Dinosaur egg treasure trove found in Japan

FoxNews - Science ^ | July 14, 2015 | Walt Bonner

[ETL]

Researchers have discovered fragments of fossilized dinosaur eggs in Southern Japan, according to a June 29 report in the journal Cretaceous Research. The 90 eggshell fragments once housed five different types of dinosaurs, all of them small.

“We know from the eggshells that small dinosaurs were roaming Japan’s landscape in the Cretaceous Period [65 to 145 million years ago],” Darla Zelenitsky, an assistant professor of paleontology at the University of Calgary and study co-author, told Foxnews.com. “Many of the bones known from Japan are from larger dinosaurs, but we now know (from the eggshells) that small dinosaurs were also an important part of the ecosystem.”

While dinosaur eggs have been discovered in hundreds of fossil sites elsewhere and just recently in nearby China, finding them in Japan is a rarity, where only 20 dinosaur fossil-yielding sites have been discovered in the past 37 years.

“There are not many rocks in Japan that are the right age to contain dinosaurs, plus much of the landscape is covered in vegetation so the rocks and the fossils they contain are usually hidden,” Zelenitsky explained.

Adding to dinosaur hunters’ woes is the fact that most rocks in the region are volcano-compressed, making them dense and need to be broken apart by hand.

Taking these factors into account, it makes the discovery of the egg fragments — which are tiny to begin with — all the more remarkable.

[ETL]

Here is the general geologic history of Japan, in case you're wondering how the dinos got to the islands.
Hint: they weren't islands at the time, but rather land masses still attached to Asia (Cretaceous Period: 65-145 million years ago).

From Wikipedia:

"The islands of Japan are primarily the result of several large oceanic movements occurring over hundreds of millions of years from the mid-Silurian [~430 million years ago] to the Pleistocene [~1.5 million years ago] as a result of the subduction of the Philippine Sea Plate beneath the continental Amurian Plate and Okinawa Plate to the south, and subduction of the Pacific Plate under the Okhotsk Plate to the north.

Japan was originally attached to the eastern coast of the Eurasian continent. The subducting plates, being deeper than the Eurasian plate, pulled Japan eastward, opening the Sea of Japan around 15 million years ago.[1] The Strait of Tartary and the Korea Strait [gap between Japan and S.Korea] opened much later. ..."

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[WayneS]

I sure hope they put a live feed on the web then the eggs are getting ready to hatch...

[dfwgator]

‘Life finds a way.”

[WayneS]

There are not many rocks in Japan that are the right age to contain dinosaurs...

Wait! Rocks?!

I though they had established that dinosaurs came from eggs...

[Vigilanteman]

[max americana]

“I though they had established that dinosaurs came from eggs...”

Of course it is! Didn’t you watch Godzilla?

[TigersEye]

I saw that movie and the ocean is not a barrier to him either.

[niteowl77]

Harry Crumb: "You know, that may be worth something."

Mr. niteowl77

[sauropod]

Thx for posting this.

[Ray76]

[GraceG]

Wow, the Japanese are not afraid of christmas, unlike 47% pf the population here....

[Vigilanteman]

They love Christmas. You should have the pleasure of being in Japan during Christmastime some year. And only about 1% of the population in Christian.

[sphinx]

Don’t let Daenerys get her hands on them.

[wally_bert]

Glad someone else remembered that movie.

[Conan the Librarian]

Watch this movie to find out what happens when Dino eggs are found in Japan.

http://www.club-mst3k.com/21-legend-of-the-dinosaurs

Not a great copy, but, it was EARLY MST3K

[Does so]

Atom-bombing Nagasaki hurt the existing Christian population.

[Vigilanteman]

Nagasaki had the highest concentration of Christians of any large city in Japan (12-15%) and was an awful choice for a target.

[ETL]

"Hi, I'm Officer Trey Ceratopsi... I'll be handling your case now"