Dinosaur Eggs Have Never Been Discovered This Far South Before

The landmasses of Earth have shifted significantly since dinosaurs roamed them—there’s even a website that checks where your part of the world was 145 million years ago. Despite those shifts, experts have assembled a pretty good picture of where dinosaur fossils, footprints, and eggshell fragments might be found. Every so often though, there are still surprises, such as the one in a new study published in Royal Society Open Science.

Read more: “How a Simulated Dinosaur Nest Revealed Prehistoric Parenting Strategies” Paleontologists report that they’ve discovered eggshell pieces from the large, long-necked, plant-eating titanosaur further south than ever before. They were uncovered in Argentina and would’ve been laid at latitudes between 55 to 60 degrees south originally—much higher than the average for this group typically found around 31 degrees south. While titanosaur fossils have been uncovered as far south as Antarctica, there hasn’t been evidence that they nested so far from the balmy conditions of the equator.

This latest finding suggests they did, and that they came up with strategies to give their offspring the best chance of hatching despite the cooler temperatures and reduced sunlight. The most likely explanation, based on the porosity of what remains of the eggshells, is that they were left in large, mound-like covered nests, with heat coming from the decaying of surrounding vegetation, solar radiation, or geothermal activity. It’s a tactic still in use today by some crocodile and bird species.

Due to their gigantic size—some of the biggest land animals of all time are titanosaurs, which could weigh more than 70 tons, or about 18,000 times the size of a 9-pound hatchling—they almost certainly didn’t sit on the eggs to keep them warm. Experts believe that titanosaurs would have migrated long distances across generations, possibly moving in herds and staying in the same places for several thousand years at a time. Though we have no complete skeletons of this group of animals, their fossils have been found on every continent on Earth.

As for the recent eggs discovery in Argentina, the study team writes, “We anticipate that future discoveries of egg fossils at higher palaeolatitudes in Argentina, Canada, and elsewhere will undoubtedly further our understanding of dinosaur egg incubation and nesting at cooler [or] higher latitudes.” Either way, the next time you’re doubting your own parenting skills, take heart knowing that at least you’re not a titanosaur who left your offspring under a pile of rotting plants. Subscribe to our free newsletter.