Mystery solved: Cutting-edge technology reveals when mammalian ancestors became warm-blooded
Mammals and birds generate their own body heat and control their body temperature. Mammals and birds generate their own body heat and control their body temperature. This process is known as endothermic, or warm-blooded, and may be one reason why mammals tend to dominate nearly every global ecosystem. Warm blooded animals are more active both day and night than cold blooded animals and they reproduce more quickly. However, until now it is not known exactly when endotherms came from the ancestors of mammals. Our new study, just published in Nature, changes that. A combination of scientific intuition, fossils from the Karoo region of South Africa and cutting-edge technology has provided the answer: endothermy developed in the ancestors of mammals about 233 million years ago during the Late Triassic period. The origin of mammalian endothermy has been one of the great unsolved mysteries of paleontology. Ma