haramiyid
with fully preserved teeth and jaws and other body parts. These
showed that the two other haramiyid genums: Haramiya and Thomasia
where in fact one animal in that the teeth from these findings
represented respectively the lower and upper teeth of the same
animal. It also safely placed the haramiyids under the mammals
because it's teeth were very mammal-like. Haramiyavia was small,
agile, and it's cranium was 4 cm. It had four specialized
point-crushing incisors similar to those in rodents and very
complex premolars and molars designed for crushing hard food. It
was a herbivore and probably seed eating. The extinction of
egg-laying haramiyids and multituberculata was probably among other
factors due to the competition of the placental true rodents who
first appeared 40 mio years ago. With the fetus raised in the
placenta of the rodents it developed much faster and the rodents
therefore became more succesfull. Sources: Thomas Stainforth Kemp:
The origin and evolution of mammals - 2005 - Science
www.nationalgeographic.com
