The fossil is from the Gypsonictopidae, a family of mammals.
The research team consisted of paleontologists from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Florida State University.The scientists have given the fossil a fitting name——from "Siku," an Iñupiaq word for "ice," and "mys" and "mikros," the Greek words for "mouse" and "little."that the tiny fossil mammal dates back to 73 million years ago when it survived in one of the coldest conditions ever endured by living organisms on Earth.
"These guys probably didn't hibernate," said Eberle. "They stayed active all year long, burrowing under leaf litter or underground and feeding on whatever they could sink their teeth into, probably insects and worms." "Seventy-three million years ago, northern Alaska was home to an ecosystem unlike any on Earth today," said study co-author Patrick Druckenmiller, director of the University of Alaska Museum of the North. "It was a polar forest teeming with dinosaurs, small mammals, and birds. These animals were adapted to exist in a highly seasonal climate that included freezing winter conditions, likely snow, and up to four months of complete winter darkness.
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