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Sea Monsters Probably gave Birth To Live Young
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24-09-2009 12:53pm#1The latest analysis shows that the marine reptiles (such as plesiosaurs and mosasaurs) which inhabited the seas when the dinosaurs ruled the land did not lay eggs like most reptiles, but gave birth to live young*. It also appears that their babies' sex was predetermined, similar to modern crocodiles which are predetermined by temperature.Most reptiles lay eggs but these cannot survive underwater, so live birth gave these newly-evolved reptiles the ability to invade the seas. The research from the University of Reading and Harvard University shows that the evolution of live births required the prior acquisition of a genetic mechanism for determining the sex of offspring. It was this pair of traits which enabled reptiles to adapt to a variety of marine conditions producing many species similar to present-day whales.
Full article here.
*Of course this was already known about ichthyosaurs
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