Ancient Dino Nursery Reveals Mother’s Love in Cretaceous Period

While not your average nursery, a newly discovered nesting area reveals that some early dinosaurs were more attentive parents than previously known.

Paleontologists recently uncovered fossilized eggs and footprints at a 190 million-year-old South African site shedding new light on the reproductive and parenting traits of the Massospondylus dinosaurs. The long necked species, related to the giant sauropods from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, could grow to nearly 20 feet in length.

Currently 10 nests have been found at the site, which is 100 million years older than any other previously discovered nesting site.

David Evans, the associate curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Royal Ontario Museum said that prior to the excavation there was sparse information on how early dinosaurs procreated.     Full Read