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Maintained by pioweb@ucsc.edu. The common ancestor of placental mammals probably looked like Eomaia scansoria, the earliest known placental mammal, shown here in an artist's reconstruction based on a 125-million-year-old fossil skeleton found in China in 2002.aintained by pioweb@ucsc.edu. The common ancestor of placental mammals probably looked like Eomaia scansoria, the earliest known placental mammal, shown here in an artist's reconstruction based on a 125-million-year-old fossil skeleton found in China in 2002.
1 They do not share a common ancestor. 2  This is an example of convergent evolution. 3  About six million years ago the woolly mammoth family tree split off from an ancient ancestor of the elephant. 4  The evolution of this ancient animal into two separate species is an example of divergent evolution.