A partial skeleton found on Mallorca, Spain, belongs to a gorgonopsian—a saber-toothed therapsid that lived before dinosaurs. The 2024 study calls it the oldest gorgonopsian known to its authors and possibly the oldest known therapsid. It was related to the wider evolutionary group that eventually gave rise to mammals, but there is no evidence that this individual was a direct mammal ancestor.
What was unearthed on Mallorca?
The find is a partial, unnamed skeleton from the western Mediterranean island of Mallorca. Its anatomy identifies it as a gorgonopsian, a group of therapsids known for prominent, blade-like canine teeth. The fossil is important because it pushes the recognized record of gorgonopsians farther back and places a derived therapsid lineage in equatorial Pangaea.
The researchers did not name a new species. The preserved bones do not have uniquely diagnostic features that would justify distinguishing one. The original material is deposited at the Museu de Mallorca; the paper also reports the material and casts at MUCBO | Museu Balear de Ciències Naturals in Sóller, with casts at the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont.
Was it a mammal or a direct ancestor of mammals?
No. It was a gorgonopsian therapsid, not a mammal. Therapsids belong to the broader synapsid lineage that includes mammals, but the fossil does not show that this particular animal was on the direct line leading to mammals. The careful description in the paper is: “This specimen represents, to our knowledge, the oldest gorgonopsian record worldwide, and possibly the oldest known therapsid.”
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Gorgonopsians were predators with large canine teeth, which explains the “saber-toothed” shorthand. But a shared place in a distant evolutionary lineage is not proof of direct descent: this animal is best understood as an early relative within the wider group from which mammals eventually emerged.
How old is the fossil?
The skeleton does not have a single precise date. Matamales-Andreu and colleagues’ 2024 Nature Communications paper concludes that it is certainly older than the middle Wordian stage and may be as old as the Artinskian. The study discusses it as late Cisuralian or possibly earliest Guadalupian, reflecting the limits of the geological age assignment.
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The researchers base the age assessment on several lines of context, including magnetostratigraphy, palynoassemblages, tetrapod track assemblages that bracket the site, and stratigraphic relationships. Calling it “about 280–270 million years old” is a rough shorthand, not a precise direct date established for this skeleton.
What does the fossil suggest about therapsid origins?
The authors argue that therapsids were present in equatorial Pangaea during the early–middle Permian. That finding supports a tropical setting for early therapsid evolution; it does not prove that Mallorca was the birthplace of all therapsids or that one fossil settles their geographic origin.
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The paper also uses a Bayesian relaxed-clock model to estimate evolutionary timing. It places the split between therapsids and other synapsids at about 294 million years ago, with a reported 95% highest posterior density interval of 290.5–298.0 million years. The model estimates the radiation of major therapsid groups at about 278 million years ago, with their origins occurring within less than 10 million years after a longer inferred “ghost lineage.” These are model estimates, not dates measured from the Mallorca bones.
What do the nearby footprints add?
A separate 2025 study summarized by the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart examined trackways found near the fossil site and attributed them to the same gorgonopsian species. The museum describes the tracks as approximately 280–270 million years old. That age belongs to the trackway study’s account, not a precise direct date for the skeleton.
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The tracks were interpreted as evidence of an upright posture and a gait more mammal-like than reptile-like, with little sideways bending of the torso. They offer a different kind of evidence from the 2024 skeleton: bones inform identification and anatomy, while tracks preserve traces of movement.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why the wording matters
Calling the Mallorcan animal “the world’s oldest mammal ancestor” overstates what the fossil establishes. The defensible claim is narrower: the authors consider it the oldest gorgonopsian known to them and possibly the oldest known therapsid. It was an early member of a lineage related to mammals, not a demonstrated direct ancestor. And while its age is exceptionally early for a gorgonopsian, the paper gives a geological range rather than one exact age.
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