Primitive mammal find

Thursday 13 November 1997 00:02 GMT

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The near-perfect skeleton of a mammal that lived in the shadows of the dinosaurs has been discovered in China, scientists revealed yesterday.

Previously all that was known about the first primitive mammals was gleaned from a few fossil teeth and jaws.

But the new mammal - a hitherto unknown rat-sized creature named Zhangehotherium quinquecuspidens - left an almost complete skeleton when it died more than 140 million years ago. At the time dinosaurs still ruled the Earth.

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