{"id":4938,"date":"2017-11-30T16:27:07","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T00:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=4938"},"modified":"2017-11-30T16:27:07","modified_gmt":"2017-12-01T00:27:07","slug":"fossilised-eggs-shed-light-on-reign-of-pterosaurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=4938","title":{"rendered":"Fossilised eggs shed light on reign of pterosaurs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"PterosaurImage copyright<\/span>ALEXANDER KELLNER\/MUSEU NACIONAL\/UFRJ<\/span><\/span>
Image caption<\/span>Pterosaur eggs had soft parchment-like shells<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The largest clutch of pterosaurs eggs ever discovered suggests that the extinct flying reptiles may have gathered together in vast colonies to lay their eggs.<\/p>\n

More than 200 eggs were discovered at one location in China.<\/p>\n

Little is known about how the pterosaurs reproduced.<\/p>\n

The find suggests that hatchlings were probably incapable of flight when they emerged from the egg, and needed some parental care.<\/p>\n

Predator attack<\/h2>\n

Fossilised pterosaur eggs and embryos are extremely rare. Until now only a handful of eggs have been found, in Argentina and north-western China.<\/p>\n

The large collection of eggs suggests pterosaurs may have nested in colonies, where they defended their offspring from predator attack.<\/p>\n

\"ReconstructionImage copyright<\/span>ZHAO CHUANG<\/span><\/span>
Image caption<\/span>Reconstruction by Zhao Chuang<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pterosaur experts Xiaolin Wang of the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing and Alexander Kellner of the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro discovered the fossils.<\/p>\n

The 215-plus eggs could not have been laid by the same female, said Dr Kellner.<\/p>\n

An almost complete skeleton of a hatchling shows that bones related to flight were less developed than bones of the hind limb, indicating that newborns might have been able to walk but not fly.<\/p>\n

”That implies some parental help was needed for the hatchlings,” he told BBC News.<\/p>\n

‘Crucial advance’<\/h2>\n

They will continue to search for new fossils, he added, to try to get a more detailed understanding of ”the first vertebrates that conquered the air some 225 million years ago and that went extinct, without leaving any descendants some 66 million years ago”.<\/p>\n

\"PterosaurImage copyright<\/span>ALEXANDER KELLNER\/MUSEUM NACIONAL\/UFRJ<\/span><\/span>
Image caption<\/span>Pterosaur bones were found alongside the eggs<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"KellnerImage copyright<\/span>ALEXANDER KELLNER\/MUSEUM NACIONAL\/UFRJ<\/span><\/span>
Image caption<\/span>Paleontologists Kellner and Wang in the field<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The eggs belong to a pterosaur species known as Hamipterus tianshanensis<\/i>, which was first discovered in 2005 in the Turpan-Hami Basin of north-western China.<\/p>\n

Geological evidence suggests large numbers of the flying reptiles died in a storm in the Early Cretaceous period, about 120 million years ago.<\/p>\n

Commenting on the research, Charles Deeming of the University of Lincoln, said it raised many questions, such as how many eggs were laid at a time.<\/p>\n

”The work is a crucial advance in understanding pterosaur reproduction,” Dr Deeming said.<\/p>\n

”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.”<\/p>\n

The research is published in the journal, Science.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image copyrightALEXANDER KELLNER\/MUSEU NACIONAL\/UFRJImage captionPterosaur eggs...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4938"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4939,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4938\/revisions\/4939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}