Fossil evidence of live birth discovered before dinosaurs
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Reconstruction drawing of "terrible headed lizards". [Photo provided by Liu Jun]

Scientists from China, the UK, Australia and America have found evidence of a "terrible headed lizard", which lived earlier than dinosaurs, and gave birth to babies.

It's the first concrete evidence of live birth for this prehistoric animal group, previously only ever thought to lay eggs, said professor Jonathan Aitchison from University of Queensland.

In 2008, scientists excavated a fossil in southwest China's Yunnan province. After cleaning the fossil up, Liu Jun, a Hefei University of Technology professor, and his team were thrilled to find an unusual embryo, inside of the female animal's belly.

They were not sure whether the baby was the animal's child or maybe its last meal.

"If the embryo was the food, its head would have been backwards", said Liu. However, the head pointed to the front.

Also, as the big animal's fossil fully covered the small one, it was not possible for the find to be overlapping fossils.

Liu and his team say bones had been formed, but there was no calcium around the smaller one.

Investigators believe that as it wouldn't have been easy for the giant animal, which lived in the oceans, to incubate eggs; the "terrible headed lizard" gave birth to its offspring instead of laying eggs, reports ThePaper.

"The fossil has been dated at 245 million years old, and this discovery helps us understand how animals reproduced in the Triassic period, some 50 million years earlier than our current knowledge", said Liu.

Author： 　　　Source：CRI　　　 Editor：Yang Fan