Dinosaur nests at the sea shore

García, José Luis Sanz; Moratalla, José J.; Díaz-Molina, M.; López-Martı́nez, Nieves; Kälin, Otto; Vianey‐Liaud, Monique

doi:10.1038/376731a0

Cited by 45 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Most of them are from Upper Cretaceous coastal deposits of the interfingering Aren and lower Tremp Fms (Sanz et al, 1995;López-Martínez et al, 2000;Díaz Molina et al, 2007). The abundance of fossil eggshell sites from Upper Campanian to Upper Maastrichtian deposits contrasts with its rarity or absence from the uppermost part of Maastrichtian and most Palaeocene deposits.…”

Section: Geological Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Porosity of Late Paleocene Ornitholithus eggshells (Tremp Fm, south-central Pyrenees, Spain): Palaeoclimatic implications

Donaire

López-Martı́nez

2009

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

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Eggshell fragments of ratite type (Ornitholithus, oofamily Elongatoolithidae)-attributed to giant birds-are described from Upper Paleocene deposits in the Pyrenean-Provence region. We study the porosity of a rich Ornitholithus sample from Claret-4 locality (Tremp Fm, Lleida, Spain), closely related to the global warming event which took place at the Paleocene-Eocene boundary (PETM), in order to infer relations between egg conductance, nesting habits and palaeoenviromental conditions. An egg mass of around 3 kg is inferred for the large Ornitholithus eggs, in agreement with the values previously estimated by Touraine [Touraine, F., 1960 Porosity observed in Ornitholithus eggshells is extremely reduced in comparison to bird eggs and even much more reduced in relation to theropod dinosaurs. Pore number is similar to that of bird eggs but most Ornitholithus pores are exceedingly small (micropores), thus pore radius and total pore area is much lower than in recent birds. Moreover, Ornitholithus micropores lack connectivity between them, thus decreasing functional pore area and permeability. The function of micropores could be related to weight spare, favorable hatching and/or thermal isolation. Ornitholithus eggshells are the most compact of all bird or theropod eggshells studied so far. Consequently, calculated water vapor conductance values in Ornitholithus eggs are in average 8 times lower than that for recent birds. The relation between egg conductance and nesting environment shown in recent birds suggests, in the case of Ornitholithus, an open and extremely dry nest environment. Anomalous compact Ornitholithus eggshells could help to keep eggs' inner relatively-constant temperature and humidity, in the extremely warm and dry palaeoenvironment inferred for the Pyrenean region at the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum.

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Section: Geological Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Porosity of Late Paleocene Ornitholithus eggshells (Tremp Fm, south-central Pyrenees, Spain): Palaeoclimatic implications

Donaire

López-Martı́nez

2009

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

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“…The Rio Colorado Formation in Argentina extends across several kilometres and contains an extraordinary number of sauropod egg and nest traces leaving little doubt that these animals were highly gregarious during the nesting season . Colonial nesting on a beach was suggested by Sans et al (1995) during an evaluation of a site in northern Spain; however, this was later refuted by Sander et al (1998) based upon reevaluation of sedimentological evidence, though support was found for long-term site fidelity. Perhaps the best known suggestion of colonial nesting was presented by Horner (1982Horner ( , 1984, who described Maiasaura nests that were approximately 7 m apart, about the proportions of an adult.…”

Section: Te Isles 178mentioning

confidence: 99%

The socio-sexual behaviour of extant archosaurs: implications for understanding dinosaur behaviour

Isles¹

2009

Historical Biology

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“…Shoreface deposits (FA 1) grade vertically into reddish stained, nodular and breccified sediments, devoid of primary sedimentary structures, which commonly contain abundant white-colored dinosaur eggs and eggshell fragments ('cascarenite' in Lopez-Martinez, 2000), as well as fully preserved clutches (Sanz et al, 1995;Sander et al, 1998). These facies are interpreted here as beach ridges sensu (Otvos, 2000; i.e., stabilized shore ridges including relict strandplain features, such as barriers, berms, chenier ridges and foredunes).…”

Section: Beach Ridges (Fa 3)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2 for location). In fact, for this egg site Sanz et al (1995) estimated that a rock volume of 12,000 m 3 contains the remains of some 300,000 eggs and Sander et al (1998) inferred an occupation time in the order of 10,000 years for the same site. The abundance of clutches and eggshell debris at this locality was considered to indicate nesting site fidelity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Depositional setting and early diagenesis of the dinosaur eggshell-bearing Aren Fm at Bastus, Late Campanian, south-central Pyrenees

Díaz-Molina¹,

Kälin²,

Benito³

et al. 2007

Sedimentary Geology

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Dinosaur nests at the sea shore

Cited by 45 publications

References 4 publications

Porosity of Late Paleocene Ornitholithus eggshells (Tremp Fm, south-central Pyrenees, Spain): Palaeoclimatic implications

Porosity of Late Paleocene Ornitholithus eggshells (Tremp Fm, south-central Pyrenees, Spain): Palaeoclimatic implications

The socio-sexual behaviour of extant archosaurs: implications for understanding dinosaur behaviour

Depositional setting and early diagenesis of the dinosaur eggshell-bearing Aren Fm at Bastus, Late Campanian, south-central Pyrenees

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