A team of paleontologists from Lake Forest College, Stellenbosch University, University of Minnesota, and North Carolina State University described a new population of fossil eggshells, members of the formation of cedar mountains, a well-known unit among scientists studying early lobular epochs.
A 100 million-year-old dinosaur eggshell fragment from a Mussantit member of Cedar Mountain Formation. Image credit: Lake Forest College.
The first fossil eggshells from Mussantit members of Cedar Mountain Formation were described over 50 years ago.
Since then, in half a century, the diversity of fossil eggshells in this rock unit has been limited to only one egg type.
However, Dr. Josh Hedge and his colleagues at Lake Forest College revealed another story.
“We found new dinosaur egg types here and here, which we didn’t see before,” Dr. Hedge said.
“When previous research explained one type, we found five types of eggshells in this area.”
“Three eggshell fragments belonging to the feathered bipedal dinosaur, two types of dinosaurs with dinosaurs with ornitopod ducks, and a truly funky discovery: some crocodile eggshells.”
These new discoveries challenge the traditional view of one of the different types of dinosaurs that live in ecosystems.
“You can see patterns of coexisting dinosaurs,” Dr. Hedge said.
“Just as multiple big cat-loving animals coexist in Africa’s savanna, we can see the co-occurrence of similar types of dinosaurs in one geographical area.”
Researchers hope to uncover information that will lead to a better understanding of ecosystems 100 million years ago.
They are currently researching ways to better understand these oviraptorosaur eggs.
“We found so many eggshells, so we hope that we can distinguish between individuals who share a single nest, not just the species, for example, because we have sample sizes large enough to interpret them at a higher resolution,” Dr. Hedge said.
Team’s paper Published online in the journal PLOS 1.
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J. Hedge et al. 2025. Diversity of fossil eggshells from Mussentuchit members of Cedar Mountain Formation, Utah. PLOS 1 20(2): E0314689; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0314689
Source: www.sci.news
