Context

• The Tiki Formation in Madhya Pradesh, a treasure trove of vertebrate fossils, has now yielded a new species and two genera of cynodonts, small rat-like animals that lived about 220 million years ago.

What is Tiki Formation ?

• The researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur had found a new species, and they named it Rewaconodon indicus, indicating India, the country it was discovered from.
• The team also identified two new genera from the area.
  • The first was named Inditherium floris,after India and the Latin word therium meaning beast. As the teeth had a flower-shaped crown, it earned the species name  
  • The second was named Tikiodon cromptoni,after Tiki Formation and Greek word odon meaning tooth. The species name is after paleontologist A.W. Crompton.

Cynodonts: Evolutionary Link

• Cynodonts are important in evolutionary studies as this group ultimately gave rise to the present-day mammals.
• By studying their molar and premolar teeth, we see how they slowly evolved and modified.

  

• Their crown shape shows that these animals are actually intermediate forms that are very near to the mammalian line of evolution.
• Cynodonts and living mammals both belong to a group of egg-laying vertebrates (amniotes) called synapsids.
• The close relationship of cynodonts with living mammals is seen in their bones.
• They also have differentiated teeth (for example, different teeth in the front of mouths compared with the back), a secondary palate in their mouths, which, like humans, allowed them to breathe and eat at the same time.
• Some cynodonts show evidence for the inferred presence of whiskers and fur.

Source: TH

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