Talent of dinosaurs when hatching eggs

Adult Oviraptorosauruses dinosaurs arrange their nests so that their body weight is centered on the nest, to avoid crushing the surrounding eggs when hatching eggs.

According to new research presented at the annual meeting of the Paleontology Association, some rhino-sized dinosaurs know how to arrange the eggs in the nest to not be broken when incubating. Many giant sized dinosaurs may have used similar methods, News Sciencemag said.

Scientists have found some fossils from the group of dinosaur oviraptorosaurs (called lizards that steal eggs ), which have many similar characteristics to birds such as nesting and laying eggs. The findings include fossils of a mature individual, apparently a father or mother, and its nest eggs.

Dinosaurs Oviraptorosauruses arrange eggs into circles around the nest.(Photo: Kohei Tanaka / University of Calgary)

Through the size of fossils, the team estimated the dinosaur weighs about 100kg, but some other oviraptorosaurs weigh up to three tons; even the largest of the egg diameter is only 40cm maximum.

Kohei Tanaka of the University of Calgary in Canada has calculated the weight that eggs can tolerate before they crack. He found that for oviraptorosaurs with small and medium body sizes, a mature individual could sit on a nest with 12 eggs set close to each other. However, with larger oviraptorosaurs, the egg will be broken.

Tanaka proceeded to analyze the shape of the nest, he discovered that the oviraptorosaurs dinosaurs built their nests with eggs arranged like daisies, forming a circle around an empty space in the middle of the nest. Adults can sit in the middle of the nest, putting their weight on the ground instead of eggs.

"The dinosaur egg-laying behavior seems to have evolved, allowing even the largest dinosaurs to be able to sit in an egg nest , " Tanaka said.