Palaeontologists believe that internal fertilisation evolved around 400 million years ago, so anything this old is literally old as fuck.

Also, the first animal in the fossil record known to reproduce this way is an extinct species of fish, amusingly named Michrobrachius dicki.

The oldest known mammal species to evolve on Earth was a small shrew-like creature known as Juramaia sinensis which lived about 160 million years ago. Descended testicles are a mammalian trait thought to have been present in the earliest mammal species. So it's quite likely that anything 160 million years old is literally old as balls.

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@InvaderXan okay but if it’s that old, how do we know what any fleshy features looked like?

@Leucrotta @InvaderXan traces of muscle connections on bones, and traces of soft tissues on the other surrounding rocks--like the imprints of feathers or skin, detailed enough to glean color information from the molecular structure. as far as the descended testicles... like the OP said, "thought to have been present," but until/unless we get fossil confirmation, it's really just a scientific guess. ;)

@troodon @InvaderXan that’s what I mean, I’d assume inner ischia or pubis showing muscle attachments but wouldn’t that mostly show the crus penis? And you’d need a really unflattened pelvis or fleshy impressions so if we have those that’s a seriously awesome fossil!

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