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Evidence for juvenile groups in the ornithopod dinosaur Tenontosaurus tilletti Ostrom

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2016

Catherine A. Forster
Catherine A. Forster*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19104-6045
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Extract

When the existence of juveniles, eggs, and nesting sites of the hadrosaur Maiasaura peeblesorum and the hypsilophodontid Orodromeus makelai from the Upper Cretaceous Two Medicine Formation of western Montana were reported, they provided powerful insights into the reproductive strategies of these animals (Horner and Makela, 1979; Horner, 1982, 1984; Horner and Weishampel, 1988). Dinosaur eggs had been known since 1923 when nests attributed to the ceratopsian Protoceratops andrewsi were discovered in Mongolia (Brown and Schlaikjer, 1940), but there was no direct information about behavior or survival strategies in hatchling dinosaurs until the Maiasaura and Orodromeus findings. These recent discoveries have generated a number of hypotheses on the reproductive behavior of dinosaurs relating to the extent of parental care, fidelity in nesting sites, and the aggregation of juveniles into groups.

Type
Paleontological Notes
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 64 , Issue 1 , January 1990 , pp. 164 - 165
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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