A team of paleontologists in India have given 256 fossilized dinosaur eggs a close look, in hopes of better understanding how some of the largest known dinosaurs bred and hatched.
The eggs were found across 92 titanosaur nesting sites in India’s Narmada Valley, north and east of Mumbai, with the first clutches discovered in 2012. Now, researchers have published insights about the types of fossilized eggs found in these nests, along with inferences about the dinosaurs that laid them. The team’s research is published today in PLoS ONE.
Harsha Dhiman, the study’s lead author, said in a PLoS release that the research “offers new insights into the conditions of nest preservation and reproductive strategies of titanosaur sauropod dinosaurs just before they went extinct.”
“Trash mounds” of 1,300-year-old fabrics, still vividly colored, unearthed in Israel (photo)
For one, the researchers know the eggs were laid by titanosaurs, a group of sauropods that includes some of the largest dinosaurs to ever roam Earth. They identified eggs of the genera Megaloolithus and Fusioolithus—the titanosaur groups known to have lived in India.
Read more: Gizmodo
