Think things are bad now? Our distant ancestors on Skye would love to have our problems

Our distant ancestors on the Isle of Skye – don’t bother trying to work out how many ‘greats’ to put before grandparents, we’re talking 166 million years ago so they weren’t even human – turn out to have lived longer than expected.

Fossils of an adult and a juvenile Krusatodon kirtlingtonensis, a mouse-sized mammal, have revealed the former was the grand old age of seven while the youngster was between one or two and still replacing its baby teeth. This is unusual because today such small mammals tend to live for much shorter periods with some only lasting about 12 months or so.

Any kind of longevity in the Middle Jurassic period is rather impressive, given the neighbours. First there was an older cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex. If that ravenous carnivore wasn’t bad enough, then tiny mammals also had to beware of being stepped on by a relative of the giant Brontosaurus. Death could also come from the skies where a kind of pterosaur flew.

Think things are bad now? Our plucky and resourceful ancestors would definitely reckon we’ve never had it so good.