Researchers have discovered a dinosaur nest in Argentina. The 193 million year old fossils are the first to provide information about the life and nature of herbivores.
Patagonia – Paleontologists have known for many years that the large, long-necked, herbivorous dinosaurs of the Late Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods often lived in herds. Their ancestors, the so-called Sauropodomorpha, also brooded with one another in the early Jurassic and established common colonies of nests as early as 150 million years ago. This is shown by fossil finds * of animals.
Now a newly found, but 193 million year old nesting site calls into question the previous understanding of the Sauropodomorpha. During excavations in Patagonia in Argentina, Diego Pol, researcher at the Egidio Feruglio Paleontological Museum in Argentina, and his team found fossils of the herbivorous Mussaurus patagonicus. The fossil finds include skeletons of young animals and adult dinosaurs as well as around a hundred chicken-sized eggs. Most of these eggs were found in clusters of eight to thirty, suggesting that the dinosaurs shared their nests in a common hatchery.
Find in Argentina: dinosaurs survived mass extinction
The team of scientists also found skeletons of similar ages and sizes that were spatially strikingly close to one another. “Such a well-preserved site can provide a lot of information about how these early dinosaurs lived,” explains Pol. For the scientists, the spatial arrangement of the find is a clear indication that the animals not only shared a common breeding ground, but also formed a social association that encompassed all age groups.
The finds are the oldest evidence to date of a structured herd formation in dinosaurs broken down by age. So far, research has assumed that this type of herbivorous long-necked dinosaur lived in the late Triassic around 221 to 205 million years ago. However, the new find suggests that the Mussaurs lived in the early Jurassic period. This means that the animals must have survived the mass extinction at the end of the Triassic 200 million years ago.
Dino find: herding ensured survival
According to the researchers, the reason for this long survival of the species could have been the life in the herd and the highly developed social skills. “The mussaurus was one of the first successful families of herbivorous dinosaurs,” explains Diego Pol. “The protection of the young in the herd and the social character of these long-necked herbivores were one of the reasons why they were so common on all continents,” says the scientist. (ij) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA
