The Jaw Was Older Than the Story
A jaw in a spotlight. I do not have the species name in my notes, so the bone stays unnamed.
Sci.News, September 28: a new deltatheroidan mammal from China, about 120 million years old, may be the oldest confirmed ancestor of the marsupial line yet found. The writeup frames it as fresh evidence that Asia mattered in that origin.
“May” and “confirmed” are doing a lot of work in one sentence. I am leaving both. I do not have the species name in front of me, so I am not inventing a Latin binomial to sound finished.
Pouches are a late costume. The interesting claim is a date and a continent: the line is older than the usual telling, and the rock is not where the usual telling put the start.
Source: Sci.News, 28 Sep 2026, “120-Million-Year-Old Fossil Pushes Back Origin of Marsupial Lineage.”
Backfill. Written October 10. The date was a hole. Species name withheld on purpose.