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Dinosaur diversity from eggshells in Late Cretaceous, Shandong Province, China (free pdf)
From: Ben Creisler
bcreisler@gmail.com
A new paper in open access:
ZiKui Zhao, ShuKang Zhang, Qiang Wang & XiaoLin Wang (2013)
Dinosaur diversity during the transition between the middle and late
parts of the Late Cretaceous in eastern Shandong Province, China:
Evidence from dinosaur eggshells.
Chinese Science Bulletin 58(36): 4663-4669,
DOI: 10.1007/s11434-013-6059-9
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11434-013-6059-9
The record of dinosaur eggs from the Upper Cretaceous Wangshi Group in
eastern Shandong Province, China shows that the dinosaur species
represented by elongatoolithids were present from the middle to the
late Late Cretaceous, whereas those represented by the dictyoolithids
and spheroolithids became extinct in the middle Late Cretaceous and
the new species represented by ovaloolithids appeared in the late Late
Cretaceous. Estimated eggshell conductance of water vapor is over 4 to
over 115 times higher in spheroolithids and the dictyoolithids than in
elongatoolithids and ovaloolithids, indicating that eggs of the first
two oofamilies required higher humidity during incubation. Based on
the δ 18O record as preserved in eggshell, a change from relatively
humid to relatively dry climatic conditions can be assumed to have
taken place during the transition between the middle and late parts of
the Late Cretaceous. It is reasonable to suggest that the change in
climate was the cause of the dinosaur diversity.