It looks more like a chinchilla mixed with a raccoon, but the artist rendering here is actually the closest ancestor to the white-tailed deer species than any other animal. In fact, this newly discovered species is said to be the animal that gave way to all modern-day hoofed mammals, including deer, cows and pigs.

Fossil remains of the fascinating little critter were found recently in what is now Denver Basin, Colorado. According to scientists, the animal, which is part of the Periptychidae group, is the missing link to the diversification of mammals after the last mass extinction 610,000 years ago.

Known as Militocodon lydae, the animals weighed in at less than a pound (9 to 16 ounces, to be exact), and lived an omnivorous lifestyle. Palentologists have found complete fossil remains, which is helping them piece together the era when mammalian life rebounded after the extinction of the dinosaurs.

The study, published in April 2024, was led by Dr. Lucas Weaver, Kent State University, and Jordan Crowell, The Graduate Center, City University of New York.

The white-tailed deer is the oldest species of deer in the world today, its first appearance dating back 3.5 million years ago during the Pliocene.

According to London’s Global University, DNA traces cattle back to a small herd domesticated around 10,500 years ago. All cattle are descended from as few as 80 animals that were domesticated from wild ox in the Near East some 10,500 years ago, according to a new genetic study.

Pigs date back about 500,000 years, with domestication first occurring about 9,000 years ago.