Portal:Paleontology/DYK/16

... that highlights from the history of troodontid research include the discovery that troodontids (example pictured) were among the brainiest dinosaurs?
... that a fossil of the Middle Permian therocephalian Blattoidealestes represents the oldest record of multicuspid teeth among theriodonts, the ancestors of mammals?
...that Archaeopotamus is the oldest well-identified genus of hippos, having lived 7.5 million to 1.8 million years ago?
...that the enigmatic Ediacaran biota (fossil pictured) have been classified into every major group of lifeforms, including their own kingdom?
... that the extinct lacewing Ainigmapsychops takes part of its name from the Greek word for enigma?

... that to support his claim that Java Man was the "missing link", discoverer Eugène Dubois argued that it looked like a "giant gibbon"?
... that the extinct pine Pinus driftwoodensis was first described from a permineralized conifer cone in chert?
... that the fossil mantidfly Dicromantispa moronei was first described from a single specimen in a private collection?
... that unlike other Eocene crocodilians found in Zamora, Spain, the extinct genus Duerosuchus was primarily a fish eater?
... that Megalictis ferox, a species of extinct predatory mustelid, resembled a modern wolverine but with three times the body mass?

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