Researchers found fossil evidence of hibernation-like state in 250-mn-yr-old animal

Researchers have found evidence of a “hibernation-like” state in fossils of an animal that lived in Antarctica during the Early Triassic, some 250 million years ago

The creature, a member of the genus Lystrosaurus, was a distant relative of mammals.

Scientists at the University of Washington and its Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture compared cross-sections of tusks from six Antarctic Lystrosaurus to cross-sections of tusks from four Lystrosaurus from South Africa.

They were able to find periods of less growth and greater stress that were exclusive to the Antarctica samples.

The paper has been published in the journal Communications Biology