[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index][Subject Index][Author Index]

Re: POSSIBLE FUNCTION OF ORDERLY RINGS OF DINO EGGS? (Was Re: Pubic Pendulum]





David,
There are Prismatoolithid eggs (somewhat similar to those of Troodon) which are believed to be protoceratopsian. Whether such similarities are plesiomorphies or convergences is unclear.
The Dendroolithid eggs once thought to belong to segnosaurs may actually belong to ornithopods, and conversely some of the Spheroolithid eggs thought to belong to ornithopods may belong to segnosaurs (although both these egg families are dinosauroid-spherulitic, so this isn't particularly surprising).
But Gerald Grellet-Tinner has some papers coming out this year that may very well shake up much of the eggshell classification business once again. Looking forward to those, as the literature is apparently riddled with errors and misinterpretations and even the egg experts are struggling to sort it all out.
-------Ken Kinman
*******************************************************
David Marjanovic wrote:
AFAIK, ironically not a single protoceratopsian egg is known, they are all
oviraptorosaurian, based on egg shell morphology: Birds and oviraptorosaurs
have so-called ornithoid eggshell. *Troodon* has a different (though not too
dissimilar) type called dinosauroid-prismatic.
There are ornithoid eggs like *Macroelongatoolithus* that are around
40 cm in length. This should point to enormous oviraptorosaurs. There are
eggs claimed to be segnosaurian; these have a totally different eggshell
type... have to look it up, AFAIK it's called dendrolithic.
_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com