Prehistoric 'furball' had itchy skin disease: study

A rat-like critter that scampered between the feet of dinosaurs grew hair like modern mammals and probably had the same itchy ringworm afflicting pets and people today, according to a study published today.
Reporting on a remarkably intact 125-million year fossil in the journal Nature, scientists said it had the oldest mammal liver and lungs ever found, as well as the most detailed examples yet of hair and fur in its class.
"This furball... Displays the entire structural diversity of modern mammalian skin and hairs," said study co-author Zhe-Xi Luo, a researcher at the University of Chicago.
Previous research has turned up evidence of hairs that date back 165 million years, but they were only fossilised impressions and lacked the detail of this new discovery.

The creature's fur and liver are visible with the naked eye, but a microscope was needed to see the intricate structures of the lung.
Spinolestes xenarthrosus -- from the Latin for spiny -- had remarkably modern features: multiple hairs coming from the same pore, and spines on its back similar to those on a hedgehog.
"We now have conclusive evidence that many fundamental mammalian characteristics were already well-established some 125 million yeas ago, in the age of dinosaurs," said Luo.
The 24-centimetre (nine-inch) long and roughly 70-gram (2.5 ounce) critter also had some curious stumpy hairs on its back that researchers interpreted as evidence of dermatophytosis, a contagious, itchy skin infection commonly known as ringworm.