An Egg-Bound Mourning Dove

Kossack, Charles W.

doi:10.2307/4081647

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…This condition, in which the egg becomes completely stuck inside the body, is a form of aggravated egg retention 42 , 45 . Egg binding is common in small, domestic birds 45 , 50 , also occurring in the wild 51 , and typically results in death unless the egg is manually or surgically extracted. Thus, it is possible that IVPP V25371 died as a direct result of the abnormal egg preserved inside it.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Early Cretaceous enantiornithine (Aves) preserving an unlaid egg and probable medullary bone

Bailleul¹,

O’Connor²,

Zhang³

et al. 2019

Nat Commun

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Understanding non-crown dinosaur reproduction is hindered by a paucity of directly associated adults with reproductive traces. Here we describe a new enantiornithine, Avimaia schweitzerae gen. et sp. nov., from the Lower Cretaceous Xiagou Formation with an unlaid egg two-dimensionally preserved within the abdominothoracic cavity. Ground-sections reveal abnormal eggshell proportions, and multiple eggshell layers best interpreted as a multi-layered egg resulting from prolonged oviductal retention. Fragments of the shell membrane and cuticle are both preserved. SEM reveals that the cuticle consists of nanostructures resembling those found in neornithine eggs adapted for infection-prone environments, which are hypothesized to represent the ancestral avian condition. The femur preserves small amounts of probable medullary bone, a tissue found today only in reproductively active female birds. To our knowledge, no other occurrence of Mesozoic medullary bone is associated with indications of reproductive activity, such as a preserved egg, making our identification unique, and strongly supported.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%