Over 200 Fossilised Eggs Found in China
Reveals how pterosaurs breed
Over 200 three-dimensionally preserved eggs of pterosaurs have been unearthed in China, providing new insight into the life history of the rulers of the skies in the age of dinosaurs, scientists said. “I am extremely excited and collected them very carefully,” said study researcher Xiaolin Wang, a paleontologist at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, recalling the discovery from the Turpan-Hami Basin located in Xinjiang in northwestern China.
The findings on the pterosaur species, known as Hamipterus tianshanensis, were published in the US journal Science.
Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates to evolve powered flight and they dominated the skies during the age of dinosaurs, which spans from about 252 million years ago to about 66 million years ago.
To date, only 11 pterosaur eggs have been found, three of which have fossilised embryos inside.
Five of the eggs were also found in the Turpan-Hami Basin, where a huge lake once existed in the Cretaceous period.
Now, this sparse sample size was dramatically increased upon the discovery of the 215 Hamipterus eggs that are estimated to be 120 million years old based on the geological information.
Mr Xiaolin said up to 300 eggs may be present at the excavation site near the city of Hami because more appear to be buried under the exposed ones.
“The eggs are in an accumulation without a preferential orientation, clearly showing transport” caused by strong winds and storms at that time, according to the paper by Mr Xiaolin’s team and researchers in Brazil.
“Their external surface shows cracking and crazing, and all are deformed to a certain extent, which indicate their pliable nature,” the paper wrote.