Researchers find unprecedented cache of 200 dinosaur eggs
Dinosaurs grew in the egg in a similar fashion to modern birds, a study suggests.Scientists made the discovery after examining a cache of more than 200 fossilized bones from embryonic dinosaurs.They were found strewn among fragments of eggshell and are all believed to belong to the same species, the 26-foot long-necked sauropod lufengosaurus. Crucially, the embryos were at different stages of growth, providing scientists with a rare opportunity to study how lufengosaurus developed before hatching.Focusing on the femur, or thigh bone, they found evidence of rapid growth within the egg. Before hatching, the bones doubled in length from 12 to 24 millimeters, indicating a short incubation time.Analysis of the bones' anatomy and internal structure showed that, as in birds, muscles became active inside the egg and helped shape the skeleton. “This suggests that dinosaurs, like modern birds, moved around inside their eggs,” said lead scientist Robert Reisz, from the University of Toronto in Canada. “It represents the first evidence of such movement in a
