{"id":61014,"date":"2021-02-24T16:48:45","date_gmt":"2021-02-24T21:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/?post_type=news&#038;p=61014"},"modified":"2021-02-24T16:48:45","modified_gmt":"2021-02-24T21:48:45","slug":"bizarre-carnivorous-protomammal-discovered-in-zambia","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/news\/bizarre-carnivorous-protomammal-discovered-in-zambia\/","title":{"rendered":"Bizarre carnivorous protomammal discovered in Zambia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"img-responsive\" src=\"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Mobaceras_800.jpg\" alt=\"Skull of Mobaceras zambeziense in dorsal view (left) and lateral view (right).\" \/><span style=\"font-size: 12px;\">Skull of <em>Mobaceras zambeziense<\/em> in dorsal view (left) and lateral view (right).<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Museum paleontologist <a href=\"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/staff\/christian-kammerer\">Christian Kammerer<\/a> has described <em>Mobaceras zambeziense<\/em>, a new, bizarrely-horned predator from the Permian of Zambia (roughly 260 million years ago). A type of early synapsid (\u201cprotomammals\u201d distantly related to modern mammals), <em>Mobaceras<\/em> was part of the diverse animal fauna that existed before the dinosaurs. It is distinguished by the presence of a \u201clollipop\u201d-shaped horn on its snout and a series of exaggerated knob-like structures around the eyes. <em>Mobaceras<\/em> was roughly dog-sized and would have hunted small reptiles and other protomammals in its habitat. The fossils of <em>Mobaceras<\/em> were collected during recent expeditions to southern Zambia led by paper co-author Christian Sidor of the University of Washington.<\/p>\n<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/KammererSidor2021Mobaceras.pdf\">Read the article in: Papers in Paleontology<\/a><\/h4>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>For more information about our upcoming activities, conservation news and ground-breaking research, follow @NaturalSciences on\u00a0<\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/naturalsciences\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Instagram<\/a><\/em><em>,\u00a0<\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/naturalsciences\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a><\/em><em>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/naturalsciences\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a><\/em><em>.\u00a0Join the conversation with #visitNCMNS.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61017,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/61014"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/61014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}