December 2013: Ancestors of snakes and lizards are likely to have given birth to live young, rather than laid eggs, and over time could have switched back and forth, say scientists.
“This is a very unusual and controversial finding, and a major overturn of an accepted school of thought,” said Alex Pyron from the George Washington University. “Before, researchers long assumed that the ancestor of snakes and lizards laid eggs, and that if a species switched to live birth, it never reverted back. We found this wasn’t the case.”
The findings push researchers’ understanding of the evolution of live birth a lot further back in time to 175 million years ago, showing that live birth has a much more ancient past as a strategy than previously believed.
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