Research provides new understanding of bizarre extinct mammal

Meet Jonathan Bloch, Florida Museum associate curator of vertebrate paleontology, as he presents new fossil evidence of an exceptionally well-preserved 55-million-year-old North American mammal that shares a common ancestor with rodents and primates, including humans. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the study appeared in the Oct. 11, 2010, online edition of the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society and describes the cranial anatomy of the extinct mammal, Labidolemur kayi.