Eggshells found in Utah fill a 30-million-year fossil record gap and provide a snapshot of a time when dinosaurs were migrating from Asia to North America via a land bridge, according to a paper in PLOS ONE.
The fossils include eggshells from three feathered bird-like dinosaurs, two plant-eating dinosaurs, and one crocodile-like species. It is also the first new dinosaur eggshell discovery from the region in 50 years, as well as the first evidence of a crocodilian species outside of Europe.
The collection of shells from Utah’s Cedar Mountain from three different kinds of animals represents a wide range of creatures — “one of the best-preserved records of paleobiodiversity in the early Late Cretaceous worldwide,” the paper said.
This variety is important, because it shows that several species of some dinosaurs co-existed. It's a common misconception that only one species of each dinosaur type can exist at a time, says ...
