Science Advances has published on the lifecycles of Jurassic-era Dryolestes and Haldanodon. Late maturation was the hallmark.
If I may just-so this story, I think early maturation features in egg-born animals and among placentals. Eggs and placental-infants leave the mother at birth. The mother then not only must nurture the child, somehow; she must keep watch. With the help of grandmothers mayhap.
The mammal who always knows where her child is would be the marsupial. This blog's understanding is that mammals-as-such emerged earlier, early Jurassic.
We placentals start competing during the Cretaceous by which time South America was its own continent. (Unsure about Australia preChicxulub; the famous marsupials down there now had rafted over from South America, but echidnas and platypodes remain a thing.)
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