165-million-year-old mammal predecessor may offer oldest known example of milk suckling

News from Science describes a house cat–size predecessor to modern mammals that lived about 165 million years ago in what is now Inner Mongolia. It paddled through the water, steering with a broad, flat tail as it hunted small animals. An analysis of its fossilized throat bones suggests it likely suckled milk from its mother when young, which the outlet calls the oldest example yet of that behavior.