Found fossil eggs pterosaurs

The archaeologists said the newly discovered fossils nearly complete skeletons of pterosaurs mother with its eggs in China provide the first direct clues about the gender of flying reptiles that lived in the same time as the dinosaurs, now how about 220-65 million years.

Lu Junchang scientists working at the Institute of Geosciences of China said on fossils dating back 160 million years genus Darwinopterus pterosaurs, the illustration below shows the gender differences of them.


According to Discovery News Journal, pterosaurs male has a crest with bright colors on the head which, according to scientists, the effect of this is the crested pterosaurs to attract females during mating season. In addition, children also have wide hips than males, this is the conditions for egg-laying females are more favorable.

Fossil pterosaurs that she has a wingspan of nearly 1 meter, dubbed "Mrs. T "is found in muddy sediments in Liaoning Province, northeast China.

According to information posted on the online scientific journal of the Association for the Advancement of American Science (AAAS), analysis of the fossil suggests it is a tragic end result, the mother is preparing to lay eggs when suddenly a hurricane strikes as it broke off and fell into the lake. Under pressure from the mud, the last egg was "pop" out of her body and preserved it to this day.

The analysis said that pterosaurs are close relations with the relatives of the crocodile than a bird. Quite soft eggshells, suggesting these ancient reptiles' eggs buried "and her mother leave the eggs after laying eggs and to complete self-absorption of nutrients from the soil like today's reptiles. This suggests that there are differences as compared with birds birds' eggs have hard shells, the inside contains all the necessary nutrients for the formation and development of young birds.