Meet Cassie.  All she wants in life is to get her feet wet, and perhaps a fish or two.  Yes, she would really like fish.  Do you have some?

Pretty please with cherries on top?

Can’t fool her, she knows I brought some of those little dried fishy treats.  Look at that face, she might even snuggle for some.

But please don’t Cassie.  Down girl.  Thank you.  I don’t really want to smell like river mud at the moment.

Have a treat!

I’m sure you must be wondering what she is…

She is a small mammal from the middle of the Jurassic China, just a bit smaller than a modern platypus.  She has a lot in common with platypus, such as a love for water, strong digging paws, a thick fur pelt, and probably even laid eggs like a platypus (though there’s no way to know for sure).

But she’s not actually related to platypus, beavers, or any modern mammal.  She is from an extinct group of mammals called docodonta.

You can find out more about Cassie and her family here.

 

Making progress…

Two new COTWs in a row!  Now everyone has an updated picture, though I suppose Alfred could use an update because I used David Krentz’s sculpture for reference, and Steggy has a few inaccuracies that need correcting…’tis never-ending.

But that’s half the fun of paleontology, because it’s always changing. One minute we think we have it all, and we have the “established” look for a critter, the next moment we find some new fossil that blows everything else out of the water. 😀

Even for animals we think we know well, like Stegosaurus. 🙂  I’ll share more about that when Steggy comes back around for our Critter of the Week.

In the meantime, feast your eyes on the monstrosity that is the outdated Cassie.  Massive improvement I’d say. 😀

 

 

Coming Next Week…

This gentle giant will do anything for a treat and a belly rub.

Share your guess in the comments! He’ll be one of the critters over on the critter page. 🙂