A fossil dating back 245 million years was recently discovered by a Chinese scientist, revealing information about the reproduction of the ancient Dinocephalosaurus, Thepaper.cn reported.

An accompanying research paper by Liu Jun was released on Feb. 15, published in the international academic journal Nature Communications. Liu earned his PhD from the University of Hong Kong, and finished his postdoctoral research at the University of Sydney. He previously posed the question of whether the small Dinocephalosaurus inside the enterocoelia of its matrix got there through cannibalism or reproduction.

The body of the baby Dinocephalosaurus is pointed toward the front of its matrix, and the fossil of the matrix protected the little Dinocephalosaurus, so it could not be a case of overlapping fossils, according to Liu. In addition, researchers found that the baby Dinocephalosaurus’s skeleton was completely formed, and no calcareous shell elements were detected around it. All these clues point to the hypothesis of viviparous reproduction--reproduction that yields a live baby rather than unhatched eggs--over the cannibalism hypothesis.

If viviparous reproduction can be proven, it would be the first proven case of this type of reproduction in archosauromorphs, according to Liu. Liu added that the discovery of viviparous reproduction in archosauromorphs would subvert the scientific community's previous belief, though there is still no evidence of viviparous reproduction in dinosaurs that appeared after archosauromorphs.

This important discovery has already begun to reshape scientists' understanding of the evolution of reptilian reproduction. It has also shifted the focus of academics away from factors that would have restricted the appearance of viviparity in archosauromorph reptiles, moving it to the role natural selection played in archosauromorph reptile reproduction, one reviewer of the paper noted.