๐ฆด A 236-Million-Year-Old Fossil Just Pushed Live Birth Origins Back by 90 Million Years
A new study of Chiniquodon theotonicus โ a dog-sized mammal ancestor from Argentina โ suggests it gave birth to live young rather than laying eggs, based on the surprisingly large size of its newborns relative to adult body size. Published August 13 in Frontiers in Mammal Science, the research used bone growth rings to make the inference, pushing back the evolutionary origin of live birth by up to 95 million years earlier than previously thought. This predates the earliest mammals by tens of millions of years. What other surprises might be hiding in prehistoric fossil collections?
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