C. lutrasimilis Photo & Image

Me: a Ph.D. student studying genetics and developmental biology, living 8000 miles away from home, and slowly becoming a snobbish New Yorker ...... Castorocauda lutrasimilis: A ~164-million-year-old mammal from China, resembling a beaver with body fur and a broad scaly tail, shows that early mammals were large and inhabited aquatic environments. Etymology: Castor (Latin), beaver; cauda (Latin), tail; after the broad, flattened, scaly, and beaverlike tail for swimming; lutra (Latin), otter; similis (Latin), similar; similar to extant otters in some dental and vertebral characters.