science 𦴠Fossil evidence shifts live birth origin by 90M years
Paleontologists found the earliest evidence of viviparity in a 236-million-year-old cynodont fossil from Argentina. This discovery involves Chiniquodon theotonicus, a cat-sized cynodont from the Triassic period in northwestern Argentina. The research indicates the reproductive strategy originated 90 to 95 million years earlier than previously thought. This challenges the old idea that all non-mammalian cynodonts laid eggs. Scientists now explore scenarios of independent evolution or early mammalian ancestry.