Dinosaur eggs discovered

bbcnews.com ^ | sept-27-2001 | bbcnews

[green team 1999]

Thursday, 27 September, 2001, 21:01 GMT 22:01 UK

Dinosaur eggs discovered

The dinosaurs belong to the group called sauropods, among the largest to walk the planet

Six eggs containing the fossils of baby dinosaurs have been found in Argentina.
The skulls, which are remarkably well-preserved, provide clues to how dinosaurs' heads developed and evolved.

The fossils were found at Auca Mahuevo, Argentina, a site that has previously yielded similar fossils, dating back to some 65-145 million years ago.

The dinosaurs are titanosaurs - members of the group of long-necked, long-tailed plant-eaters called sauropods.

The first titanosaur was found in 1842. Since then, their bones have been located on every continent except Antarctica and Australasia.

Yet very few skull specimens have been found, because the bones of the skeleton, except the limbs, are very fragile.

The nearly complete foetal skulls shed light on the evolution of some of the most notable cranial features of sauropod dinosaurs

Luis Chiappe and co-authors
These skulls - a few centimetres across - are so well preserved that even the teeth are visible, developing in the jaw.

The team behind the find - led by Luis Chiappe from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County - say the discovery could help explain certain evolutionary events in dinosaurs.

"The nearly complete foetal skulls shed light on the evolution of some of the most notable cranial features of sauropod dinosaurs," they write in the journal Science.

It is not clear precisely what type of titanosaur the dinosaurs belong to. They possess features of at least three different species.

At least 30 sauropods have now been identified. The largest, Argentinosaurus huinculensis, found in Patagonia, was more than 40 metres in length and weighed about 90 tonnes. It was one of the largest creatures to ever walk the Earth.


Titanosaurs were the most successful of the sauropods. They survived right up to the mass extinction of species 65 million years ago.

for information and discusion only,not for profit etc,etc.

walking with dinosaursthis link is from bbc,a must for anybody who wants to know more about dinosaurs.

[green team 1999]

could we ever copy their dna ????

[AgThorn]

their bones have been located on every continent except Antarctica and Australasia

Hmmm, assuming that "Australasia includes Europe, that leaves the two America's and Africa. 3 out of 7 is "every continent except ...." ??? Interesting inclusive phraseology.

[MeekOneGOP]

Man, its suppertime and after seeing your post here, now I'm hungry !

Fred Flintstone ;-)

[Cool Guy]

I'll take em scrambled :P

[Hidy]

The above news story is approved for publication by the U.S. Talibanal with the following edit:

The fossils were found at Auca Mahuevo, Argentina, a site that has previously yielded similar fossils, dating back to some 65-145 million 5,999 years ago.

[BurkeanCyclist]

Australasia is Australia and New Zealand.

[anguish]

LOL! 6041 ± 20 years

[AgThorn]

Australasia is Australia and New Zealand.

Life's an education ... thanks for that. Apparently it includes New Guinea as well. Seems like it should be called Australguinealand or something! ;-)

I am smarter now! Found the reference below that helped thanks to your tip ... interesting that all maps of Australasia in the past refer to New Zealand but never include it. I guess it never really was connected to Australia like New Guinea was.

Australasia
Geographic history of Australia, New Zealand and New Guinea from 18,000 years ago to the present. See maps and read about the vegetation.
http://www.soton.ac.uk/~tjms/austral.html

[SunkenCiv]

This topic was posted 09/27/2001, thanks green team 1999.