A remarkable 236-million-year-old fossil has been unearthed, providing groundbreaking evidence of a mammal ancestor giving birth to live young. This extraordinary find could significantly alter our understanding of mammalian evolution, suggesting that live birth may have emerged much earlier than previously thought.
Key Insights
The fossilized cynodont, a mammal-like reptile, exhibited a neonatal growth line and an unusually large birth size, closely mirroring patterns observed in modern mammals. These characteristics indicate that the cynodont likely gave birth to live young, a trait that was thought to have evolved much later in mammalian history.
