Ancient dinosaur nursery oldest nesting site yet found An
excavation at a site in South Africa has unearthed the
190-million-year-old dinosaur nesting site of the prosauropod
dinosaur Massospondylus-revealing significant clues about the
evolution of complex reproductive behaviour in early dinosaurs.
The newly unearthed dinosaur nesting ground predates previously
known nesting sites by 100 million years, according to study
authors. A new study led by University of Toronto Mississauga
paleontologist Robert Reisz, with co-author, Professor David
Evans of ecology and evolutionary biology and the Royal Ontario
Museum, along with a group of international researchers,
describes clutches of eggs, many with embryos, as well as tiny
dinosaur footprints, providing the oldest known evidence that
the hatchlings remained at the nesting site long enough to at
least double in size. At least 10 nests have been discovered at
several levels at this site, each with up to 34 round eggs in
tightly clustered clutches. The distribut