In what is now Jiangxi Province in southern China, scientists have discovered something that would drop Alan Grant’s jaw through the floor: a fossil of a non-bird dinosaur perched on top of a nest of eggs, in which their fossil embryos are preserved. According to scientists, this is the first time a dinosaur non-bird has been found on top of its babies. And that the discovery gives a glimpse into how dinosaurs cared for their claws as they evolved into large birds.
CNN reports on the discovery, which a multinational team of researchers recently described in an article published in the journal Science Bulletin. According to the newspaper, recent studies have shown that many bird features have developed incrementally in dinosaurs; before the origin of the clade, Avialae, which consisted of the only living dinosaurs: the birds.
Shundong Bi / Indiana University of Pennsylvania
“Dinosaurs that are preserved in their nests are rare, and so are fossil embryos,” said co-lead author Dr. Shundong Bi of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, said in a press release. “This is the first time a non-bird dinosaur has been found, sitting on a nest of eggs that preserve embryos, in one spectacular specimen,” Bi added.
The researchers estimate the fossil is 70 million years old and place it in the Cretaceous. (It stretches from about 145 to 66 million years ago.) It consists of an incomplete skeleton of probably an adult oviraptorid – that is, an all-encompassing bird-like dino, in the images below – in a bird-like breeding position over a clutch of about 24 eggs.
Zhao Chuang, PNSO
“This type of discovery – essentially fossil behavior – is the rarest of the rare in dinosaurs,” said paleontologist and project researcher Dr. Matt Lamanna, added in the release. “In the new specimen, the babies were almost ready to hatch, which no doubt tells us that this oviraptorid has cared for its nest for a long time.”
The fossil proves not only the fact that this “Chicken from Hell” (yes, it’s a nickname for oviraptors) was a caring parent, but ultimately something deeper. That it clearly gave his life for his little ones. As well as contemporary science.
Andrew McAfee / Carnegie Museum of Natural History
“It’s extraordinary to think how much biological information there is … just in this single fossil,” Bi said. “We’ll be learning from this copy for many years to come.”
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