Sociable Placental Mammals Evolve Faster Than Their Loner Counterparts [Study]

Mammals are known for being a group of vertebrate animals that engages in the nourishment of their young by feeding it with milk coming from the special mammary glands of the mother.

However, this evolutionary feature, as common as it seems, is outweighed by the vast morphological variations among different mammal species, including humans.

Now, a new study confirmed that these physical variations or differences are based on the recent findings that social mammals or placental mammals evolve faster than isolated mammals.

The researchers who contributed to the groundbreaking research project were able to arrive at their conclusions by analysis of the social mammal using 3D scans in hundreds of specimens in over a dozen museums.

Social Mammals

The new research was published in the journal Science on October 27, which explored the "attenuated evolution" of living mammals during the Cenozoic era.

On the road towards diversification, researchers involved in the study acknowledged that mammals have the greatest degree of morphological differences among the vertebrate classes or animals with spinal cords or backbones.

However, the specific biological and evolutionary mechanisms on how they reached this level of variation has been a persistent question in the scientific community, with debates revolving around the timing and tempo of an evolutionary change event.

The research also emphasized these changes have occurred despite of sizes, ranging from giant whales to tiny bumblebee bats.

Furthermore, the new paper also reiterated the importance of the social aspect, lifestyle, environment, and habitats to evolution, highlighting that the Cenozoic diversification of placental mammals an initial driver of adaptive radiation.

The researchers point out the following mammal species that have evolved the fastest, especially elephants, whales, sirenians, and the extinct ungulates.

Placental Mammal Skull Scans

The research team assessed the evolution of the placental mammal skull through 3D scans of 322 specimens located in over 20 international museum collections.

They also drafted a new model of how our mammal cousins evolved and showed mammal diversification based on emerging patterns.

The study, which was led by Prof. Anjali Goswami from the National History Museum, said gathering data on the skulls of all major placental mammal groups, including both extinct and extant, have gained a new perspective when it comes to the time and taxa to trace the root cause of rapid evolution, as cited by Phys.org.

Prof. Goswami said their research will transform our understanding of the radiation of placental mammals, a group that includes the Homo Sapiens species, and how to navigate substantial radiation for the mammal species.

While the earliest mammals existed alongside the dinosaurs prior to the asteroid strike 66 million years ago, post-impact of the Chicxulub asteroid is crucial for our evolution.

In November 2020, experts have stated that early mammals had social lives as well.

However, the life of mammals during the time of the dinosaurs mostly resembles as rat-like creatures, according to a Nature Ecology & Evolution study, as cited by the Scientific American.