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Posted on 09/21/2007 8:48:54 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
A dinosaur creche has been found entombed in the volcanic debris that engulfed it on a hillside 123 million years ago. Six young Psittacosaurus, all less than three years old, died side by side. It is the earliest known dinosaur nursery... Paul Barrett, of the Natural History Museum in London, one of the researchers, said that the fossilised juveniles appeared to have formed a creche but it was impossible to be sure if they were part of a larger herd or if they grouped together for protection. "This is the first time we've found a group of these dinosaurs together. For at least the first few years of life it looks like they stuck together. It answers the chicken-or-egg question of whether the social behaviour or the horns and frills came first," he said. The fossils were found near the village of Lui Tai near Yixian in Liaoning province, China.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
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Psittacosaurus Meaning: parrot lizard. Length up to 2m.
Creche?...methinks it might be a NEST.
When I visited the page, the image was “about.blank”. :’) Many thanks!
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1998/10/981026200356.htm
“...The oldest previous evidence for reptile-nesting sites include 110 million-year-old sea turtle nests from the Front Range of Colorado and nests of a dinosaur group known as Hadrosaurus from Montana, estimated to be about 90 million years old.
Hasiotis first discovered the ancient reptile nests while conducting research in Arizona’s Petrified Forest in 1996. He invited Martin to the site in 1997 and the two returned to conduct additional research in 1998. Surrounding some of the ancient nests are broad, shallow pits or irregular, trampled ground that appears to contain vertebrate tracks, Hasiotis said. The researchers also discovered distinct tracks of phytosaurs about one-half mile from the nesting sites.
The walls in the interior of the nests appears to have been compacted down by the inhabitants. Contemporary crocodile mothers tend to stay near their nests and guard them from predators, while turtles leave their nests immediately after the egg-laying process, said Hasiotis...
(I’m simply suggesting that not all ‘dinosaurs’ laid their eggs in a shallow hole and walked away...)
I klnow that it is pretty established that at least Hadrosaurs, and most likely many more cared for their young. But the article says these dinos were 3 years old.
The photo here on the left, from the cover of Nature Magazine, December 21-28, 1995 Volume 378, shows the mother Oviraptor shielding her nest from the unfortunate disaster which recorded this moment in time. It's discovery in 1993, again by a team of researchers from the American Museum of Natural History, is proof that this was, in fact, a caring parent defending her nest !
(Defending Dinosaur Motherhood...)
whatever...now I'm really stuck...the creature grew to approx 6' in length...so by the time it was three years old, how long was it?
Well, Wickipedia says: ‘Several juvenile Psittacosaurus have been found. The smallest is a P. mongoliensis hatchling in the AMNH collection, which is only 11 to 13 centimeters (4–5 inches) long, with a skull 2.8 centimeters (1 in) in length. Another hatchling skull at the AMNH is only 4.6 centimeters (1.8 inches) long. Both specimens are from Mongolia.[29] Juveniles discovered in the Yixian Formation are approximately the same age as the larger AMNH specimen.[30] Adult Psittacosaurus mongoliensis approached 2 meters (6.5 ft) in length.’
...unless you're Satanist, Wiccan, or IslamoFastist.
Psittacosaurus Meaning: parrot lizard. Length up to 2m. |
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That's enough to beak my interest.>
Here is an interesting natural history analogy to the death of the pressies...... they tend to group up to face the common death.
Creche: An assemblage of dependent young that are cared for communally.
You do realize that a word can have more than one definition, right?
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