More than 250 eggs of the largest dinosaurs to walk. The earth have been found in 92 hatcheries in central India. According to a team of paleontologists.
The find reveals intimate details about the life of the titanosaur.
Which was about 23 to 85 feet long depending on the species. University of Delhi researchers said in a study published last week in the journal PLOS ONE.
“Our research revealed the presence of an extensive hatchery of titanosaur sauropod dinosaurs in the study area. And provides new insights into the nesting conditions. And reproductive strategies of titanosaur sauropod dinosaurs. Before their extinction,” Harsh Dhiman, lead author of the study, said in a news release.
This suggests significant diversity among species. That lived from the end of the Jurassic period, about 163.5 million to 145 million years ago. The end of the Cretaceous period, about 145 million to 66 million years ago, the study added.
“Eggs and eggshells are considered trace fossils and their discovery can be examined. As indirect evidence of the existence of life.” Guntupalli V.R. Prasad, co-author of the study, told NBC News on Friday.
Found in the Lametta Formation, a sedimentary geological formation in central.
India known for finding fossils, Prasad said, the egg species. “May represent intraspecific diversity,” suggesting a higher diversity of titanosaurs than. The skeletal remains found in the region.
Multi-shelled and ovum-in-ovo, or “ovum-in-egg” pathologies have been identified. At the site, indicating that “the animals had a reproductive physiology like birds. And laid their eggs in a similar manner,” the study said.
But, it added that the clutch pattern “which shows spaced eggs with similar matrix content inside. And outside the egg, suggests their nesting pattern is more like crocodiles.”
The team also suggested that titanosaurs buried their eggs in shallow burrows, like crocodiles. And incubated them using solar radiation and geothermal heat.
“The presence of many nests in the same area suggests.
That these dinosaurs exhibited colonial nesting behavior like many modern birds,” the study added. “But the close spacing of nests left little room for adult dinosaurs. Supporting the idea that adults left the babies (newborns) to fend for themselves.”
