Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
in the substrate, whereas oviraptorids lay them horizontally facing
the center. Other dinosaurs laid their eggs in a spiral pattern within
the nest. Still others laid their eggs in rather poorly defined patterns
within a nest, and some laid them randomly across an area without a
nest. These two latter patterns are typically the way in which mega-
loolithid eggs are found. In some Patagonian sites, megaloolithid
eggs have been found in close clusters of six to ten eggs, whereas at a
site in southern France, megaloolithid eggs were laid in what appears
to be large semicircular arcs that do not seem to represent what we
typically think of as a nest.
The distribution of the eggs at Auca Mahuevo was intriguing. In
some places, the eggs appeared to be scattered over large areas,
almost like a carpet of eggs. In other areas, they appeared to be more
clustered, suggesting that nests may have been present. Clarifying the
pattern of their distribution would clearly involve a lot of work and
time. We were so busy just trying to collect egg fragments on the sur-
face that contained fossilized patches of skin and quarrying more com-
plete specimens of eggs that appeared to contain embryonic bones
that we decided that studying the distribution of the eggs would have
to wait until another season. Back in the laboratory, our top priority
was to prepare the embryonic bones and see if they came from an
ornithischian or a sauropod.
