INDIA, November 8, 2007: As if hidden for the paleo tooth fairy, a lone molar belonging to a hoofed mammal stayed tucked beneath a pillow of volcanic rock in central India for more than 65 million years. Recently uncovered, the tooth predated similar fossils found across the globe. The dental discovery sheds light on the evolution of adaptations that allowed a group of mammals called ungulates to thrive as expert grazers. It also suggests, according to newly published research on the tooth, that the Indian subcontinent could be the point of origin of many groups of mammals.
The lower right molar, about half the size of an ant (2.5 millimeters long), was found embedded in central India’s Deccan volcanic flows. The researchers estimate the tooth dates back to the late Cretaceous period (144 million to 65 million years ago), a time when India was not connected with other continents and dinosaurs still walked the Earth.
The fossil belonged to a new species of ungulate dubbed Kharmerungulatum vanvaleni, a hoofed animal related to modern horses, cows, pigs,
sheep and deer. “Until now, the known fossil record of the oldest archaic ungulates or supposed ancestors comes from North America,” said Guntupalli Prasad of the University of Jammu, the lead author of the study detailed in the November 9 issue of Science.