Paleontologists make rare discovery of 256 dinosaur egg fossils in India

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Some cool stuff here. I really dig, no pun intended, these finds. We will never know everything but finds like this are stunning. Some cool pics at the link.

Paleontologists in India have found 92 dinosaur nesting sites and 256 egg fossils. The scientists made the discovery between 2017 and 2020 in the Narmada valley in central India. The discovery was the first of its kind for the Narmada valley, the researches say.

During the study, published on PLOS ONE this week, researches from the University of Delhi found the sauropod nesting sites in five villages in the Bagh-Kukshi area. Sauropods are large herbivores with long necks, such as a brontosaurus.

The researchers studied and documented the egg fossils either as clutches – eggs in a nest – or in the form of broken eggs with eggshell fragments scattered around.

Little was known about sauropod nesting patterns, but the egg fossils, which belong to titanosaurs, helped the paleontologist learn more about their habits and reproductive biology. Titanosaurs lived from Late Jurassic Epoch to the end of the Cretaceous Period, and their fossils have been found on every continent except Antarctica.

The are about 40 species of Titanosaurs. The researchers were able to identify six different oospecies – or types of dinosaur eggs – in the area, suggesting there was diversity in the types of titanosaurs in the area.

The discovery of ovum-in-ovo eggs – or eggs that have different layers besides the shell – shows that these dinosaurs had similar eggs to birds. However, their clutches were randomly placed, which suggest their nesting pattern was similar to crocodiles. The researchers believe the eggs were partially buried in a shallow pit, similar to modern crocodilians, and were incubated using and used solar radiation and geothermal heat.

Clone em all....

Finally an answer, since these eggs are so much older then chicken we now know which came first ! Awesome find, thanks