First 3D look at an embryonic sauropod dinosaur reveals unexpected facial features
Thursday, August 27, 2020 - 10:00
in Paleontology & Archaeology
About 25 years ago, researchers discovered the first dinosaur embryos in an enormous nesting ground of titanosaurian dinosaurs that lived about 80 million years ago in a place known as Auca Mahuevo in Patagonia, Argentina. Now, researchers reporting in the journal Current Biology on August 27 describe the first near-intact embryonic skull. The finding adds to our understanding of the development of sauropod dinosaurs, a group characterized by the long neck and tails and small heads perhaps most familiar in the Brontosaurus, and suggests that they may have had specialized facial features as hatchlings that changed as they grew into adults.