E. Martín Hechenleitner,
Gerald Grellet-Tinner and Lucas E. Fiorelli
Titanosauria is a
globally distributed clade of sometimes extremely large Mesozoic herbivorous
sauropod dinosaurs. On the basis of current evidence these giant dinosaurs seem
to have reproduced in specific and localized nesting sites. However, no
investigations have been performed to understand the possible ecological and geological
biases that acted for the selection of these nesting sites worldwide. In this study,
observations were performed on the best-known Cretaceous nesting sites around
the world. Our observations strongly suggest their eggs were incubated with environmental
sources of heat, in burial conditions. Taking into account the clutch composition
and geometry, the nature and properties of the sediments, the eggshells’ structures
and conductance, it would appear that titanosaurs adopted nesting behaviors
comparable to the modern Australasian megapodes, using burrow-nesting in
diverse media and mound-building strategies.
Hechenleitner et al.
(2015),What do giant titanosaur dinosaurs and modern Australasian megapodes
have in common? PeerJ 3:e1341; DOI 10.7717/peerj.1341
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