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Fossil eggshells believed to be from some of the biggest dinosaurs that ever lived have been found in a surprisingly cool climate far from the equator.
But those massive titanosaurs couldn't keep their volleyball-sized eggs warm by sitting on them.
"They're too big," said University of Calgary paleontologist Darla Zelenitsky, who has been studying the problem. "The nest would be one big omelette."
A new study published on Wednesday by Zelenitsky and collaborators from Japan and Argentina has taken a microscopic look and figured out what they did to keep the eggs warm enough to hatch without sitting on their nests.
By looking at the microscopic pores on the eggshells, the researchers believe titanosaurs used the same incubation technique used by modern crocodiles — burying their eggs in warm piles of rotting vegetation, reports the study led by University of Tsukuba paleontologist Kohei Tanaka, Zelenitsky's former student, and published in Royal Society Open Science.
This is a scanning electron microscope image of one of the eggshell fragments in the study, along with with the relative size of a titanosaur and its eggs. Titanosaurs were too large to brood their eggs like birds. (Tanaka et al.)
The world of the giants
Titanosaurs were a group of gargantuan long-necked, long-tailed, plant-eating dinosaurs that lumbered on four legs and weighed up to 75 tonnes, or about half the mass of a blue whale.
WATCH | New titanosaur found in Australian outback: New titanosaur found in Australian outback | Duration 1:05 Paleontologists unveil one of largest dinosaurs that ever lived.
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