Posted on 11/30/2017 4:24:22 PM PST by BenLurkin
A cache of hundreds of eggs discovered in China sheds new light on the development and nesting behavior of prehistoric, winged reptiles called pterosaurs.
Pterosaurs were fearsome-looking creatures that flew during the Lower Cretaceous period alongside dinosaurs. This particular species was believed to have a massive wingspan of up to 13 feet, and likely ate fish with their large teeth-filled jaws.
Researchers working in the Turpan-Hami Basin in northwestern China collected the eggs over a 10-year span from 2006 to 2016.
A single sandstone block held at least 215 well-preserved eggs that have mostly kept their shape. Sixteen of those eggs have embryonic remains of the pterosaur species Hamipterus tianshanensis, the researchers said in findings released today in Science.
The fossils in the area are so plentiful that scientists refer to it as "Pterosaur Eden," says Shunxing Jiang, a paleontologist at the Chinese Academy of Science's Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology. "You can very easily find the pterosaur bones," he says, adding that they believe dozens more eggs might still lie hidden within the sandstone.
Prior to this discovery, only five other well-preserved pterosaur eggs had been found in this area and one had been found in Argentina.
The 16 fossilized embryos are at different stages of growth, revealing new information about how the reptiles developed. None of the embryos are complete, the paper states, and the scientists used computed tomography scanning to view what was inside.
The discovery has kicked off debate about whether the creatures could fly as soon as they hatched. Some previous theories had posited that they could, but the paper suggests otherwise. The research team found that the animal's hind leg bones were more developed than the wings at the time of hatching, and none of the embryos were found with teeth.
"Thus, newborns were likely to move around but were not able to fly, leading to the hypothesis that Hamipterus might have been less precocious than advocated for flying reptiles in general ... and probably needed some parental care," the paper reads.
A separate commentary in Science calls the study "remarkable" but cautions against drawing firm conclusions about how the animal moved immediately after hatching. That's because it's hard to pinpoint just how close to hatching the embryos actually were.
"An alternative perspective is that the embryos were much younger than estimated and not close to hatching and that the lack of growth of teeth is therefore unsurprising," writes D. Charles Deeming from the University of Lincoln in the U.K.
The sheer number of eggs found together, the researchers say, suggest they belonged to clutches from multiple female pterosaurs and indicate that the animals may have bred in colonies.
It's worth noting that the massive discovery does not appear to include a nest. Jiang says the eggs had been moved from the place they were originally laid and may have been carried by water after a series of storms hit the animals' nesting ground.
There are many more mysteries that remain about pterosaurs, Deeming writes, such as whether the eggs were buried as they developed and how many eggs were in each clutch. "Hopefully additional finds of equally spectacular fossils will help us answer such questions for pterosaurs and allow us to paint an increasingly complete picture of reproduction in these extinct species," he concludes.
bkmk
DRAGONS! and in China: first thing on my mind as well. Perhaps there would be dragons after all, but would these creatures actually imprison a princess?
Wonderful article. Thank you.
There must have been a lot of fish.
-—They can be seen flying every day around sunset in New Guinea.——
Pictures or video...?
I was wondering who was going to be “first in” with a Daenerys Targaryen reference...
The princess part is likely for the story.
The plot in Reign of Fire seemed more likely to me; a voracious predator that eats itself to virtual extinction until conditions are right again by accident.
Would we prevail? I hope we don't have to find out.
We were fortunate to be spared from the wrath of the witch by PDJT.
Perhaps, we might be so fortunate to ask that Saint George save us by slaying the dragon and, as a result, Christianity would once again become predominate.
Never saw “Reign of Fire” as it was released post Hollywood. Few of the movies coming out in the past decade have been on my ‘must-see list’. Admittedly, the movies of old are more entertaining. Show an Alfred Hitchcock film or one of the Thin Man movies; that would be sufficient. :)
Saved us a war at home. I believe the divine is interceding now and more and more. The revelations of the bad behavior that has been kept under wraps (and I do not mean the salacious stuff) is truly amazing.
We must do our part too to keep up the effort so we are worth saving.
The movie now, just good entertainment.
It was released in 2002 before the great slip into social management by the movie industry (at least that I noticed).
Here is the trailer if you are interested. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg7bjwEXp7Y
The acting is good and the effects are great. The story hangs and the end is (not revealed).
"Thus, newborns were likely to move around but were not able to fly, leading to the hypothesis that Hamipterus might have been less precocious than advocated for flying reptiles in general ... and probably needed some parental care," the paper reads.
Maybe like giant wild turkeys with teeth...
Cute!
Pricey.
Such a find may actually be a reality one day (baby dino in amber), as they have found many animals preserved in amber, including frogs and small reptiles. Not sure the age of the oldest reptiles so far found, but clearly none are from as far back as the dinosaur age, else it would have been a major news story, even if not a dino itself.
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