Good News: Bowling ball sized titanosaur eggs found in India

Paleontologists have discovered over 250 bowling ball sized titanosaur eggs in India which suggest that the way these dinosaurs reproduced may be different to current understanding. 

Ninety-two nesting sites with a total of 256 eggs were discovered in central India in the Lameta Formation. The eggs were packed closely together, and a study from scientists at the University of Delhi argues that this suggests that newborns were left to fend for themselves. 

The study’s co-writer, Guntupalli Prasad, said, “Closely spaced nests would not have allowed them to visit the nests to maneuver and incubate the eggs or feed the hatchlings…as the parents would step on the eggs and trample them.”

Titanosaurs were the world’s largest dinosaurs at an estimated 25 to 30 metres in length (that’s roughly one and a half London buses). Their remains have been found across the world, although the majority are from South America. 

The study in India found evidence of six different types of fossilised eggs, suggesting that there may have been more titanosaurs living in India than previously thought. It is not possible to say this with certainty yet, but we are likely to learn a lot more in the next few years. Michael D D’Emic, an associate professor of biology at Adelphi University, told Live Science, “The sheer number of clutches and eggs means that there is a huge dataset to unpack in the coming years.”

Cover image: Titanosaur skeleton cast on display at the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago © Zissoudisctrucker, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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