[dinosaur] Oviraptorid egg clutches show unique nesting biology (free pdf)

Ben Creisler
[email protected]


A new paper in open access:


Tzu-Ruei Yang, Jasmina Wiemann, Li Xu, Yen-Nien Cheng, Xiao-Chun Wu, and P.
Martin Sander (2019)
Reconstruction of oviraptorid clutches illuminates their unique nesting
biology
Acta Palaeontologica Polonica (in press)
doi:https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__doi.org_10.4202_app.00497.2018&d=DwIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=Ry_mO4IFaUmGof_Yl9MyZgecRCKHn5g4z1CYJgFW9SI&m=TCb4SJcYMPw1WDMlWVYr4ZbOPUBXcEg1qFG83BYuMXA&s=IXoEBKJIDRksyV_HY_lHkhjlEnJjGdUZbm22x0N18ZQ&e= 
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__app.pan.pl_article_item_app004972018.html&d=DwIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=Ry_mO4IFaUmGof_Yl9MyZgecRCKHn5g4z1CYJgFW9SI&m=TCb4SJcYMPw1WDMlWVYr4ZbOPUBXcEg1qFG83BYuMXA&s=PfeBzmbNL0JjSTY8uzKyGfQ9tIx1cJbYDJ8R1BvWDmk&e= 

Free pdf:
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__app.pan.pl_archive_published_app64_app004972018.pdf&d=DwIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=Ry_mO4IFaUmGof_Yl9MyZgecRCKHn5g4z1CYJgFW9SI&m=TCb4SJcYMPw1WDMlWVYr4ZbOPUBXcEg1qFG83BYuMXA&s=ntUAXu3yEwqPbKO6vaNLKwbRS9Yql6Mkz5A-nsVh5FA&e= 


Oviraptorosaurs, a group of non-avian theropod dinosaurs from the
Cretaceous of Asia and North America, left behind the most abundant and
informative fossil evidence of dinosaur reproductive biology. Previous
studies had suggested that oviraptorosaur reproductive biology represents
an intermediate stage and exhibited unique modern avian traits. For
instance, the adult-associated clutches were predominantly considered as
evidence for brooding/thermoregulatory contact incubation (TCI) behaviors,
whereas the hypotheses of laying or protection were neglected. Despite
numerous oviraptorid egg clutches uncovered from China and Mongolia, their
nest architecture and clutch arrangement were rarely investigated in
detail. Here we present a comprehensive reconstruction of an oviraptorid
clutch based on five new oviraptorid clutches from Jiangxi Province, China.
A detailed examination of the new clutches reveals a partially-open
oviraptorid nest that contains 3–4 rings of paired eggs (more than 15 pairs
total) whose blunt end points toward the center devoid of eggs at an angle
of 35-40°. Our detailed three-dimensional reconstruction indicates that the
oviraptorid clutch has a unique architecture unknown from extant bird
clutches, implying an apomorphic nesting mode. Such a unique nest
architecture further contradicts the TCI hypothesis in oviraptorids,
hindering sufficient heat transfer to the inner (lower) ring(s) of eggs.
Moreover, the size of the new oviraptorid clutches (>30 eggs) is
significantly larger than that of the adult-associated clutches (<22 eggs),
raising the alternative hypothesis that the adult-associated clutches were
uncompleted. This clue thus supports the hypothesis that the
clutch-associated oviraptorid adults possibly represent females after an
oviposition before a catastrophic sandstorm/flooding burial.

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