New Species of Prehistoric Swamp Creature Found in Colorado

Colorado sure looked different millions of years ago. Or, at least, that is what we can imagine and speculate based on science. Many lifetimes ago, dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures roamed in the area now known as the state of Colorado.

Recently, paleontologists discovered a new species of swamp-dwelling mammal that shared the area with some of history's greatest dinosaurs. While we are just finding out about this new species, it has been buried underground for a really long time. Approximately 70 to 75 million years ago, to be exact.

A team of paleontologists discovered the muskrat-like mammal near Rangley, Colorado. The paleontologists discovered the remains of the fossil by a piece of a jawbone containing three teeth. Colorado University Boulder's Jaelyn Eberle, and her colleagues, named the discovery, Heleoacola piceanus.

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According to Colorado University, The discovery of the small swamp-dwelling mammal is rather large considering the era as to which it lived. Before the dinosaurs were killed off approximately 66 million years ago, mammals from the era were small and most were the size of present-day mice or rats. These prehistoric mammals are mostly identified by the tiny teeth left behind from millions of years ago.

However, discovery and science are changing all the time as few animals are emerging from the Late Cretaceous Perio that are bigger than what was anticipated just two decades ago. More information on the discovery of this new, swamp-dwelling, prehistoric mammal can be found at colorado.edu.