John Sibbick’s painting imagines the iconic Early Jurassic basal mammals, Morganucodon andKuehneotherium, hunting their favoured prey on the all island that they shared in what is now Glamorgan, southern Wales. The very earliest mammals, living in the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic around 200 million years ago, were all and are often presumed to have been generalized insectivores. Now a close study ofMorganucodon and Kuehneotherium shows that niche partitioning and dietary specialization were well under way even at that early date. ysis of tooth wear and jaw biomechanics shows that whereas Morganucodonhad powerful jaws, capable of crushing hard prey such as beetles, Kuehneotherium was adapted for snapping at softer prey, such as the scorpion flies illustrated here. Cover:
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