thedurvin:

synapsid-taxonomy:

This is the 666th post on this blog.

So Daemonelix isn’t technically a mammal genus. It (translating to “devil’s corkscrews”) refers specifically to these:

Found in Miocene North American rocks, they were proposed to be:

• Giant freshwater sponges
• A weird plant
• A plant growing around another plant
• Rodent burrows

The debate abruptly ended when one of these was found inside them:

The extinct beaver Palaeocastor, which dug these giant spiral burrows.

My understanding is that it didn’t end abruptly: for a little while they thought maybe the sponges were somehow eating rodents