A treasure trove of rare freshwater fossils has been described from Taiwan in a new study. Dating back to the Early Pleistocene, over 1 million years ago, they include a baby snail preserved inside its mother’s shell. Did she eat it? Oh no, these snails gave birth to live young and it's only the second-ever fossil evidence found of this. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

Fossil sites across Taiwan have yielded lots of fossil mollusks, but over 99 percent of those found have represented marine species. There are a handful of known freshwater deposits, however, including the Tananwan Formation, which is between 1.46-1.24 million years old.

Five new-to-science species were identified from a 1-meter-thick fossiliferous mudst

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