• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Over 250 Fossilized Dinosaur Eggs Found In India, Including Rare Egg-In-Egg

January 18, 2023 by Deborah Bloomfield

A treasure trove of fossilized eggs were the subject of a recent study that discovered a curious specimen among the clutch: an egg-in-egg, or ovum-in-ovo, whereby an egg is found to contain another egg. The quirk of ovulation has only previously been reported in birds, not reptiles, and so it may be that these dinosaurs had a similar laying pattern to their feathered descendants.

The 256 fossilized eggs were spread across 92 clutches in the Lamenta Formation that’s tucked in the Narmada Valley of central India. The region is famous for the Late Cretaceous specimens it’s been found to conceal, including the preservation of prehistoric eggs.

Advertisement

Breaking into the fossil record isn’t easy for eggs – being fragile and defenseless puts you at a high risk of being trampled or eaten. Any eggs that do so were usually helped along by a swift burial after being laid and landing in the right environment.

titanosaur egg
Some of the clutches were laid near lakes and ponds while others were deposited far away from water. Those buried nearby were at greater risk of being buried in sediment and preserved, while the clutches laid away from the margins were more often found hatched with shell fragments. Image credit: Dhiman et al., 2023, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0

Those that do survive have enormous potential, academically speaking, telling us about the parental strategies of dinosaurs, the evolution of egg-laying, and past environmental conditions. The researchers on this particular study were also treated to a rare shiny of fossilized eggs.

“The most surprising discovery was of a pathologic egg called ‘ovum-in-ovo‘ where an egg within an egg was observed,” study author Dr Harsha Dhiman told IFLScience. “Such eggs have not been reported from reptiles but only from birds. This discovery has led us to hypothesize that titanosaur sauropod dinosaurs may have laid eggs in a sequential manner as is the case with birds.”

Advertisement

Another bird-like discovery was the sheer number of nests in one area, comparable to the colonial nesting behaviors seen among many groups of modern birds. However, the burial of the eggs in shallow pits was more reptile-like, mirroring the behavior of modern crocodiles.

dinosaur egg
A) a completely unhatched egg from clutch P43. B) Almost fully intact circular outline of egg. C) Compressed egg from clutch DR10 showing hatching window (arrow showing gap). D) Egg from clutch P26 showing curved outline. E) Deformed egg from clutch P30 showing egg surfaces slipping past each other. Image credit: Dhiman et al., 2023, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0

The pattern in which they were laid also tells us about the possible parenting strategies of these dinosaurs.

“Some of the nests were found within a close distance of each other,” continued Dhiman. “This may point to lack of parental care since maneuvering around the eggs by the parents would have trampled the eggs considering the size of an adult titanosaur sauropod. Moreover, lack of parental bones in association with fossil eggs may also indicate that parental care was not involved.”

Advertisement

The authors identified six different egg species among the 92 clutches. This came as somewhat of a surprise as it paints a picture of biodiversity in the region that hasn’t been reflected by the skeletal remains dug up here. 

The discovery points towards an extensive hatchery of titanosaur sauropod dinosaurs in the Narmada Valley, making it a treasure trove of specimens and academic insights that could teach us new things about what conditions favor nest preservation and how these dinosaurs reproduced. 

Dhiman and colleagues certainly aren’t done with the field study site just yet:

Advertisement

“We hope to carry out more field work in the area in order to look for any potential sites that may have preserved fossilized adult or juvenile bones for a precise taxonomic identification of the eggs and for understanding the preservational milieu. We also aim to do CT scans of some potential eggs to look for preserved embryos or hatchling bones.”

The study was published in PLOS ONE.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Norway coalition talks start, with climate and oil in focus
  2. Indonesian fintech Xendit is now a unicorn, with $150M in fresh funding led by Tiger Global
  3. U.S. Senator Cruz vows to block new Democratic debt ceiling ploy
  4. Yellen says U.S. may exhaust cash by Oct 18 barring debt ceiling rise

Source Link: Over 250 Fossilized Dinosaur Eggs Found In India, Including Rare Egg-In-Egg

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Hippos Hung Around In Europe 80,000 Years Later Than We Thought
  • Officially Gone: Slender-Billed Curlew, Once-Widespread Migratory Bird, Declared Extinct By IUCN
  • Watch: Rare Footage Captures Freaky Faceless Cusk Eels Lurking On The Deep-Sea Floor
  • Watch This Funky Sea Pig Dancing Its Way Through The Deep Sea, Over 2,300 Meters Below The Surface
  • NASA Lets YouTuber Steve Mould Test His “Weird Chain Theory” In Space
  • The Oldest Stalagmite Ever Dated Was Found In Oklahoma Rocks, Dating Back 289 Million Years
  • 2024’s Great American Eclipse Made Some Birds Behave In Surprising Ways, But Not All Were Fooled
  • “Carter Catastrophe”: The Math Equation That Predicts The End Of Humanity
  • Why Is There No Nobel Prize For Mathematics?
  • These Are The Only Animals Known To Incubate Eggs In Their Stomachs And Give “Birth” Out Their Mouths
  • Constipated? This One Fruit Could Help, Says First-Ever Evidence-Led Diet Guidance
  • NGC 2775: This Galaxy Breaks The Rules Of “Galactic Evolution” And Baffles Astronomers
  • Meet The “Four-Eyed” Hirola, The World’s Most Endangered Antelope With Fewer Than 500 Left
  • The Bizarre 1997 Experiment That Made A Frog Levitate
  • There’s A Very Good Reason Why October 1582 On Your Phone Is Missing 10 Days
  • Skynet-1A: Military Spacecraft Launched 56 Years Ago Has Been Moved By Persons Unknown
  • There’s A Simple Solution To Helping Avoid Erectile Dysfunction (But You’re Not Going To Like It)
  • Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS May Be 10 Billion Years Old, This Rare Spider Is Half-Female, Half-Male Split Down The Middle, And Much More This Week
  • Why Do Trains Not Have Seatbelts? It’s Probably Not What You Think
  • World’s Driest Hot Desert Just Burst Into A Rare And Fleeting Desert Bloom
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version