The smallest known complete dinosaur fossil eggs from the Upper Cretaceous of South China

doi:10.1080/08912963.2024.2409873

IVPP-IR

	The smallest known complete dinosaur fossil eggs from the Upper Cretaceous of South China
	Wu, Rui 1,2; Lou, Fasheng 1; Yu, Juan 3; Xue, Yu 2; Zhang, Shukang 4; Yang, Ling 3; Qiu, Wenjiang 1; Wang, Huimin 1; Han, Fenglu2
	2024-10-16
发表期刊	HISTORICAL BIOLOGY
ISSN	0891-2963
页码	10
通讯作者	Zhang, Shukang(zhangshukang@ivpp.ac.cn) ; Han, Fenglu(hanfl@cug.edu.cn)
摘要	The Upper Cretaceous Ganzhou Basin of Jiangxi Province, South China is among one of the richest egg fossil sites in the world and yields abundant exquisite egg clutches and embryonic eggs, especially in oviraptorosaurs. Hadrosaurian, troodontid, and potential dromaeosaurid egg fossils were also reported, though they were rare. All these reported eggs vary in morphology but have relatively large sizes. Here, we report a partial egg clutch with six complete small eggs from the Upper Cretaceous Tangbian Formation of Ganzhou City, Southeast China. The microstructure of the eggshell indicates that it can be assigned to Ovaloolithidae. Hence, we established a new ootaxon, Minioolithus ganzhouensis oogen. et oosp. nov. based on a unique combination of characters, including a small egg size, irregular egg arrangement, worm-like and nodular ornamentation, and a gradual boundary between two structural layers. The egg morphology and eggshell microstructure support it to be the smallest known non-avian theropod egg up to date. This discovery increases the diversity of dinosaur eggs in the Late Cretaceous and is significant for our understanding of the evolution of theropods in the Late Cretaceous.
关键词	Dinosaur egg Ovaloolithidae China Ganzhou basin Tangbian Formation Upper Cretaceous
DOI	10.1080/08912963.2024.2409873
关键词[WOS]	EGGSHELLS ; EVOLUTION ; CLUTCH
收录类别	SCI
语种	英语
资助项目	National Natural Science Foundation of China[42288201] ; National Natural Science Foundation of China[42272020]
项目资助者	National Natural Science Foundation of China
WOS研究方向	Life Sciences & Biomedicine - Other Topics ; Paleontology
WOS类目	Biology ; Paleontology
WOS记录号	WOS:001331875200001
出版者	TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
引用统计
文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.205/handle/311034/24104
专题	中国科学院古脊椎动物与古人类研究所
通讯作者	Zhang, Shukang; Han, Fenglu
作者单位	1.Jiangxi Geol Survey & Explorat Inst, Nanchang, Peoples R China 2.China Univ Geosci, Sch Earth Sci, Wuhan, Peoples R China 3.Jiangxi Geol Museum, Specimen Technol Res Lab, Nanchang, Peoples R China 4.Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Vertebrate Paleontol & Paleoanthropol, Key Lab Evolutionary Systemat Vertebrates, Beijing, Peoples R China
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Wu, Rui,Lou, Fasheng,Yu, Juan,et al. The smallest known complete dinosaur fossil eggs from the Upper Cretaceous of South China[J]. HISTORICAL BIOLOGY,2024:10.
APA	Wu, Rui.,Lou, Fasheng.,Yu, Juan.,Xue, Yu.,Zhang, Shukang.,...&Han, Fenglu.(2024).The smallest known complete dinosaur fossil eggs from the Upper Cretaceous of South China.HISTORICAL BIOLOGY,10.
MLA	Wu, Rui,et al."The smallest known complete dinosaur fossil eggs from the Upper Cretaceous of South China".HISTORICAL BIOLOGY (2024):10.