Paleontologists in China have found the remains of Oviraptorus ur sitting on egg structures. By itself it is a surprising and rare discovery, but this fossil is unique in that the eggs still preserve evidence of undiagnosed descent. Inside.
“Here we first report [non-avian] “Dinosaur fossils known to protect adult skeletons on top of egg clutches, including fetal remains.” Research Paper Published in Science Bulletin. Found in China, the fossil is expanding our understanding of oviraptorosaurus behavior and physiology, while providing further evidence that non-avian dinosaurs employ brooding behaviors such as birds.
Oviraptorosaurs, also known as oviraptors, have been given such names due to early paleontological misunderstandings of similar fossils. The name means “egg thief”, but these dinosaurs were not thieves, as it was later shown that the Oviraptorosaurus was the owner of a fossilized egg found next to the remains of their fiery skeleton.
Indeed, fossils of nest oviraptorosaurs with their eggs have been found before. What’s new here is that there is still evidence of an embryo inside the dino egg. It is worth noting that the embryos inside the oviraptor eggs were first found, but only in isolation. A famous example is “Baby Louie“The fossil was found in Henan, China, in the 1990s.
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The Oviraptorosaurus was a super successful Theopod dinosaur of the Cretaceous period. They varied greatly in size, with the largest weighing 2,425 pounds (1,100 kg).). Common features include feathers, long neck, wings and beak. These non-avian dinosaurs looked very much like birds, like modern ostriches. While making the nest, these animals arranged their eggs in a near perfect circle, keeping their large number of eggs remarkably neat.
The newly described fossil, designated LDNHMF2008, was pulled from the Nanxiong Formation near the Ganzhou Railway in the Jiangxi Province of southern China. The fossil record dates to the end of the Cretaceous period, about 70 million years ago. It preserves the remains of an adult medium-sized oraptorus ur, missing its skull and other skeletal features. The animal died while in the state of the structure.
These fossilized bones were found with at least 24 eggs in a “disordered clutch”, “some of which are broken, exposing the fetal bones,” the study authors wrote. Researchers led by Shundong B of Indiana University in Pennsylvania and Xing Zuni of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, assigned eggs to fossil species. Macrolithus yaotunensis.
Oviraptorusaurus structures with many eggs at once are not uncommon, and probably the real “egg thieves.” Is adapted for extreme hunting by.
Microscopic analysis of the fossil showed that some embryos were in the final stages of development, and were on the edge of hatching. The authors took this as possible evidence that overprotectors were actively coughing up their structures, and simply could not protect them, as some paleontologists speculate.
The paleontologist and co-author of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, “In the new specimen, the babies were almost ready to hatch from an egg, which tells us beyond a doubt that this oviraptoride had long since taken over its structure.” The new study said In a statement. “These dinosaurs were caring parents who eventually gave up their lives while following her.”
Other evidence supports this interpretation, i.e. oxygen isotope analysis shows that eggs were hatched at temperatures around 97 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit (36 to 38 degrees Celsius), bird-like, bird-like. Interestingly, eggs are found to be at different stages of development, i.e. they hatch at different times. This is known as Hatching asynchronous, A reproductive phenomenon found in modern birds. The authors were not able to show any reason for asynchronous hatching, but as they write in their study, they presented a plausible scenario:
“Like the ostrich, oviraptorosaro would have begun to consume the structure only after all the eggs had been laid, just as the lower eggs, which had been laid earlier, would have been in service for as long as the upper eggs. However, the upper eggs would have hatched earlier than the lower eggs, because, being closer to the grown-up adults, they would have received more heat from this person than the lower eggs, and therefore the embryos would have developed faster. “
Finally, scientists also discovered a handful of pebbles in Dino’s abdomen. These rocks are probably gast gastroliths, which the animals swallow to aid digestion. This is the first time such an item has been documented in an oviraptorus ur, and a potential clue in their diet. It’s a ton of new insights for one, though notable, fossilized.
Zoo said, “It is extraordinary to think about how much biological information is captured in this fossil. “We will learn from this pattern over the next several years.”
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