Page 180 - The Dinosaur Book and Other Wonders of the Prehistoric World (DK-Smithsonian)

Body cover

The scales of pangolins and The stiff, sharp spines
their extinct ancestors are mammal helped protect
of this insect-eating
The rise of mammals Modern pangolin scales Pholidocercus
made of keratin—the same
material that forms hair.
it from predators.

Doedicurus spiked tail

An armored relative
of modern armadillos,
Macrocranion fossils found Doedicurus was also equipped
in the 47-million-year-old rocks with a defensive tail club.
of the Messel Pit in Germany
show evidence of fur.
Echidna spines

Each spine is a
modified hair, with
Macrocranion fossil a spongy core and
a very sharp tip.

A lot of the energy that a mammal gets furry bodies, but the fibers have a different
from its food is turned into heat that keeps structure. Only mammals have true hair, and it
its body warm. The less heat it loses through evolved early in their ancestry, probably more
its skin, the less it has to eat, so most mammals than 250 million years ago. Some of the earliest
are covered with hair or fur that acts as physical evidence is seen in 125-million-year-old
178 insulation. Other animals like bumblebees have fossils of Eomaia, which show traces of fur

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