Over 300 dinosaur eggs were found in a village in India * A fossilized egg with a dinosaur embryo inside it was discovered in Mongolia
(16 / 02 / 97)
The inhabitants of the Indian village, who were plowing the wheat and cotton fields, thought they had come across rocks, but scientists who arrived at the scene were happy to discover that they were fossilized dinosaur eggs. In recent years, residents of the village of Pisdora - 700 km northeast of Bombay - have come across these eggs, which are about 15 cm long and 7.5 cm wide, more than once, but only recently did scientists learn about the findings.
"The villagers were not aware of the importance of the fossils," said Dr. Giani Badam, a paleontologist from the nearby Deccan College. The villagers also found fossilized bones and dung in their fields. In total, more than 300 dinosaur eggs were found around the village, in groups of four to ten eggs.
"The eggs look just like stones," said farmer Kinsa Dadamal, "and then people come in cars and take them away. The bones do look like the bones of an animal, but it must have been a very large animal."
According to Badam, the dinosaurs that laid these eggs lived 65 million years ago. The study of the remains may provide clues as to the cause of the disappearance of these giant animals. The dinosaur embryos in the eggs may have suffocated due to volcanic eruptions, but it will take about six months before the samples sent for biochemical tests will provide information about the size of the dinosaurs, their eating habits and the environment in which they lived.
From tests of stone fossils and vegetation found around the eggs, it was discovered that these dinosaurs had four legs and a long neck, avoided eating meat and fed on pine cones and ferns.
The scientists were called to the village by Vikas Amata, a doctor and environmental activist who oversees a rehabilitation project for lepers and the disabled near Pisadura.
"The whole area needs to be fenced off," he said. "Every site where dinosaur remains are found is of national importance. The area should be turned into a park like Jurassic Park." In the early nineties, tools, carvings and ornaments dating to the Stone Age were found in the villages near Pisdora.
Seashells of various sizes found at the site led the researchers to assume that this area, which is now in the heart of the land, was once part of the coastal plain, and volcanic eruptions caused its elevation.
Late credit (20/11/94)
A fossilized egg of a dinosaur of the species Phyloseratops obiraptor, and inside it a fossilized skeleton of a fetus, found in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, reinforces the notion that different species of dinosaurs used to care for their offspring.
The care of the offspring is an outcome of a choice between two possible main reproductive strategies. One strategy is based on spawning very many offspring, or laying a large amount of eggs, and abandoning the eggs, or the offspring to their fate. Thus, even if some of the eggs or offspring are eaten, or destroyed for various reasons, there will still be some that will survive and carry the genetic load to the next generation.
The second strategy entails laying a few eggs, or giving birth (or spawning) to a small number of offspring, and ensuring their safety through care and protection. In a well-known sense, this is the old dilemma between quantity and quality.
The explorers of the oviraptor Philoseratops egg found to their surprise that it was very similar to fossilized eggs found nearby, in 1923, and mistakenly associated with a small vegetarian dinosaur of the Protoceratops species. Next to the eggs discovered in 1923 was also a fossilized skeleton of a dinosaur, which the researchers believed came to devour the abandoned Protoceratops eggs. Therefore, they gave this dinosaur the name Oviraptor Phyloseratops, which means "predator of protoceratops eggs".
Now it turns out that the "predator" did not come to the ferret. In fact, they were his own eggs and he kept them. However, this finding does not indicate the behavior of all dinosaur species. Different dinosaur species may have adopted different reproductive strategies.
