T. bataar eggs...again

[Phillip Bigelow <n8010095@henson.cc.wwu.edu>]

Mikiel@ASU.edu wrote:
>The pair of eggs are considered to be one specimen of an estimated set of 
>30 separate specimens, most of which were found in pairs, totaling about 
>50 eggs.   

  I know I am posting way too much recently, but this T. bataar thing has
really got me interested.  A couple questions:

I am confused by what you mean when you say "specimen", and "30 separate
specimens", and "totaling about 50 eggs".  
Do you mean that one pair of eggs constitutes one group of eggs layed
by one parent?  Are we dealing with a multiple egg-laying site here? Does the
entire lot of 50 eggs represent the work of one individual (hence, the 50
eggs could be considered sub-specimens of one specimen)?  If nobody knows
this information, valuable taphonomic information was lost.
  If one individual layed only two eggs at a time, or if she layed 50 eggs
at once (ala sea turtles, et. al), we might be able to infer something about
the population ecology of these animals.  It seems to me (gut feeling) that
if this animal layed 50 eggs at once, there probably was an extremely high
mortality of the young, either before and/or after hatching.  In modern
ecosystems, animals that lay large numbers of eggs usually have large
numbers of die-offs of their offspring (snakes, fish, sea turtles).
I would be interested to hear from any ornithologists on this listserve what
their opinions are on a two-egg vs. 50-egg T. bataar mother, and what it could
potentially tell us about T. bataar population ecology.  
  Regarding the shell thickness:  2mm thick shells on a 16 inch long egg are
not very sturdy.  I wonder how well such shell thicknesses would stand up to
body incubation weight??
Lastly:
  It is probably more financially rewarding for the original collectors to
count smaller numbers of eggs as "specimens" than it is financially
rewarding for them to count the whole lot as one specimen.  I hope I am
wrong about this.  My fear is that the eggs were not collected with science
in mind.