Nest and egg clutches of the dinosaur Troodon formosus and the evolution of avian reproductive traits

Article Abstract:

Crocodilians and birds have similar reproductive features, including parental care, assembly-line oviducts, hard-shelled eggs and luteal morphology. Unlike birds, however, crocodilians produce many small eggs which they ovulate, shell, deposit and incubate within sediments or vegetation mounds. Birds ovulate, shell and lay one egg at a time even as they incubate eggs directly with body heat. An analysis of egg clutches and nests indicates that the small coelurosaurian Troodon formosus produce two eggs simultaneously at daily or longer intervals and incubate them through a combination of soil and direct body contact.

Birds, Sexual behavior in animals, Animal sexual behavior, Bird eggs, Bird nests, Crocodilia, Fossil eggs

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Sauropod dinosaur embryos from the Late Cretaceous of Patagonia

Article Abstract:

The embryonic remains of sauropod dinosaurs from the Upper Cretaceous stage of Patagonia, are described. Of the thousands of eggs distributed over an area greater than 1 km2, the proportion containing embryonic remains is high. As well as bone, the specimens contained fossil skin casts, and the discovery provides a positive link between megaloothid dinosaur eggshells with sauropod dinosaurs.

Geology, Stratigraphic, Stratigraphy, Saurischia, Saurischians, Cretaceous period

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Parental care in an ornithischian dinosaur: A dramatic fossil may shed light on how modern archosaurs became devoted parents

Article Abstract:

Crocodilians and birds show extensive parental care of their young whereas parenting among related fossil groups such as dinosaurs are unclear. Parental care was derived for various dinosaur lineages from nestlings with altricial bone tissues, assemblages of shed teeth and tooth-marked bone, and mixed-age bone beds.

United States, Science & research, Behavior, Parental behavior in animals, Animal parental behavior, Animal parental behaviour

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