First 3D pterosaur eggs found with their parents in China

Researchers have uncovered the first three-dimensionally preserved pterosaur eggs, among hundreds of pterosaur fossils in China.

The fossil record of pterosaurs had previously been poor, with scientists able to discern little about their populations. However, the this latest fossil discovery in the Turpan-Hami Basin, south of the Tian Shan Mountains in Xinjiang, northwestern China, has shed new light on the flying reptiles and how they lived.

Published in the journal Current Biology, the researchers write:

“Sites like the one reported here provide further evidence regarding the behavior and biology of this amazing group of flying reptiles that has no parallel in modern time.”

The scientists found that pterosaurs, which had wingspans ranging from 25cm to 12m, likely lived together in gregarious colonies, with mothers burying their eggs in the sand to prevent them drying out.

The location of the find is fossil rich, and may harbour thousands of bones and further eggs, with the sediments in the area suggesting that the pterosaurs died in a large storm in the Early Cretaceous period about 120 million years ago.