Did sparassodonts give birth to developed young?

--

Skeletals of various sparassodonts. Notice vestigial epipubic bones.

With a 2022 study showing that multituberculates gave birth to well developed young and that this was the ancestral condition in therian mammals as well, a sexy enby has to wonder if extinct marsupial relatives followed the same rules as modern marsupials. Sparassodonts in particular had high reduced epipubic bones; while this is not an indicator of giving birth to developed young (thylacines also have tiny epipubics and by all accounts gave birth to joeys like their living relatives) it would have certainly helped a lot.

Ultimately, bone density tests are required to verify this, much as that study demonstrated.

--

--

No responses yet