Scientists prove the Euchambersia was the world's first venomous animal

[Reptilia]

http://www.historyinorbit.com/scientists-prove-euchambersia-worlds-first-venomous-animal/

[Gwangi]

Cool find, terrible article and headline. There is no way to prove that it was the world's first venomous animal. It might be the earliest known to science, but to suggest otherwise would actually be non-scientific. But alas, this is how science is often reported by the media. Besides, scorpions are venomous and predate therapsids. So basically the article should read "Scientists find Oldest Known Vemonous Tetrapod". Or something along those lines.

[suspsy]

Awesome. Now all we need is a toy of it.

[Reptilia]

There is no way to prove that it was the world's first venomous animal.

Thought the same. I opted for the sensationalistic one, even though it sounds misleading, admittedly.

For me it's always fascinating to think about venomous prehistoric animals, probably ever since Jurassic Park associated this ability to Dilophosaurus. I wonder if we'll ever find any strong evidence of venom in dinosaurs.

[CityRaptor]

Well, it is the media, what do you expect? Could be worse, like "A relative of the ancestor of humans was the first venomous animal!" or something like that.

For a venomous of Dinosaur it would probably be. "Relative of T-Rex was venomous!"

[Halichoeres]

Interesting that it's a therapsid! Venom is pretty rare among therapsids nowadays.

[CityRaptor]

It might be ancestral given that most groups of non-therian mammaliaforms do have venomous spurs. And best mammal has it too:

[Papi-Anon]

I read there was some indication of some therocephalians having venom glands, and both 'Walking with Monsters' and 'Primeval' did speculate that. Nice to know they weren't' far off on their guesses!

[CityRaptor]

The one in WWM was likely supposed to be Euchambersia.

[Papi-Anon]

Yeah, even though it was just the Thrinaxodon model from WWD.