Re: Good mother dinos

[Tracy Monaghan <monaghan@cac.washington.edu>]

On Fri, 4 Nov 1994, Dan Lipkowitz wrote:


> If I recall correctly from one of Horner's lectures, another 
> indication that the
> Maiasaura cared for its young after hatching is the fact that eggshell
> found in a hatched-out nest tends to be pulverized. In a nest from which
> hatchlings immediately emerge and depart on their own, broken eggshell would
> remain more-or-less intact; the extremely fragmented nature of the
> discovered shells, therefore, suggests that hatchlings may have spent
> considerable time lying and moving around atop their former
> shells.
> 

I recall this point and it raised a couple of questions:

1) How easy is it to distinguished eggshells pulverized by hatchlings from 
shells pulverized by a gazillion years of sediments?

2) Have dino-nests been found which contained shells more-or-less intact?


Tracy <monaghan@cac.washington.edu>
Information Highway Worker
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington