Perinate and eggs of a giant caenagnathid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of central China

Hanyong Pu, Darla K. Zelenitsky (), Junchang Lü (), Philip J. Currie, Kenneth Carpenter, Li Xu, Eva B. Koppelhus, Songhai Jia, Le Xiao, Huali Chuang, Tianran Li, Martin Kundrát and Caizhi Shen
Additional contact information
Hanyong Pu: Henan Geological Museum
Darla K. Zelenitsky: University of Calgary
Junchang Lü: Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences
Philip J. Currie: University of Alberta
Kenneth Carpenter: Prehistoric Museum, Utah State University
Li Xu: Henan Geological Museum
Eva B. Koppelhus: University of Alberta
Songhai Jia: Henan Geological Museum
Le Xiao: Henan Geological Museum
Huali Chuang: Henan Geological Museum
Tianran Li: Henan Geological Museum
Martin Kundrát: Center for Interdisciplinary Biosciences, Faculty of Science, University of Pavol Jozef Safarik
Caizhi Shen: Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract The abundance of dinosaur eggs in Upper Cretaceous strata of Henan Province, China led to the collection and export of countless such fossils. One of these specimens, recently repatriated to China, is a partial clutch of large dinosaur eggs (Macroelongatoolithus) with a closely associated small theropod skeleton. Here we identify the specimen as an embryo and eggs of a new, large caenagnathid oviraptorosaur, Beibeilong sinensis. This specimen is the first known association between skeletal remains and eggs of caenagnathids. Caenagnathids and oviraptorids share similarities in their eggs and clutches, although the eggs of Beibeilong are significantly larger than those of oviraptorids and indicate an adult body size comparable to a gigantic caenagnathid. An abundance of Macroelongatoolithus eggs reported from Asia and North America contrasts with the dearth of giant caenagnathid skeletal remains. Regardless, the large caenagnathid-Macroelongatoolithus association revealed here suggests these dinosaurs were relatively common during the early Late Cretaceous.

Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms14952 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms14952

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14952

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().