Strange Pathologic Dinosaur Egg Discovered in India; How Is It Associated with Other Animal Species Like Turtles and Birds?

An "abnormal dinosaur egg, described in a report as "in the form of an egg with another egg," has been discovered in a state in western Central India known as Madhya Pradesh.

According to an ABP Live report, the egg also called a "pathologic egg," appears in the form mentioned, a condition called "ovum-in-ovo."

Essentially, Pathologic eggs can appear in the form of multi-shelled eggs that show additional pathological eggshell layers along with the main shell layer and have been recorded in the amniote eggs of turtles, birds, and dinosaurs.

An amniote egg, in particular, is an air-breathing egg characterized by extraembryonic membranes and a shell, which enclose the amniote embryo in a private pond during the development period.

An Unusual Discovery

Even though multi-shelled eggs and eggshells were previously documented only in reptiles and ovum-in-ovo eggs in birds, it has now been revealed that multi-shelled pathology can be discovered in birds too. Nonetheless, no ovum-in-ovo egg had been reported in dinosaurs or other reptiles until now.

The new study, led by the University of Delhi researchers, describes the ovum-in-ovo pathological egg from the titanosaurid dinosaur nest from the Upper Cretaceous Lametta Formation of western Central India.

This research was published recently in the Scientific Reports journal. The finding marks the first-ever report of egg pathology in dinosaurs.

The Dinosaur Species

The dinosaur species, specifically the titanosaurs, are a diverse group of sauropod dinosaurs that lived from the Late Jurassic Epochs, from 163 million to 145 million years ago, to the end of the Cretaceous Period, about 145 million to 66 million years ago.

Sauropods were marked by huge size, a long tail and neck, a four-legged posture, and a herbivorous diet. These dinosaur species were the largest of their kind and the biggest land animals that ever lived.

Titanosaurs, similar to other sauropods, were herbivorous quadrupeds with long tails, long necks, and tiny heads. However, they differed from other sauropods in that the bodies of these species were bulkier.

A similar report from the Daily Sun indicated that the researcher found 52 nests, and out of these, only a single pathological egg was documented.

Oddities Reflected in the Eggshells

As specified in the study, the oddities reflected in the eggshells comprise multiple eggshell units that occurred in close contact with each other and one on top of the other, called multi-shelled eggs, unusually thick or thin eggshells, abnormally shaped shell units, additional shell units, clogging pore canals and surface defects.

This present discovery of an ovum-in-ovo pathological egg in a nest of a titanosaurid dinosaur is the first of its kind in dinosaurs. It indicates its presence in reptiles, particularly in dinosaurs, concluded the researchers in their work.

Lastly, this research emphasizes that the sauropod's reproductive biology is more akin to archosaurs like crocodiles and birds than non-archosaurian reptiles.

A report about the recent discovery of a dinosaur egg is shown on Continual Study's YouTube video below:

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