Re: Pterosaur embryo and soft-shelled eggs

[Christopher Collinson <Chris_Collinson@monarch.net>]

We're talking soft-shelled as in a crocodile egg, as apposed to hard-shelled
like a bird's right?

Cheers,
Christopher

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jeff Hecht" <jeff@jeffhecht.com>
To: <qilongia@yahoo.com>; <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Cc: <john.bass@ntlworld.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 2004 5:50 PM
Subject: Pterosaur embryo and soft-shelled eggs


> At 5:03 PM -0700 6/9/04, Jaime A. Headden wrote:
> >
> >   Actually, most of the Lower Cretaceous Liaoning/Liaoxi/Nei Mongol
> >fossils are preserved much as in the microraptor specimens, in that bone
> >is crushed, diameters distorted, longitudinal and sometimes transverse
and
> >diagonal cracks are present, shapes deformed, and skulls tending to be
> >"shattered" in nature with some disarticulation (the holotypes of
> >*Sapeornis* and *Microraptor zhaoianus* are disarticulated, the former
> >more than the latter). There are very few "complete" skulls, and pelvises
> >are almost always disarticulated to some degree, limbs broken and
> >shattered or digits distorted.
>
> WHich raises an interesting point about the pterosaur embryo just
> reported from the Yixian deposits. Like most of the other fossils
> from those deposits, it's squashed very flat, with some bones
> apparently disarticulated as a result. (I haven't seen the fossil,
> just a PDF of the Nature paper.) That suggests to Dave Unwin (whom I
> interviewed for a New Scientist story to appear in this week's issue)
> that pterosaur eggs were soft-shelled, so they could be squashed flat
> without breaking. He thought hard-shelled eggs would be shattered.
>
> So... have dinosaur eggs been found in the Yixian deposits? If so,
> are they shattered of flattened?
>
> -- 
> Jeff Hecht,    science and technology writer
> Boston Correspondent, New Scientist magazine
> Contributing Editor        Laser Focus World
> 525 Auburn St.,   Auburndale, MA 02466   USA
> V 617-965-3834  F 617-332-4760  e-mail jeff@jeffhecht.com
> URL: http://www.jeffhecht.com/
>
>