AKIPRESS.COM - The discovery of an unusual fossilized skull in eastern Utah is shedding new light on Earth’s history.

The 130 million-year-old skull belonged to a previously unknown “reptile-like mammal.”

Experts have described the new species, named “Cifelliodon wahkarmoosuch,” in honor of paleontologist Richard Cifelli, in the journal Nature. 

“Based on the unlikely discovery of this near-complete fossil cranium, we now recognize a new, cosmopolitan group of early mammal relatives,” said Adam Huttenlocker, lead author of the study and assistant professor of clinical integrative anatomical sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, in a statement.