Teen moms - things that are common in dinosaurs

Giant reptiles do not seem to care about prolonging the teenage life without care, because most of them become parents before reaching adulthood. A recent study ranked dinosaurs on a list of teenage pregnant animals. Other species include crocodiles, lizards and humans.

The discovery, published at the annual meeting of the Vertebrate Paleontology Society in Austin, Texas, USA, also predicts the reason for early birth in this group of animals.

"Dinosaurs act very much like us and other vertebrate species. If these species have to wait until they are fully completed to give birth, they will have very few years left to give birth," the co-author studied. Andrew Lee explained.

Lee, now at Ohio University and colleagues, examined bone samples collected from three dinosaurs: T. rex dinosaurs, Allosaurus and Tenontosaurus. The last species is of medium size, a grass-eating relative of the duck-billed dinosaur group, while the first two are large carnivores. Thus, these samples represent a fairly wide spectrum.

Three samples tested contained a special bone tissue - called medullary - that was used as a temporary calcium stockpile before producing the eggshell.

Teen moms(Photo: Discovery)

Lee said that birds today also have similar tissue, formed only weeks before they are ready to produce eggs. That means the dinosaurs analyzed are the females who are about to give birth before they die. However, why they die is still unknown.

Based on the dinosaur growth phase, the scientists concluded that T. rex spawned at 18, Allosaurus spawned at 10 and Tenontosaurus was even younger, at 8 years old. This is significant if you know that all three species only reach full adult size at 17-21 years of age. Meanwhile, their lifespans range from 25 to 30 years.

In another study, paleontologist Gregory Erickson and colleagues at Florida State University also produced similar results, despite using other techniques. Although birds are modern descendants of dinosaurs, they never give birth when they are teenagers. They stop growing and can wait another year, or even a long time, before laying eggs.

Lee thinks there are a few factors that make birds change their lifestyle compared to dinosaurs."The ability to fly can be an inevitable part of the answer - he said - most birds need to know how to fly when they have enough feathers on their wings, so they have to reach adult size."

Birds also need better survival skills, such as when the season has abundant food for their children.

T. An