Written by: Paul David Polly

Ambondro, genus of extinct shrewlike mammals known from fossils dating from the Middle Jurassic (175.6 million to 161.2 million years ago) of Madagascar. Ambondro is the oldest known mammal with a complex tribosphenic dentition, which is characterized by cusps on the molar teeth that interlock like serrated scissors and a basined heel that acts like a mortar and pestle, which allowed the animal to crush insects. (The basined heel is common to the ancestors of marsupial and placental mammals and is retained in many living opossums.)

Dated to 167 million years before the present, the fossil specimen, A. mahabo, pushed ... (100 of 333 words)

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