A team of paleontologists has discovered 92 nests with more than 200 fossilized eggs of a titanosaur, an ancient herbivorous giant reptile.
During excavations in the city of Dhar in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, scientists discovered a massive and rare hatching site belonging to a titanosaur colony.
According to expert statements, the eggs may have been laid shortly before the event that triggered the extinction of the dinosaurs on the planet 66 million years ago. The eggs were very well preserved in rock and soil, even inside degraded protein fragments were detected.
Some uncovered eggs showed signs of hatching, while others had not hatched.
Titanosaurs are among the largest known dinosaurs. These herbivorous sauropodswho has lived since the time of the Upper Jurassic (between 163.5 and 145 million years ago) until the end of the Period cretaceous (between 145 and 66 million years ago), measured between 7 and 25 meters long depending on the species.
Some titanosaurs were as large as modern whales. About 40 species of titanosaurs have been identified, with fossils discovered on all continents except in Antarctica.
Recreation of the size of a Titanosaurus, compared to a human.
Site of one of the largest dinosaur farms in the world
The discovery took place in the Lameta Training, located in the Narmada Valley. This is a central Indian nesting ground. It is part of a 1,000 kilometer long corridor, which is one of the largest dinosaur breeding sites in the world.
paleontologists have discovered six different egg species at the site, revealing a greater diversity of titanosaurs than expected.
Other excavations have already found dinosaur nests and eggs in the MP district of Jabalpur and in the city of balassinor in Gujarat, this suggests that there is a strong possibility that titanosaurs traveled to this particular area of the Narmada Valley to lay eggs or that eggs hatched there as well.
Nests or clutches were closely spaced, each holding between one and 20 eggs or eggshells. The intact eggs ranged in size from circular to subcircular and in diameter from 15 to 17 centimeters.
hard adhimanThe discovery “offers new insights into nest preservation conditions and reproductive strategies of titanosaurs just prior to their extinction,” the study’s lead author said in a statement.
(A) Completely unhatched egg. (B) The almost entirely intact circular outline of the egg possibly indicates that it has not hatched and no loose shells are found in the clutch. (C) Compressed egg of the clutch. (D) Clutch egg with a curved outline. (E) Deformed egg showing egg surfaces sliding over each other. Credit: Dhiman et al., 2023, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0.
Similarities to Modern Animals
Research has shown that titanosaurs nested similarly to modern birds, laying their eggs and placing their nests close together as a colony.
However, the narrow space between the nests didn’t leave much room for adult dinosaurs, supporting the idea that adult titanosaurs weren’t “raised consciously”.
Illustrative image.
The hatchlings, it seems, were left to fend for themselves, unlike modern birds which sit on their eggs to incubate them.
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Based on the layout of the nests, the research team also believe that titanosaurs buried their eggs in shallow pits similar to modern crocodiles. They even found a rare case of egg-in-egg (or egg-in-egg), indicating that titanosaurs had a reproductive physiology similar to that of modern birds and crocodiles and eventually laid their eggs sequentially.
Historically, the details of dinosaur breeding habits have been a bit difficult to pin down. Fossil nests can help, and those in this study offer insight into how some of the the greatest dinosaurs in history they reproduced, evolved and lived just before disappearing.
The research has been published in PLOS A.
The references: India Times/Science Live.
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