Late Cretaceous avian eggs with embryos from Argentina

Schweitzer, Mary H.; Jackson, Frankie D.; Chiappe, Luis M.; Schmitt, James G.; Calvo, Jorge O.; Rubilar, David E.

doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2002)022[0191:lcaewe]2.0.co;2

Cited by 70 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…These observations, their broken polar regions (Fig. 1b), and the absence of any remaining bone fragments within the two near-complete eggs (Paul Tafforeau, European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, personal communication 2011), are consistent with the interpretation that they are hatched and that (like other reported Cretaceous bird eggs) they belonged to ground-nesting birds (Schweitzer et al 2002;Mikhailov 1996;Grellet-Tinner et al 2006): the polar region adjacent to the air cell is often Naturwissenschaften destroyed after hatching in gull colonies (Hayward et al 2000), as is the case here (Fig. 1b).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

“…1b). The more complete Od eggs are at least 50 % larger than the handful of other Mesozoic ornithothoracine eggs associated with embryonic bones (Elzanowski 1981;Mikhailov 1996;Grellet-Tinner and Norell 2002;Schweitzer et al 2002;Zhou and Zhang 2004;GrelletTinner et al 2006). These observations, their broken polar regions (Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Just a handful of Mesozoic taxa are known from embryonic remains (Elzanowski 1981;Schweitzer et al 2002), and even less are associated with egg shell and/or complete eggs (Grellet-Tinner and Norell 2002;Mikhailov 1996;Schweitzer et al 2002;Zhou and Zhang 2004). Of particular note, a single unhatched enantiornithine egg, containing the remains of a clearly precocial embryo (with well-developed primary feather tracts), has been described from the Early Cretaceous of China (Zhou and Zhang 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A drowned Mesozoic bird breeding colony from the Late Cretaceous of Transylvania

Dyke

Vremir²,

Kaiser

et al. 2012

Naturwissenschaften

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Despite a rapidly improving fossil record, the reproductive biology of Mesozoic birds remains poorly known: only a handful of undisputed, isolated Cretaceous eggs (some containing embryonic remains) are known. We report here the first fossil evidence for a breeding colony of Mesozoic birds, preserved at the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Oarda de Jos (Od) site in the Sebeş area of Transylvania, Romania. A lens of calcareous mudstone with minimum dimensions of 80 cm length, 50 cm width and 20 cm depth contains thousands of tightly packed, morphologically homogenous eggshell fragments, seven near-complete eggs and neonatal and adult avialan skeletal elements. Eggshell forms 70-80 % of the matrix, and other fossils are entirely absent. The bones exhibit clear characters of the Cretaceous avialan clade Enantiornithes, and the eggshell morphology is also consistent with this identification. Both taphonomy and lithology show that the components of this lens were deposited in a single flood event, and we conclude that it represents the drowned remains of a larger enantiornithine breeding colony, swamped by rising water, washed a short distance and deposited in a shallow, low-energy pond. The same fate often befalls modern bird colonies. Such a large concentration of breeding birds suggests aquatic feeding in this species, augments our understanding of enantiornithine biology and shows that colonial nesting was not unique to crown birds.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A drowned Mesozoic bird breeding colony from the Late Cretaceous of Transylvania

Dyke

Vremir²,

Kaiser

et al. 2012

Naturwissenschaften

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“…In the fossil record, the former requires the rare preservation of a female with eggs in its reproductive system (Sato et al, 2005), the latter is relatively more often recorded (Currie and Horner, 1988;Horner and Weishampel, 1988;Horner and Currie, 1994;Norell et al, 1994Norell et al, , 2001Horner, 1997;Manning et al, 1997;Mateus et al, 1997;Chiappe et al, 2001a;Schweitzer et al, 2002). These discoveries have also allowed the association of eggs of several extinct dinosaurs to species-specific nest structures (Varricchio et al, 1997;Chiappe et al, 2004) and in some instances, to species-specific nesting behaviors (Norell et al, 1995;Dong and Currie, 1996;Clark et al, 1999;Varricchio et al, 1999;Grellet-Tinner et al, 2006).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oology and the evolution of thermophysiology in saurischian dinosaurs: homeotherm and endotherm deinonychosaurians?

Grellet-Tinner

2006

Pap. Avulsos Zool. (São Paulo)

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The origin of avian endothermy is a long-held question the answer of which cannot be provided by first level observations. Oological and reproductive characters have collectively provided a new source of data useful for phylogenetic analyses and paleobiological inferences. In addition, the observations of reproductive and oological evolutionary trends in saurischian dinosaurs lead to the interpretation that not only, the thermophysiology of these dinosaurs progressively became more avian-like but after re-examination allows to infer that deinonychosaurians represented here by three troodontids and one dromaeosaurid might already

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“…These included character matrices proposed by Varricchio and Jackson (2004), Grellet-Tinner and Makovicky (2006) and Zelenitsky and Therrien (2008a, b). Also, López-Martínez and Vicens (2012) have published a new analysis of Prismatoolithidae using the matrix of Zelenitsky and Therrien (2008a, b) and adding the new oogenus Sankofa and the Patagonian eggs of the Bajo de la Carpa Formation (Schweitzer et al 2002). This matrix was also considered as an independent analysis.…”

Section: Phylogenetic Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Growth mechanisms in dinosaur eggshells: an insight from electron backscatter diffraction

Moreno‐Azanza

Mariani

Bauluz

2013

Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology

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Late Cretaceous avian eggs with embryos from Argentina

Cited by 70 publications

References 10 publications

A drowned Mesozoic bird breeding colony from the Late Cretaceous of Transylvania

A drowned Mesozoic bird breeding colony from the Late Cretaceous of Transylvania

Oology and the evolution of thermophysiology in saurischian dinosaurs: homeotherm and endotherm deinonychosaurians?

Growth mechanisms in dinosaur eggshells: an insight from electron backscatter diffraction

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