First evidence of a venom delivery apparatus in extinct mammals

Richard C. Fox () and Craig S. Scott
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Richard C. Fox: University of Alberta
Craig S. Scott: University of Alberta

Nature, 2005, vol. 435, issue 7045, 1091-1093

Abstract: Once bitten... Salivary venoms are a rarity in mammals, found only in the duck-billed platypus, the Caribbean Solenodon, and a few shrews. Until now there were no known extinct mammals so equipped, but well preserved specimens of a small pantolestid insectivore have now been found with a venom delivery apparatus involving specialized teeth similar in function but structurally distinct from those of living venomous mammals. The specimens are about 60 million years old, from the late Palaeocene sediments in central Alberta that contain some exceptionally well preserved mammalian fossils.

Date: 2005
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DOI: 10.1038/nature03646

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