Dinosaurs can become extinct by incubating eggs for too long

The reason that dinosaurs cannot survive the mass extinction event in the late Cretaceous period may be because their incubation period is too long.

For a long time, scientists used to think that dinosaurs became extinct because a giant asteroid plunged into Earth 66 million years ago. But according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in December 2016, the dinosaur's long incubation period also plays an important role in making them extinct.

The team at the University of Florida, USA, examined rare fossils of some dinosaur embryos. They found that the incubation period of non-avian dinosaurs (non-avian dinosaurs) was longer than previous scientific circles. This shows that dinosaurs evolved more slowly than many other animals.

The incubation period of 3 to 6 months can make dinosaur eggs vulnerable to predators, floods, droughts.(Artwork: Natural World News).

"Our findings are of great significance for understanding the reasons for dinosaurs extinction in the late Cretaceous period. Meanwhile, amphibians, birds, mammals, and species are Other reptiles still exist and develop, " Science Alert quoted Gregory Erickson, the study's author.

The size of dinosaur eggs can be quite large, on par with a volleyball and weighing kilograms. Previous scientists have suggested that dinosaur hatching time is similar to that of birds, with eggs hatching from 11 to 85 days.

To test this statement, Erickson and his colleagues analyzed embryonic fossils of two different dinosaurs, including Protoceratops , a dinosaur of the size of a sheep, and Hypacrosaurus , a giant duck-billed dinosaur. . They scanned the jaw of the dinosaur embryo with CT scanners, and observed teeth formed under a high-resolution microscope to determine the Ebner's Von line on the teeth .

"Ebner's Von pathway forms when animal teeth grow. They are like wood grain that can be used to calculate the age of dinosaur embryos , " Erickson said.

Research results show that embryos of Protoceratops are nearly 3 months old and Hypacrosaurus is nearly 6 months old.

When the environmental conditions became harsh after the Chicxulub meteorite impact in Yucatan, Mexico 66 million years ago, the animals competed more as resources in the environment became scarce. The incubation period is too long for 3 to 6 months, making dinosaur eggs more likely to be destroyed by predators, droughts and floods. This makes it difficult for dinosaurs to continue maintaining their numbers and gradually become extinct.