Dinosaur Eggs and Bones from 70-million Years Ago Found in Patagonia

I love these stories!!! Awesome!

Fossilized eggs and bones from an enigmatic birdlike dinosaur in Patagonia, South America, from 70-million years ago, was discovered by an Argentine-Swedish research team.

It appears they were found in 2010 but we're just learning about this now??

The team found the two eggs next to the bones of the dinosaur’s hindlimb. After analyzing the eggs, Kundrát came to the conclusion that the eggs might have been inside the oviducts of the Bonapartenykus female dinosaur when she died. He said, “So it looks like we have indirect evidence for keeping two eggs in two oviducts. They were close to being laid, but the female didn’t make it.”

Dr. Martin Kundrat also found some evidence of fungal contamination and said, “During inspection of the shell samples using the electron scanning microscopy I observed unusual fossilized objects inside of the pneumatic canal of the eggshells. It turned out to be the first evidence of fungal contamination of dinosaur eggs.”

This mama dinosaur would have lived on Gondwana, the southern landmass in the Mesozoic Era, which lasted from about 251 million to 65 million years ago. (The era is split up into the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.)


Photo Above: One of the Bonapartenykus eggs showing its unique eggshell microstructure, which includes the tiny bumps covering its surface. CREDIT: Fernando Novas

This bird-like dinosaur is believed to be the last survivor from the Mesozoic land mass Gondwana, which is now South Africa. According to Science Codex, “The creature belongs to one of the most mysterious groups of dinosaurs, the Alvarezsauridae, and it is one of the largest members, 2.6 m, of the family. It was first discovered by Dr. Powell, but has now been described and named Bonapartenykus ultimus in honor of Dr. José Bonaparte who 1991 discovered the first alvarezsaurid in Patagonia.”

Link to original article: Source

Link to Livescience article: Source

a group of theropod dinosaurs believed to be the line that eventually led to modern-day birds.

It's quite ironic that you posted this thread...Dr Ron paul does not subscribe to the theory of evolution..

Originally posted by Atzil321

a group of theropod dinosaurs believed to be the line that eventually led to modern-day birds.

It's quite ironic that you posted this thread...Dr Ron paul does not subscribe to the theory of evolution..

Thanks for derailing the thread on the first reply. Dr. Paul's beliefs on evolution/creation DO NOT IMPACT me whatsoever. I support the good doctor because he believes in everyone's right to THEIR OWN BELIEF systems, their rights to their own liberties and restoring what this republic once was.

I was not trying to derail your thread 'which i actually enjoyed reading'. I was just pointing out something that struck me as being rather odd.. Anyway, sorry for any offence caused, it was not my intention.

Originally posted by Atzil321
I was not trying to derail your thread 'which i actually enjoyed reading'. I was just pointing out something that struck me as being rather odd.. Anyway, sorry for any offence caused, it was not my intention.

Fair enough and thank you very much for the clarification.

I do hope that I illustrated why his belief or non-belief in such wouldn't disqualify him as my choice of candidates.

i think this is a very cool find, but once again, the artistic recreations are completely biased and speculative. it is unclear whether they were covered in feathers or scales, what colors those scales/feathers were, and how their arms were used.

let me demonstrate. i could not find a skeletal reconstruction of Bonapartenykus ultimus, but this first picture is of the same family and very similar.

this second picture is a velociraptor

these are very similar. the issue arose when some archeologist said "hey, these skeletons look similar to birds" and viola, we have the dinosaur to bird myth.

Originally posted by Bob Sholtz
i think this is a very cool find, but once again, the artistic recreations are completely biased and speculative. it is unclear whether they were covered in feathers or scales, what colors those scales/feathers were, and how their arms were used.

Thanks, Bob, for the insight and the excellent contribution to the thread!

Originally posted by freakjive


It appears they were found in 2010 but we're just learning about this now??

It's part of the peer-review process for Scientific papers.

Originally posted by freakjive
This bird-like dinosaur is believed to be the last survivor from the Mesozoic land mass Gondwana, which is now South Africa.

Interesting find. I love this stuff too. However, that sentence disturbs me: Gondwana is more than South Africa, or am I reading it wrong?

Originally posted by Bob Sholtz

these are very similar. the issue arose when some archeologist said "hey, these skeletons look similar to birds" and viola, we have the dinosaur to bird myth.

No Bob, they would have been Palaeontologists, and it's not a myth.

reply to post by aorAki
I like dinosaurs. Always have.
In china, they found a relative of the T-Rex with feathers. I'm still on the fence in regards to the dinosaurs to birds deal, but I thought it was interesting that they found fossilized feathers on an animal that big.

The Link

Nice thread, Op. Love hearin about dinosaurs.



TXML

Originally posted by aorAki

Originally posted by Bob Sholtz

these are very similar. the issue arose when some archeologist said "hey, these skeletons look similar to birds" and viola, we have the dinosaur to bird myth.

No Bob, they would have been Palaeontologists, and it's not a myth.

whoops, you're right that i did mix up the two words, but it is a myth. there is no empirical evidence to support feathers, and there are plenty of structural anomalies that prevent a dinosaur to bird transformation on top of the genetic impossibility due to the rate of deleterious mutations.

i don't want to derail the thread into an evolution versus creationism debate, i was merely pointing out the inclusion of feathers as extremely biased.

i'm going to post a quick follow up to my first post illustrating the difference in leg structures. OP, tell me if you find this off topic or not, but i think it is relevant and informative.

this is a diagram of a typical bird skeleton, notice there are three long bones per leg in addition to an ankle joint and foot bones. this is characteristic of most, if not all, birds. they walk/run using their knee joint and ankle joint, while the femur stays mostly immobile. the reason being is that birds have a one way respiratory system, and the thigh bone MUST stay in position so that it can support the thin-walled air sacs.

even ostriches have this setup.

The position of the thigh bone and muscles in birds is critical to their lung function, which in turn is what gives them enough lung capacity for flight." However, every other animal that has walked on land, the scientists said, has a moveable thigh bone that is involved in their motion – including humans, elephants, dogs, lizards and – in the ancient past – dinosaurs. The implication, the researchers said, is that birds almost certainly did not descend from theropod dinosaurs, such as tyrannosaurus or allosaurus. The findings add to a growing body of evidence in the past two decades that challenge some of the most widely-held beliefs about animal evolution.

www.sciencedaily.com...

very interesting article to read on the subject.