A prehistoric look resembling a weasel had 38 babies at a time – Quartz

The first mammals of the Earth and their parents are wonderfully lost. These creatures from the Jurassic era do not look as much like the prototypes of today's felids or canids as the beta versions, which are still in full development. They are primitive both literally and aesthetically – tooth bite and small brain.

About 185 million years ago, or 25 million years after the birth of the first mammal, a hairy creature resembling a big weasel the size of a beagle herself produced 38 youth. It probably did not give birth to it: as Live Science reports, Kayentatherium wellesi, as the animal says, was not quite a mammal. Instead, she was a cynodont – a mammalian predecessor who probably reproduced a bit like a reptile.

In a new study published in the journal Nature, researchers Eva Hoffman and Timothy Rowe of the University of Texas describe a K. wellesi A skeleton discovered in Arizona alongside his prodigious generation of "at least 38 individuals". We do not know how they died, whether the babies were born or were still in their eggs.

Thirty-eight babies are not many, more than twice the average size of the litter of any living mammal. (There are modern quasi-equivalents: the Madagascar-tailed tenrec has spans of up to 32, while the average size of the mole-tailed mackerel range is 28).

The relative size of the developing brains of their creatures was almost as striking as the size of the old litter. Hoffman and Rowe believe that as mammals developed from these antecedents, their brains developed as the number of offspring per litter declined. "A few million years later, in mammals, they undoubtedly had big brains and a small litter size," Rowe said in a statement.

Their research tells us a little more about a turning point in the development of lions, tigers, humans and bears today. This is the only known case of mammal precursor precursors registered, and it tells us a lot about how history fits in.

"These babies are of a very important point in the evolutionary tree," Hoffman said. "They had many features similar to modern mammals, features that are relevant to understanding the evolution of mammals."