A new study was able to examine 100 eggs that were unearthed in the country of Argentina. Throughout the research, it was found that the eggs are considered 'well-preserved' despite their million-year-old age. The embryos of dinosaurs are observed through imaging and were identified to have been laid 193 million years ago. In a stunning discovery, the eggs may have been produced by not just one dinosaur but by a herd of them. The eggs were unearthed alongside the remains of 80 dinosaurs, which included both young and adult age groups.
Mussaurus Patagonicus Social Community in Patagonia
The study was made possible through the collaborative efforts of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology along with experts from Argentina and South Africa. The research detailed how the ancient dinosaurs exhibited a complex herd behavior. According to PhysOrg, the team has worked on the progressive study since 2013 and has collected most of the comprehensive clues from Patagonia.
The discovery of both the preserved eggs and the remains of dinosaurs could help experts understand the undefined social life between the prehistoric species. Initial theories suggested that the dinosaurs had utilized social skills and could migrate as a large group, but although the new study confirmed this, the latest dating shows that the activity happened 40 million years earlier than the first reading.
X-ray imaging was utilized to examine each of the eggs unearthed without the risk of breaking them. The collected data from the intact embryos inside some of the eggs were confirmed as members of the Mussaurus patagonicus. These dinosaurs are herbivores and were able to roam the planet during the Jurassic period. The Mussaurus patagonicus species belong to the group called sauropodomorph, which contains several plane-eating dinosaurs with excessive long neck structure.
Origin of Social Sense in Dinosaurs
The most stunning discovery from the herd is that each age group was sorted accordingly. The eggs were near the remains of hatchlings, while the young developmental age group was separated on its area. The remains of the adult dinosaurs were discovered either alone or in pairs, surrounding the younger age groups.
The age segregation observed in the remains of the Mussaurus patagonicus herd, according to the experts, is strong evidence of the dinosaurs' social structure. The species possibly had a sense of being in a community that protects and supports each other. MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences expert Jahandat Ramezani said in a DailyMail report that the separation of each age group witnessed in Argentina's site is a strong and large community body that was protected by a group of adults, compared to the usual small family formation of most animals that we are familiar with.
The juveniles in the Mussaurus patagonicus fossils were found close to each other, with their bodies overlapping. The bizarre observation made the authors theorize that the herd members may have died at the same time. Among the mystery that still needs answers is the exact timeline that the social herding began to exist among the prehistoric giants. The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports, titled "Earliest evidence of herd-living and age segregation amongst dinosaurs."
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