Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T15:40:53.609Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brown, B., and Schlaikjer, E. M. 1940. The structure and relationships of Protoceratops . Annals of the New York Academy of Science. 60:133–266.Google Scholar
Currie, P. J., and Sarjeant, W. A. S. 1979. Lower Cretaceous dinosaur footprints from the Peace River Canyon, British Colombia, Canada. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 28:103–115.Google Scholar
Currie, P. J., and Horner, J. R. 1988. Lambeosaurine hadrosaur embryos (Reptilia: Ornithischia). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 8, Supplement:13A.Google Scholar
Dodson, P. 1971. Sedimentology and taphonomy of the Oldman Formation (Campanian), Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta (Canada). Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 10:21–74.Google Scholar
Dodson, P. 1980. Comparative osteology of the American ornithopods Camptosaurus and Tenontosaurus . Mémoires de la Société Géologique de France, N.S., 139:81–85.Google Scholar
Dodson, P., and Madsen, J. H. 1981. On the sternum of Camptosaurus . Journal of Paleontology, 55:109–112.Google Scholar
Forster, C. A. In press. The postcranial skeleton of the ornithopod dinosaur Tenontosaurus tilletti . Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.Google Scholar
Gilmore, C. W. 1917. Brachyceratops, a ceratopsian dinosaur from the Two Medicine Formation of Montana. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 103, 45 p.Google Scholar
Gilmore, C. W. 1929. Hunting dinosaurs in Montana. Explorations and Field Work of the Smithsonian Institution in 1928:7–12.Google Scholar
Horner, J. R. 1982. Evidence of colonial nesting and “site fidelity” among ornithischian dinosaurs. Nature, 297(5868):675–676.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horner, J. R. 1984. The nesting behavior of dinosaurs. Scientific American. 250(4):130–137.Google Scholar
Horner, J. R., and Makela, R. 1979. Nest of juveniles provides evidence of family structure among dinosaurs. Nature, 282(5736):296–298.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horner, J. R., and Weishampel, D. B. 1988. A comparative embryological study of two ornthischian dinosaurs. Nature, 332(6161):256–257.Google Scholar
Ostrom, J. H. 1970. Stratigraphy and paleontology of the Cloverly Formation (Lower Cretaceous) of the Bighorn Basin area, Wyoming and Montana. Peabody Museum of Natural History Bulletin 35, 235 p.Google Scholar