All articles tagged with #egg laying
A 250-million-year-old Lystrosaurus fossil preserves a soft-shelled egg and a tiny embryo, providing the first direct evidence that mammal ancestors laid eggs; synchrotron X-ray imaging revealed an unfused jaw and an embryo that likely died inside the egg, suggesting large yolk-rich eggs and precocial hatchlings aided survival after the End-Permian extinction and reshaped ideas about mammalian origins.
A new species of deepwater catshark, Apristurus ovicorrugatus, has been discovered in the waters off northwestern Australia. The shark has bright white irises, an unusual feature for deepwater creatures. The discovery process began when researchers found a mysterious egg that they were unable to assign, leading to a fact-finding mission that eventually revealed the new species of demon catshark. The egg cases of the new species have strong T-shaped ridges, and the shark lays its eggs by attaching them to coral. The discovery was made possible by finding an egg case with an embryo, which provided the necessary genetic material to prove it was a new species.