Strong tea, it is hard to imagine Rex simply kneeling on top of a bunch of eggs, but new research surrounding fossil ovulation suggests that this behavior may have practiced by some dinosaurs. The first non-avalanche dinosaurs (species outside the litter of dinosaurs related to living birds) featuring adult dinosaurs have been described in detail in the science bulletin.
What’s more, the embryos were at different stages, indicating that the eggs could hatch at different times, which is usually determined after the parents start to encourage them. Shundong Bi, a professor at Indiana University in Pennsylvania, told IFLScience “this is not the first time that an oviraptorid has been found, or that these are not the first oviraptorid embryos.” It is also the first nesting oviraptorid found outside the Gobi Desert.”
Brooding, seen in chickens that encourage them to develop on top of their eggs, considered an unlikely behavior in non-avalanche dinosaurs whose heavy bodies will surely isolate their offspring. However, this new fossil found near Ganzhou, China, was the first to discover in an avalanche dinosaur preserved on top of an eggshell that still contains embryonic remains.
The researchers believe that the presence of an adult in an embryonic egg at a stage of advanced growth provides strong support for the brooding hypothesis in some non-avalanche dinosaurs. Interestingly, the embryos inside the eggs are at different stages of development, which would probably come out at different times if the eggs survived. BI said, “Asynchronous hatching was not widespread among dinosaurs.” Even in modern birds, it is quite wonderful and unusual.”
The researchers say their results prove that the evolution of reproductive biology along the line of birds archosaurs (a large group of vertebrates including dinosaurs and pterosaurs and represent by birds today) was complex and not linear, a growing process that previously conceived. Recent research has detailed how the airplane feature evolved twice in dinosaurs before the clad image of the ancestor of modern birds detailed.
