• Sauropod Eggs From Pantagonia, Argentina. Below are links to sites by project leaders (and other info sites) about an exciting site in Argentina where thousands of sauropod eggs have been found as well as a number of dinosaur embryos (and some hatchlings) with fossilized skin impressions. This major find will give us much understanding about the embryonic development and growth of sauropods. This site represents a number of firsts in the recent explosion of dinosaur egg sites, it represents the first find of fossilized skin impressions with embryos, the first sauropod embryos, and the first dinosaur embryos from the Southern Hemisphere. I am sure much new an exciting information will be forthcoming from this find and the studies of the material recovered.
  • Project Patagonia is a field expedition to the world's largest dinosaur nesting site ever discovered where thousands of eggs litter the ground. Discovered in late 1997, Auca Mahuevo, a square mile area in Patagonia, Argentina, produced the world's first dinosaur embryos with fossilized skin that date back 71 to 89 million years. Scientists are now collecting eggs in various stages of growth to learn about the embryonic development of sauropods. The team is mapping and analyzing Auca Mahuevo to increase scientific knowledge about dinosaur nesting patterns and behavior. This site includes the field notes and some photographs taken by Dr. Luis Chiappe one of the leaders of this project.
  • First Dinosaur Embryos Found With Fossilized Skin. An exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History, December 17, 1999 to May 1, 2000. In November 1997, Dr. Luis Chiappe and Dr. Lowell Dingus went to Patagonia with an expedition team and discovered a nesting site that contained thousands of dinosaur eggs, including fossilized embryos and fossilized skin. Sauropods, a type of plant-eating dinosaur, not only gathered in this area of Patagonia to lay their eggs, but returned there for numerous seasons.
  • Patagonia - InfoQuest Foundation. On November 17, 1998 a team of researchers announced in the journal Nature the discovery of a dinosaur nesting ground strewn with thousands of eggs, dozens of which still have unhatched dinosaur embryos inside. In addition to tiny embryonic bones, many of the eggs contain patches of delicate fossilized skin, providing the first glimpse of the soft tissue covering baby dinosaurs. The extraordinary new fossils represent a number of scientific firsts: the first dinosaur embryos to show fossilized skin; the first known embryos of the giant plant-eating dinosaurs called sauropods; and the first dinosaur embryos found in the southern hemisphere. As well as appearing in Nature, the discovery is also featured in the December issue of National Geographic.
  • Tiniest Giants web site. Our team set up this web site to correspond to the Tiniest Giants museum exhibit and provide additional information and resources to you about this amazing and fun discovery. The exhibit and this site are a joint project of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the Carmen Funes Museum in Neuquen, Argentina. Our team discovered the first ever sauropod eggs with babies still inside. Sauropods are a group of giant, long-necked, plant-eating dinosaurs. This discovery showed that tiny hatchlings can grow to be the largest dinosaurs. The search is on to learn more about the giant parents of these tiny eggs...

• CHINESE DINOSAUR EGGS. General Discussion by Florence Magovern Taxonomic nomenclature of dinosaur eggs is based on thin section analysis of shell fragments. There are four main parataxonomic families of eggs found in Henan Basin, Xixia County, China (1) Faveoloolithidae, (2) Dendroolithidae (3) Spheroolithidae and (4) Elongatoolithidae. The fossilized remains of dinosaur eggs are, in most cases, limited to the egg shell. The embryos themselves were rarely preserved. The morphology and structure of the egg shells reveal few clues which can be cited to justify naming which taxon produced them. Only with fossilized remains of embryos in relatively advanced stages of development, can we begin to associate dinosaur types with fossilized eggs and egg shells. Check this link for more information on the numerous Chinese dinosaur eggs. For more information see the National Geographic article below that includes a number of the eggs and work by the Magoverns.
• Montana State University Dinosaur Research. Dinosaur Eggs and Embryos. Research by Vickie Clouse, instructor of biology and paleontology at Montana State University-Northern. Several nest localities have been found within this newly discovered, 100 km2 dinosaur nesting ground. Clutches of up to 22 lambeosaur eggs, some with embryos, are preserved in nests that average six-feet in diameter. (A lambeosaur is a type of hadrosaur or "duck bill" dinosaur with a bony crest on top of its skull.) Associated with these nests are the preserved bones and teeth of many other ancient animals including: crocodiles, turtles, mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, and many different types of adult and sub-adult dinosaurs. The mixture of animal fossils found hints at the ecological diversity which must have existed here 75 million years ago.
• Dinosaur Eggs-National Geographic Society. This story takes you behind the scenes of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine's May 1996 article, "The Great Dinosaur Egg Hunt."
• Dinosaur Eggs - The Time Capsule Eggs Project The Time Capsule Dinosaur Eggs have become a major tourist attraction at the Hunterian Museum (University of Glasgow). The reason for the current world-wide interest in these particular eggs is that they appear to contain the remains of dinosaur embryos. State of the art technology has been used to examine the eggs without damaging them and the eggs have undergone the specialized CT and MRI scanning treatment.

Last Updated: 5/5/06 RJJ