Researchers have discovered a nest of still three-dimensional pterosaur eggs for the first time ever.
Dated to 120 million years ago, the five well-preserved eggs were found at a site in northwestern China along with fossils of around 40 adults from a newly discovered pterosaur species, Reuters reported.
"They are the best-preserved pterosaur eggs ever found," paleontologist Xiaolin Wang, who helped with the research, told Reuters.
Prior to the amazing find, the only pterosaur eggs unearthed had been flattened while they fossilized. The Hamipterus tianshanensis fossils reveal a creature with an elongated skull, pointy teeth and an 11-foot wingspan. Researchers have identified at least 40 male and female individuals and believe there may be hundreds in all.
"This is definitely the most important pterosaur site ever found," said paleontologist Zhonghe Zhou, director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, as quoted by Reuters.
"One of the significant (aspects) of this discovery--hundreds of individuals and eggs together from one site--is that it confirmed that pterosaurs were gregarious, and the population size is surprisingly large," Zhou said.
From their findings, researchers believe pterosaurs lived in large colonies and kept their eggs buried in moist sand to keep them from drying out. The site also revealed some differences between male and female pterosaurs.
"In Hamipterus, size, shape and robustness are decided by the gender," Wang said, noting that the new finding contradicts the earlier belief that "sexual dimorphism in pterosaurs was only reflected in the absence or presence of the crests."
Researchers have theorized that the pterosaur colony perished in a large storm.
"I have been truly amazed by the abundance of bones and the number of eggs as well the great potential of more discoveries from the site," Zhou said.
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