"This is compatible with a herd that stays together during many years and within which the animals get close to each other to rest, or to forage, or do other daily activities."Īnother strong indication of herd behavior is a nesting ground itself: If Mussaurus lived as a community, it would make sense that they'd lay eggs in a common area.Dinosaur Island Reviews & Ratings - IMDb Review: Yes, one of 'those' movies. "They were resting together and likely died during a drought," Pol said. That type of age segregation, the researchers said, is a key sign of herds: Juveniles hung out with others their age while adults looked for food and protected the community. Some clusters had juveniles less than a year old, others consisted of individuals that were slightly older but not yet fully grown, and finally, there were smatterings of adults that had died solo or in pairs. In 2017, he took 30 of the eggs to a lab in France, and his group then used X-ray technology to peek inside and confirm the species of the embryos without breaking the shells.īy analyzing the sizes and types of bones in the nesting ground, the researchers determined that the animals were buried near counterparts of a similar age. Since then, Pol's team has also uncovered and studied the contents of the nesting ground, which measures just under half a square mile. Vincent Fernandez/Diego Pol/European Synchrotron X-rays offer a peek into fossilized dinosaur eggsĪ screen shot from a video showing how scientists like Diego Pol used high-energy X-rays to peek inside a Mussaurus egg without destroying it. It's the earliest known evidence of social groups among dinosaurs, the study authors said. This nesting ground, however, pushes that timeline back more than 40 million years. That's because the earliest fossil evidence of sauropod herds only dates back 150 million years. We ended up with 80 skeletons and more than 100 eggs (some with embryos preserved inside!)" Diego Pol, a researcher with the Egidio Feruglio paleontology museum in Patagonia and the lead author of the new study, told Insider via email.īefore this discovery, researchers thought herding behavior was restricted to dinosaurs that came much later, in the very late Jurassic and early Cretaceous periods. "I went to this site aiming to find at least one nice dinosaur skeleton. Combined, these patterns offer evidence that the dinosaurs lived in herds. Scientists also found Mussaurus skeletons of similar sizes and ages buried together. Most of the chicken-sized eggs were discovered in clusters of eight to 30, suggesting they resided in nests as part of a common breeding ground. The dino is an ancestor of long-necked herbivores called sauropods, such as Brachiosaurus. Research published Thursday describes a collection of eggs and juvenile and adult skeletons from a dinosaur called Mussaurus patagonicus, which were found in Patagonia, Argentina. The nesting ground is 193 million years old, making it the earliest evidence of dinosaur herds.Ī 193-million-year-old nesting ground containing more than 100 dinosaurs eggs is upending paleontologists' understanding of an early dinosaur species. The fossils were grouped into clusters of adults and juveniles, suggesting Mussaurus lived in herds. Paleontologists found 100 eggs and 80 skeletons from a dinosaur called Mussaurus at a nesting ground in Patagonia. An artist's reconstruction of a Mussaurus patagonicus nest.
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