I suppose this blog, in some ways, coincides with my last blog, as tonight I’m posting about yet another beloved animated critter: Scrat. Although not as well known as Timon the Meerkat, Scrat is the little saber-toothed squirrel found in all the Ice Age films whose only goal is to find a good spot to place his acorn. Although not a main protagonist, his constant presence and antics have made him well known within the series. But enough about him, on to the science portion of this blog.
Well, as it turns out, this made-up creature did actually exist. That’s right, 100 million years ago, there were little saber-tooth squirrels prowling about the same time as dinosaurs. The discovery was made in an arid remote part of southwestern Argentina, where other ancient skulls of dinosaurs have been found. Scientists reported this area was once a river floodplain whose periodic floods most likely buried the remains. The specimens, two skulls and jaws, were first discovered in 2002 by the expedition’s mechanic (really?). The remains mark the first time scientists have been able to reconstruct the whole shape of a dryolestoid skull.
As mentioned above, the remains are that of a mammal from the dryolestoid family, a long extinct group whose lineage led to marsupials and mammals with placentas (like humans!). The creature has been dubbed Cronopio (named after a bizarre fictional beast in Argentine folk tales) dentiacutus (Latin for “sharp, acute teeth”). The creatures fangs would have been about 0.2 inches (5 mm for you metric fans) long, about 1/5th the length of its head. Scientists have yet to come up with a reason for such long fangs, with some theorizing it may have been used in catching insects (or maybe it aided in acorn retrieval). Whatever the case, this new mammal has provided useful data in filling in timeline gaps, a gap of about 60 million years, for mammals that were around during the dinosaurs. All I know is: Saber-toothed Squirrels were around! What’s next? Saber-toothed rabbits?
This information comes from the article ‘Saber-Toothed Squirrel Looked Like 'Ice Age' Scrat’ written by Charles Choi on November 2, 2011 from livescience.com. Link to the article:
http://www.livescience.com/16839-saber-toothed-squirrel-scrat-ice-age.html
Picture of mammal:
Well, as it turns out, this made-up creature did actually exist. That’s right, 100 million years ago, there were little saber-tooth squirrels prowling about the same time as dinosaurs. The discovery was made in an arid remote part of southwestern Argentina, where other ancient skulls of dinosaurs have been found. Scientists reported this area was once a river floodplain whose periodic floods most likely buried the remains. The specimens, two skulls and jaws, were first discovered in 2002 by the expedition’s mechanic (really?). The remains mark the first time scientists have been able to reconstruct the whole shape of a dryolestoid skull.
As mentioned above, the remains are that of a mammal from the dryolestoid family, a long extinct group whose lineage led to marsupials and mammals with placentas (like humans!). The creature has been dubbed Cronopio (named after a bizarre fictional beast in Argentine folk tales) dentiacutus (Latin for “sharp, acute teeth”). The creatures fangs would have been about 0.2 inches (5 mm for you metric fans) long, about 1/5th the length of its head. Scientists have yet to come up with a reason for such long fangs, with some theorizing it may have been used in catching insects (or maybe it aided in acorn retrieval). Whatever the case, this new mammal has provided useful data in filling in timeline gaps, a gap of about 60 million years, for mammals that were around during the dinosaurs. All I know is: Saber-toothed Squirrels were around! What’s next? Saber-toothed rabbits?
This information comes from the article ‘Saber-Toothed Squirrel Looked Like 'Ice Age' Scrat’ written by Charles Choi on November 2, 2011 from livescience.com. Link to the article:
http://www.livescience.com/16839-saber-toothed-squirrel-scrat-ice-age.html
Picture of mammal:
Image courtesy of livescience.comPicture of Scrat:
Image courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox
Posted by Austin Gray (5)
Cool beans. Do you think the fangs were indeed beneficial for survival, or just for show/protection. I imagine that they'd be relatively unwieldy for food consumption.
ReplyDeleteBy Joseph Needleman
Hmm, that is interesting! I wonder why they had such large teeth? For protection maybe? I wonder if they also had a partially omnivorous diet back then too? I can't imagine such large fangs being particularly useful for insect-catching or nut-cracking, but then again, it's possible that insects & nuts were much larger & more formidable than they are today.
ReplyDeletePosted by Brianna Eddy
I wonder if the fangs were more for protection and to intimidate potential predators. Also i wonder if there was any differences between male and female squirrels regarding the fangs. I feel like once they discover more fossils of different sex they can then determine what the main purpose is.
ReplyDeleteJobin Oommen
I agree that distinguishing the anatomical differences between the sexes in this species could make finding out their purpose much easier. For example, if the males had them and females did not, they could in theory(and this is a long shot) be used in mate attraction, as the males with bigger fangs could send information to the females such as if they were better hunters, had better genes ect. Also interesting to know that Scrat actually existed, who knew!
ReplyDeletePosted by Sara Corey
Scrat is much cuter than the real saber-toothed squirrels, but anyways it's always interesting to learn about new species that are discovered. Species back then always look more (I know this sounds quite obvious but..) archaic. As in I feel as though they all had fangs! and fur! or were just very beastly in size. Maybe insects were also bigger and they needed fangs to kill them? Could be a long shot.
ReplyDeletePosted by Caitlin Descovich O'Hare
I never knew that saber toothed squirrels were real. I wonder if these squirrels had carnivorous habits. The squirrels must have needed the teeth to hunt or eat some large prey. You mentioned that they might have used them to eat bugs. Perhaps the bugs at the time were much larger and they needed the teeth to consume the bugs. I wonder how related these saber tooth squirrels are to the common squirrels we see today.
ReplyDeletePosted by Nick Gast
It does seem strange for such a small rodent to have fangs; I guess it is reasonable to theorize that they used their fangs for cracking acorns (their teeth in modern times are large too, just not sharp). However, it is always possible that they were for defense as well... I wonder if they were the only rodent with fangs at that time period? If there were other species that also had them, it would make sense for the squirrels to have them, as a means of defense.
ReplyDelete-Posted by Johanna Brophy
It seems like fangs that long would have many uses. Having a stronger sharper bite seems like it would be beneficial to any animal. Hunting would be easier, the squirrel would probably stand up against predators a little better, and it might even be able to grasp things easily. I wonder what could have caused this species to die out?
ReplyDelete-Rhys Ursuliak
This is an awesome post! I love the little squirrels funny behaviors and failed attempts. I mean I actually never thought that this little guy existed. Also it is pretty humorous that the mechanic was the one to find it. I went to dinosaur national park in Canada and literally you could look down and see dinosaur bones. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any. I would be curious to know what the squirrel was eatting if it had such large fangs. Does it even eat acorns?
ReplyDeletePosted by Caroline Adams
Aw, come on... They were basal marsupials. If only they were true squirrels... but on to other things. Tusks are very unusual for tiny mammals, which begs the question, what were they used for? Modern elephant shrews have tusks that they use for burrowing and foraging, and male Dik Diks have tusks for sexual display. Unfortunately, because Cronopio is only known from fossils, more than speculation is not possible.
ReplyDeleteDavid Matos-Magrass
Hey, glad so many people decided to comment! Well, it would seem the main point of interest of my article for everyone was: what the heck were those ridiculously long fangs used for? Well, at present it’s still mostly unclear. The article does state that using them for aggressive action was unlikely. Guillermo Rougier, an anatomist and vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, says, “Cronopio's skull was not designed to support large forces, so it could not use its saber-teeth to wrestle down prey like lions can with their canines.” So, that cuts out fangs as a means of consuming prey or using them defensively. It seems unlikely they could be used to frighten off predators, as the article believes crocodiles and carnivorous dinosaurs were its main predators, neither of which would be deterred by a small squirrels fangs. The article stated its food source consisted of insects, grubs, other kinds of invertebrates and perhaps some small vertebrates. The article didn’t mention anything about gender differences, but that could seem plausible, as the fangs (at the moment) seem more for show than go. I think more information will become available as these fossils are studied in greater detail, especially if more specimens are discovered (and by the actual archeologists, not the mechanics).
ReplyDeleteResponse Posted by Austin Gray (5)
Your prediction of saber-toothed rabbits is a bit far fetched, but I did enjoy learning that Scrat was a true animal. I also find it interesting that the discovery of the remains of this animal was by the mechanic.
ReplyDeleteI wish that your post was more on of animal behavior or animal communication, but it was still interesting to read.
Posted by: Em Arsenault