gallusrostromegalus:

amnhnyc:

The smallest mammal that ever lived could be sitting right on your shoulder, and you’d hardly know it. Batodonoides vanhouteni (model pictured) lived about 50 million years ago in what is now Wyoming, and was so small that it could climb up a pencil. It also weighed as little as a dollar bill! Several slightly larger species of these mini-mammals lived between 55 and 42 million years ago, but they are now all extinct. Its closest living relatives are modern-day shrews and moles.
Photo: randychiu

I love this Model!  It’s in the California Academy of Sciences and it’s part of a display of the largest and smallest land mammals!  Here’s the whole display, with Batodonides in the case labeled “Smallest”:

The Big Boi with him is a

Paraceratherium

, which lived in most of what is now Asia some 30-16 MYA, and was the largest land mammal ever to live, weighing in around 33,000-44,000 lbs.

I really love this display, becuase there is so much love and attention paid to these models, and that every kid that comes up them marvels over how each contains a heart and lungs and brain just like they do.  It’s really lovely.