Traces of fossils about dinosaurs caring for children

Prehistoric family care can explain the instincts of modern birds and crocodiles.

Fossil hunters in China have unearthed a fossil that looks like the nest of an adult dinosaur along with 34 baby dinosaurs. This unique finding shows that at least a few dinosaurs take care of their offspring after hatching, and this suggests that the instincts of parenting of current birds and reptiles, such as crocodiles , may have the same evolutionary origin.

Around the body of an adult dinosaur is 34 baby dinosaurs
(Photo: pharyngula)

This fossil of the Psittacosaurus horned dinosaur consists of a fully mature individual with 34 young individuals piled up in an area of ​​about 0.5 m ² . According to David Varricchio of Montana State University in Bozeman, a member of the archeology team, discovered the skeletons in Liaoning China, this is definitely a family rather than a set of random fossils of dinosaurs.

In an interview with news@nature.com , he said that 'This discovery is amazing'; 'This is most likely a family. It's hard to imagine all individual skeletons being delivered to the same place at the same time . '

Simply the nest?

Although it is thought that some dinosaur groups such as theropods or hadrosaurs have nests, this new discovery is the first clear evidence of dinosaur care. It is not known if the 75 cm long adult in the nest is the father or mother, Varricchio said. However, marking the sex of the parent does not necessarily follow a sequence when they look after the young. Varricchio also points out that in many living birds, both parents help each other to look after their children.

It is not clear to what extent the dinosaur groups take care of the young. Probably, parent dinosaurs only keep their babies close in order to keep an eye on them, Varricchio suggests, like today's chickens. According to him, 'In many birds, young ones live with their parents, adults lead them to where there is food and they often hang around behind adults'.

'This is a surprising, wonderful' snapshot ', a surprising and lucky discovery,' said Paul Barrett, a dinosaur expert at the Museum of Natural History in London. But he also foresees the need to be cautious when the evidence of family life is still contagious at this stage.

However, Barrett admits this arrangement suggests childcare after the eggs hatch. The offspring are about 20 cm long, indicating that they are the same litters.

Causes of death?

The posing postures of living fossils also raise questions about what destroyed and preserved them. Although volcanic eruptions seem to be the most obvious culprit, Varricchio argues that it is hard to imagine that volcanic lava can bury these dinosaurs fast enough to preserve them like this.

According to him, it is likely that they will be buried when a cave collapses or drowns due to rising flood waters. Many dinosaurs raise their heads to show the existence of such an event. Barrett also claimed that the recessed soil was a bowl where fossils found a nest, though this was speculative.

Whether or not dinosaurs live and perish in earthen cells is the question Varricchio hopes to answer soon, ideally when there is help with other discovery of the jelly. According to him, such discoveries could provide deeper details about prehistoric family life. Previous discoveries led to a hint of the possibility that the psittacosaurs dinosaurs lived in groups of 3 to 4 adults, meaning that families with a couple of parents might not be their standards.