Baby Dinosaur Fossils Found in Ancient Nest
Nov. 18, 2011
The fossilized remains of 15 baby dinosaurs buried alive in a sandstorm more than 75 million years ago has provided scientists with the first positively identified nest of Protoceratops dinosaurs ever found. The finding suggests that the plant-eating Protoceratops, closely related to the horned dinosaur Triceratops, may have cared for its young, for at least part of the dinosaurs’ early life.
In the nest, scientists identified at least 10 complete fossil skeletons. The juvenile dinosaurs were about 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 centimeters) long and were probably less than 1 year old. They had not yet developed the horns and frills common to adult dinosaurs of this type. The nest was found in what is now the Gobi, a harsh desert in central Asia with severe temperature extremes. Scientists said the environment in which the baby dinosaurs lived was probably equally difficult, with sand dunes as high as 80 feet (24 meters). The baby dinosaurs probably died when their nest was overrun by a migrating dune during a sandstorm.
The baby dinosaurs belonged to the species Protoceratops andrewsi, named for American explorer and author Roy Chapman Andrews. While on an expedition to the Gobi in the mid-1920′s, he and his co-workers discovered the first dinosaur eggs ever found. Andrews thought the eggs belonged to Protoceratops. But when the eggs were opened, scientists discovered they actually belonged to Oviraptor, whose name means egg robber.
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