Well, the article keeps saying "mammal relatives". They're really just saying it was a cynodont. Mammals are the only remaining cynodonts, but there used to be

Well, the article keeps saying "mammal relatives". They're really just saying it was a cynodont. Mammals are the only remaining cynodonts, but there used to be other kinds. I'm pretty sure this doesn't challenge the idea that, at the time, mammals were all still small shrew-like jobbies. For one (totally not a biologist, but I do spend way too much time at museums) its skull doesn't really look mammalian to me.