Researchers Find Remains of Ancient Tiny Hedgehog Species in Canada

Researchers have discovered remains of an ancient hedgehog, which was just around 2 to 2.5 inches long or about the size of a thumb.

The tiny animal called Silvacola acares lived some 52 million years ago in what is now Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park, British Columbia.

Researchers at the Canadian Museum of Nature and colleagues also found a small cousin of tapir called heptadon at the site. Modern tapirs, which are found in Central and South America, look like a pig with a long snout.

"Heptodon was about half the size of today's tapirs, and it lacked the short trunk that occurs on later species and their living cousins. Based upon its teeth, it was probably a leaf-eater, which fits nicely with the rainforest environment indicated by the fossil plants at Driftwood Canyon," said Dr. Jaelyn Eberle of the University of Colorado, lead author of the study.

The team studied the delicate remains of the tiny hedgehog using industrial, high resolution CT (computed tomography) scanner at the Penn State University. The discovery is significant because modern hedgehogs are found mostly in Europe, Asia and Africa.

The study was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and is published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

The research shows that during the Eocene epoch, which lasted from about 55.8 to 33.9 million years ago, Canada was home to tiny relatives of modern mammals. Indeed, other research have shown that most animals that lived during the warm Eocene epoch weighed less than 10 kilograms. Researchers said that the latest find fills a significant gap in the knowledge about ancient animals. Other fossils from the age have come from Ellesmere Island in the Arctic and from Wyoming and Colorado.

"The discovery in northern British Columbia of an early cousin to tapirs is intriguing because today's tapirs live in the tropics. Its occurrence, alongside a diversity of fossil plants that indicates a rainforest, supports an idea put forward by others that tapirs and their extinct kin are good indicators of dense forests and high precipitation," said Eberle in a news release.

Analysis of fossil plants at the site showed that British Columbia rarely experienced freezing conditions. In fact, the area must have experienced a climate similar to Portland, Oregon.

The research not only explains how Canada became home to temperate plants and animals, but also helps understand how climate change will affect the natural biodiversity, scientists said