Abstract
The discovery of an elephant shrew fossil in Wyoming badlands, said to be 54 million years old, is causing a stir. Elephant shrews were thought to be endemic to Africa, the alleged cradle of mammals. This find hints not only that elephant shrews may have originated in North America instead, but also that "there may have been a great deal more interchange in terms of how animals moved around the world as the continents broke up than previously thought," according to EurekAlert . This press release from the Univ. of Florida worries that this "raises questions about the origin of African mammals."