Early mammal fossils

'The sheer number of well-preserved specimens allows us to ask lots of interesting questions about their palaeobiology, using the latest scientific techniques.'
Dr Pip Brewer, Curator of Fossil Mammals.

Fossils of early mammals are extremely rare, but fissure deposits in south Wales hold a surprising abundance of important fossil fragments. The Museum's Welsh fissure collection contains over 10,000 tiny bones and teeth of two early mammals, Morganucodon and Kuehneotherium, from the beginning of the Jurassic period, 200 million years ago.

Thanks to these deposits, Morganucodon is one of the best-known early mammals in the world. At 200 million years old, it is also one of the oldest and most primitive. Morganucodon was a small, slender animal that ate insects such as beetles.

Museum scientists are now using new technology, including synchrotron CT scanning, to learn more about these specimens and further our understanding of early mammal evolution.

Explore the Museum's fossil mammal collection online >
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