Scientists have found that a 70-million-year-old fossilized dinosaur sits on a nest of its eggs that contain fossilized embryos.
“Dinosaurs preserved in their nests are rare, and so are fossil embryos,” said co-lead researcher Shundong Bi, a professor at Indiana University in Pennsylvania and a research fellow at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH). “This is the first time a non-bird dinosaur has been found, sitting on a nest of eggs that preserve embryos, in a single spectacular specimen.” The dinosaur and its descendants were found in Jiangxi province in China.
From the Carnegie Museum of Natural History:
The fossil in question is that of an oviraptorosaurus, a group of bird-like teropod dinosaurs that thrived during the Cretaceous, the third and final period of the Mesozoic era (commonly known as the ‘Age of Dinosaurs’) that stretched from 145 . to 66 million years ago. CMNH’s famous “Chicken from Hell” Anzu wyliei, is another type of oviraptorosaur. But while Anzu is part of the largely North American oviraptorosaur subgroup Caenagnathidae, the new fossil is a member of another large subgroup, the Oviraptoridae, which has so far been found only in Asia. The new sample was obtained from the upper rocks of the Cretaceous, about 70 million years old, in the city of Ganzhou in Jiangxi Province in southern China.
The fossil consists of an incomplete skeleton of a large, presumably adult oviraptoride that is bent over a clutch of at least 24 eggs in a bird-like breeding position. At least seven of these eggs retain bones or partial skeletons of unbroken oviraptorous embryos inside. The late stage of development of the embryos and the proximity of the adult to the eggs strongly suggest that the latter died during the incubation of its nest, just like the modern cousins of birds, rather than laying its eggs or simply its to protect crocodile. style, as sometimes suggested for the few other oviraptorous skeletons found on top of nests.
“This kind of discovery – essentially fossil behavior – is the rarest of the rare in dinosaurs,” explains [CMNH co-interim director and lead dinosaur paleontologist Matt] Lamanna. “Although a few adult oviraptorides have been found in their eggs before, no embryos have ever been found in the eggs. In the new specimen, the babies were almost ready to hatch, which no doubt tells us that this oviraptoride was prone to The eggs. dinosaur was a caring parent who eventually gave his life while raising his young. ‘
image: Shundong Bi, Indiana University of Pennsylvania