90 fossil nests belonging to India’s largest dinosaurs uncovered – Titanosaurs

Subject : Science and Technology

Section : Msc

Concept :

In central India’s Narmada Valley, researchers discovered 92 nesting sites containing a total of 256 fossil eggs belonging to titanosaurs, which were among the largest dinosaurs to ever live.
The Lameta Formation, located in the Narmada Valley, is well-known for fossils of dinosaur skeletons and eggs of the Late Cretaceous Period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago.
Based on the layout of the nests, it is inferred that these dinosaurs buried their eggs in shallow pits like modern-day crocodiles.
Certain pathologies discovered in the eggs, such as a rare case of “egg-in-egg,” suggest that titanosaur sauropods had a reproductive physiology similar to birds and may have laid their eggs sequentially, as seen in modern birds.
The presence of multiple nests in the same area suggests that these dinosaurs, like modern birds, engaged in colonial nesting behaviour.
The close spacing of the nests, on the other hand, left little room for adult dinosaurs, lending credence to the theory that adults abandoned the hatchlings (newborns) to fend for themselves.
The findings contribute significantly to palaeontologists’ understanding of how dinosaurs lived and evolved.