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(412) 622-3361  UNTIL 2 PM EDT, MARCH 25, 1999  Complete
skeleton provides new insights of the biological evolution of
the earliest mammals Famous Chinese feathered dinosaur site
yields another important discovery  Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
USA. . . An unusually well-preserved skeleton of a newly
discovered mouse-sized, insect-eating triconodont mammal named
Jeholodens jenkinsi is yielding very important insights into the
evolution of the earliest mammals. These insights are reported
in a paper co-written by Dr. Luo Zhexi, assistant curator in the
section of Vertebrate Paleontology at Carnegie Museum of Natural
History, Pittsburgh, with two of his Chinese colleagues, and are
featured in the latest issue of the prestigious British journal
Nature.  The new specimen of Jeholodens is the earliest known
complete skeleton of any mammal and an extremely rare find for
Mesozoic mammals. This unprecedent