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An artist s rendition of an oviraptorosaur brooding over its eggs while its partner looks on (Credit: Zhao Chuang, PNSO)
Researchers worldwide are celebrating the discovery of the fossil of an adult oviraptorosaur brooding over a nest of eggs containing unhatched babies. The unprecedented discovery confirms scientists suspicions that the two-legged bird-like dinosaurs were doting parents, which not only incubated their eggs, but also guarded them at times putting their own lives at risk. Dinosaurs preserved on their nests are rare, and so are fossil embryos. This is the first time a non-avian dinosaur has been found, sitting on a nest of eggs that preserve embryos, in a single spectacular specimen, says study co-leader Shundong Bi, a paleontologist at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Extraordinary Fossil Captures Nesting Oviraptor Dinosaur Alongside Unhatched Offspring
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Left: The new fossil preserving an adult oviraptorid dinosaur with eggs containing embryos. Right: Artist s interpretation of a nesting oviraptorid. (Image: Fossil: Shundong Bi; Artwork: Zhao Chuang)
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Paleontologists in China have unearthed the fossil of an oviraptorosaur sitting on a nest of eggs. By itself that’s an amazing and rare discovery, but this fossil is unique in that the eggs still preserve evidence of the unhatched progeny inside.
10 MARCH 2021
An international team of scientists has announced the discovery of an extraordinary fossilized nest in China, preserving at least eight separate dinosaurs from 70 million years ago.
The clutch of ancient eggs belongs to a medium-sized adult oviraptor, and we know that because the parent is actually part of the fossil. The skeleton of this ostrich-like theropod is positioned in a crouch over two dozen eggs, at least seven of which were on the brink of hatching and still contain embryos inside.
The ancient scene is unprecedented, and provides the first hard evidence that dinosaurs were brooding parents, laying their eggs and incubating them for quite a long time.