Grellet-Tinner Eggshell Research Paper

[Ralph Miller <ralph.miller@alumni.usc.edu>]

New Scientist brief on Grellet-Tinner eggshell paper
(complete article text below retrieved from
<http://www.newscientistspace.com/article.ns?id=mg19025465.400&feedId=dinosa
urs_rss20>  ):

Fossil eggs come out of their shell

EGGSHELL evolution may be more than it's cracked up to be - perhaps as vital
to evolution studies as research into fossil feathers.

Gerald Grellet-Tinner of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles,
and colleagues used electron and light microscopes to examine fossil eggs of
six species of dinosaur from the Cretaceous (from 146 million to 65 million
years ago).

Over this period, egg structure evolved. Air cells developed and more layers
were added to the shells - in other words, the eggs became more like those
of modern birds. The finding suggests that like birds, some theropod
dinosaurs brooded their eggs (Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology,
Palaeoecology, vol 232, p 294).

>From issue 2546 of New Scientist magazine, 08 April 2006, page 20.

Ralph W. Miller III
Docent at the California Academy of Sciences
Dinosaur and Fossil Education
Member of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology