Researchers discover a dinosaur preserved sitting on a nest of eggs with fossilized embryos, a first
By: Alaa Elassar (MSN)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Scientists are celebrating the first discovery of a dinosaur preserved while sitting on a nest of eggs with fossilized embryos, including at least three that were visible.
© Shundong Bi/Indiana University of Pennslyvania The 70-million-year-old fossil: an adult oviraptorid theropod dinosaur sitting atop a nest of its eggs.
The oviraptorosaur fossil was uncovered from rocks that are 70 million years old in Ganzhou City, China, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH) said in a news release in January.
Oviraptorosaurs were part of a diverse group of feathered, bird-like dinosaurs that lived during the Cretaceous period.
"Dinosaurs preserved on their nests are rare, and so are fossil embryos. This is the first time a non-avian dinosaur has been found sitting on a nest of eggs that preserve embryos, in a single spectacular specimen," said Shundong Bi, a CMNH researcher and professor at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, in the release. Bi and Xing Xu, a professor at Chinese Academy of Sciences, were the primary authors of a paper announcing the discovery in Science Bulletin.
The fossil of what is believed to be an adult oviraptorid can be seen hunched over 24 eggs or more, at least seven of which preserved the bones of the partial embryos found inside, the researchers said in the journal.
Some of the embryos in the eggs were visible as well the "forearms, pelvis, hind limbs, and partial tail of the adult," CMNH said.
"The late stage of development of the embryos and the close proximity of the adult to the eggs strongly suggests that the latter died in the act of incubating its nest, like its modern bird cousins, rather than laying its eggs or simply guarding its nest crocodile-style, as has sometimes been proposed for the few other oviraptorid skeletons that have been found atop nests," CMNH said.
The discovery uncovered multiple details about the species, including that dinosaurs were nurturing to their offspring.
"Though a few adult oviraptorids have been found on nests of their eggs before, no embryos have ever been found inside those eggs," Dr. Matt Lamanna, CMNH lead dinosaur paleontologist and another researcher in the study, said in the release.
"In the new specimen, the babies were almost ready to hatch, which tells us beyond a doubt that this oviraptorid had tended its nest for quite a long time," Lamanna said. "This dinosaur was a caring parent that ultimately gave its life while nurturing its young."
The fossil also gave researchers insight on the diets of oviraptorosaurs, as the fossil was found with pebbles -- most likely gastroliths, or "stomach stones" -- in the abdominal region.
Dinosaurs would swallow the stones on purpose to help them digest their food. This is the first time gastroliths were found in oviraptorids, according to CMNH.
"It's extraordinary to think how much biological information is captured in just this single fossil," said Xu. "We're going to be learning from this specimen for many years to come."
© Zhao Chuang/Science China Press An attentive oviraptorid theropod dinosaur broods its nest of blue-green eggs while its mate looks on in what is now Jiangxi Province of southern China some 70 million years ago. Artwork by Zhao Chuang.
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Fascinating.
indeed. how accurate do you think the artist's rendition is of the beast? if it is, I got lots of questions.
No accounting for a mother's love. They do sacrifice for us.
Awesome find !
looks like it's just a matter of time before somebody DNA-clones one of those things jurassic park style and it goes on a mini 1960's japanese monster movie infrastructure rampage, after escaping from it's enclosure.
I actually worry more about our AI creations. I saw all of the Terminator movies!
No worries, we are nowhere close to that level of AI. None of us will to see that.
Pretty sure that DARPA is way ahead of my SCI-FI imagination.
Not sure what that means.
DARPA, CIA, NSC, FBI and a whole lot of other three letter agencies aren't folk I care to screw with. Momma raised a survivor.
A TV show? really?
An Ai that knows its an AI and knows how to gain knowledge to control everything.
Go figure. lol
Stephen Hawking warned us about taking AI too far.
It's only a matter of time. IF a human can do it, it will be done. Regardless of the consequences.
somehow a walking laptop doesn't project the same amount of terror for me as would a gigantic prehistoric lizard tossing around a few trains and taking out the power grid.
LOL
I'd prefer neither myself.
I watched that series NEXT it was pretty cool. Next was a little more destructive than a laptop. But yeah sooner or later there will be an AI that probably should be feared.
If man can make it, he does.
Yep.
Insatiable curiosity and opposable thumbs
lol, it'll be the death of it all. But boy what a ride !
Amazing find.
If your article is correct that the dinosaur was likely 11 feet long and 500 pounds,
then how BIG was this nest?
Note, other articles indicate a 5 foot animal weighing less than 100 pounds.
.
Cool seed! Theropods -- the ancestors of all living dinosaurs, otherwise known as birds.
The artist's impression in the article reminded me of a distant, modern-day relative: the Cassowary -- the most dangerous bird in the world, living in the same general region of the world where the oviraptorosaur fossil was found.
The artist's impression of the oviraptorosaur...
Modern Southern Cassowary...
They even have a killer middle claw, like the velociraptor in Jurassic Park...
I have Musckovy ducks, which is two misnomers, they come and go as they please and they are actually more related to geese.
This is mating season. The books say that the killer claw is common among roosting birds so they dont fall out of trees while sleeping.
Mating fights start with neck wrestling and wing biting, progress to wing beatings and chest to chest charges and finally
leaping into the other fellas chest to rake him with those claws.
It gets quite bloody and sometime I throw my slippers or sneakers to break it up, lol.
Wow, those look dangerous.
There's a recommended way to hold them, but mine are all feral;
even when they were near frozen to death,
they would not let us pick them up.
If you don't get slashed or bit, they shit on your arm, lol.
Very cool.
dinosaur preserved while sitting on a nest of eggs for 70 million years.
Next time mom brings up how long she was in labor with me I'm bringing this up !
Cool find!
This professor teaches at my alma mater