The authors report that two parasites, Plasmodium voltaicum and Plasmodium cyclopsi, show patterns of evolutionary jumps
from the rodent lineage into bats and then likely a reverse jump, with a bat parasite re-infecting rodent hosts.
The 160 million - year - old fossil of an extinct
rodent - like creature
from China is helping to explain how multituberculates — the most evolutionarily successful and long - lived mammalian
lineage in the fossil record — achieved their dominance.