A Furry Star

Whenever any fossil is found in a level of completeness like that of Castorocauda it becomes a little bit more famous than other fossil animals. Sometimes this popular knowledge of a taxon remains and continues onward for centuries (T. rex, etc.) and sometimes it lasts mere moments (Morganucodon, perhaps, for the non-professional readers). Castorocauda appears to have retained some of its initial popularity, but has generally been mostly lost to the public over the past decade. In that time, however, Dinosaur Revolution and Dinosaur Train both capitalized on the discovery and description of this small swimming mammal. Arguably, Dinosaur Train did a much better job of describing and showing the features of Castorocauda, as we can see in the clip below. Dinosaur Revolution mentioned some of the characteristics of Castorocauda, but these were largely ignored in its animation. The tail and overall body shape can be seen clearly, but the show depicts Castorocauda running through a forest and into a hollow tree whereas the Dinosaur Train scene below takes place at the edge of a marshy lake possibly like the area from which the nearly complete Castorocauda fossil was recovered. Granted Dinosaur Train is much more educational and thoroughly proves it by comparing mammals against mammals and mammals against dinosaurs and pterosaurs as well as describing the characteristics of Castorocauda in great detail (for a kid's show).