Eggshells Fill a 30-Million-Year Fossil Record Gap for Dinosaur Migration

A collection of dinosaur eggshells found on a Utah mountain reveal a time of great migration.

By Paul Smaglik
Feb 27, 2025 10:50 PMFeb 28, 2025 4:11 PM
Fossil eggshell diversity of the Mussentuchit Member, Cedar Mountain Formation, Utah
Prospecting for eggshells in Utah, 2020. (Credit: Lindsay Zanno, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), image is cropped to fit website dimensions)

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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.

A Variety of Dinosaurs

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