What is Sinodelphys?
Q: What is Sinodelphys?
A: Sinodelphys is an extinct mammal from the Lower Cretaceous that belongs to the infraclass Metatheria, which includes modern marsupials.
Q: How old is Sinodelphys?
A: Sinodelphys is estimated to be 125 million years old, making it almost contemporary to the earliest placental fossils.
Q: Where was Sinodelphys discovered?
A: It was discovered and described in 2003 in rocks of the Yixian Formation in Liaoning Province, China by a team of scientists.
Q: How large was Sinodelphys?
A: It grew only 15 cm (5.9 in) long and possibly weighed about 30 g (1.05 oz).
Q: What type of environment did Sinodelphys live in?
A: From its foot structure it is thought that Sinodelphys was a tree-dweller, like its non-marsupial contemporary Eomaia and modern opossums such as Didelphis.
Q: What did Sinodelphys eat?
A: It probably hunted worms and insects for food.
Q: When did most Mesozoic metatherians live?
A: Most Mesozoic metatherians lived during the Upper Cretaceous between 90-65 million years ago.
