Bone microstructure of the forerunners of mammalsForerunners of mammals, Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan (Ed.) : book review
Mammals are among the most conspicuous components of today's terrestrial ecosystems. They have colonised almost every environment on the planet's surface, including the poles and the open ocean, are adaptable and intelligent, and are fundamental to ecosystem function and agriculture. Many unique or specialised features have enabled their success - a warm-blooded physiology, maternal provision of milk, complex teeth, the ability to chew food, and numerous physiological and respiratory specialisations. These features distinguish them from reptiles, with which they shared an ancestor more than 300 million years ago. Fossil evidence has allowed palaeontologists to document the evolutionary origins of mammals from their earliest, reptile-like ancestors. Forerunners of mammals, edited by Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan, is a collection of articles that explains, and builds upon, our knowledge of this evolutionary 'stem group': the not-quite-mammals, or specifically, non-mammalian synapsids, that experienced their heyday 300-200 million years ago.