A new Mongolian therizinosaur nesting site

[Logo7]

A new study has described a series of fifteen clutches of eggs from an unidentified species of theropod dinosaur, likely a therizinosaurid, from the Javkhlant Formation in the eastern Gobi Desert in Mongolia. The clutches consist of anywhere from three to thirty spherical-shaped eggs that are between 10 cm and 15 cm in diameter that were laid around 66 million years ago in what was once a seasonally arid floodplain. The eggshells show a high porosity, making them similar to the eggs of modern animals that cover or burry their eggs in nests made of organic-rich material. These pores would help the embryos to breathe in the oxygen-poor environment of rotting vegetation in the nest. The eggs also indicate that they were all laid and hatched within the same nesting season, suggesting that these dinosaurs practiced colonial nesting. The eggs also had a high hatching rate of about 60%, suggesting that the adults looked after the nests and their young and possibly even practiced colonial care. The paper suggests that this nesting site shows some of the strongest evidence yet that dinosaurs nested in colonies and protected their eggs. Here is a reconstruction of the site by paleoartist Masato Hattori and a link to the paper describing this study.



Paper (abstract only): https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article-abstract/572049/exceptional-preservation-of-a-late-cretaceous

[Georassic]

Wow! Very cool!
How about a nesting therizinosaur figure!?!

[Logo7]

Wow! Very cool!
How about a nesting therizinosaur figure!?!

Considering that we do have that nesting Oviraptor figure that Wild Safari made a while ago, I could easily see this study resulting in a new figure, although I highly doubt it would be that high of a priority for any of the top dinosaur figure companies.

[ZoPteryx]

I'm always really happy when we learn something new about therizinosaurs.