{"id":606883,"date":"2026-04-16T00:52:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T00:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/606883\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T00:52:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T00:52:15","slug":"250-million-year-old-fossil-proves-mammal-ancestors-laid-eggs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/606883\/","title":{"rendered":"250-million-year-old fossil proves mammal ancestors laid eggs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">(CNN) &#8211; Researchers said a fossil found in South Africa proves for the first time that mammal ancestors laid eggs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The fossil belongs to a tightly-curled embryo of a Lystrosaurus.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"Researchers said a fossil found in South Africa proves for the first time that mammal...\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/JNVGQ7EXDBCDDI5W2IFJY6JSSE.png\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" \/>Researchers said a fossil found in South Africa proves for the first time that mammal ancestors laid eggs.(Benoit et al via CNN Newsource)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The Lystrosaurus is a mammal ancestor that survived an extinction event more than 250 million years ago known as the \u201cGreat Dying.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Researchers found the Lystrosaurus embryo\u2019s jaws were not completely fused.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">That trait is only found in the embryos of modern birds and turtles. The study\u2019s lead author said it proves the Lystrosaurus embryo had been inside an egg when it died.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The study\u2019s findings were published Thursday in the journal PLOS ONE.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(CNN) &#8211; Researchers said a fossil found in South Africa proves for the first time that mammal ancestors&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,229078,20786,229077,229081,229080,229076,229082,66,171042,229079],"class_list":{"0":"post-606883","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fossil-discovery","11":"tag-fossils","12":"tag-lystrosaurus","13":"tag-lystrosaurus-embroy","14":"tag-lystrosaurus-fossil","15":"tag-mammal-ancestors-laid-eggs","16":"tag-mammals-laid-eggs","17":"tag-science","18":"tag-science-discovery","19":"tag-the-great-dying"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}