| 论文题目 | Exceptional Early Jurassic fossils with leathery eggs shed light on dinosaur reproductive biology |
| 作 者 | Fenglu Han, Yilun Yu, Shukang Zhang; Rong Zeng, Xinjin Wang, Huiyang Cai, Tianzhuang Wu, Yingfeng Wen, Sifu Cai, Chun Li, Rui Wu, Qi Zhao, Xing Xu |
| 发表年度 | 2023 |
| 刊物名称 | National Science Review |
| 卷、期、页码 | ; ; |
| 影响因子 | |
| 论文摘要 | Our understanding of pre-Cretaceous dinosaur reproduction is hindered by a scarcity of evidence within fossil records. Here we report three adult skeletons and five clutches of embryo-containing eggs of a new sauropodomorph from the Lower Jurassic of southwestern China, displaying several significant reproductive features that are either unknown or unlike other early-diverging sauropodomorphs, such as relatively large eggs with a relatively thick calcareous shell formed by prominent mammillary cones, synchronous hatching and a transitional prehatching posture between the crocodilians and living birds. Most significantly, these Early Jurassic fossils provide strong evidence for the earliest known leathery eggs. Our comprehensive quantitative analyses demonstrate that the first dinosaur eggs were probably leathery, elliptical and relatively small, but with relatively long eggshell units, and that along the line to living birds, the most significant change in reptilian egg morphology occurred early in theropod evolution rather than near the origin of Aves. |
| 全文链接 | https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwad258 |
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