By Hima Sutha
August 20: Palaeontologists and researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder identified three new species of primitive ungulate ancestors. An ungulate is a hoofed mammal. The newly discovered ungulate ancestors are Miniconus jeanninae, Conacodon hettingeri, and Beornus honeyi. These species lived in the United States around 63-66 million years ago. These animals belong to the condylarth family Periptychidae.
The condylarth family was previously considered as a group and consisted of extinct animals that had a placenta. Beornus honeyi is considered to be the biggest in size when compared to the other two ancestors. According to the structure of their teeth, the researchers deduced that the newly identified species might have been omnivores.