GhanaStar
  • News
  • Sports
  • Entertainment
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Music
No Result
View All Result
GhanaStar
  • News
  • Sports
  • Entertainment
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Music
No Result
View All Result
GhanaStar
No Result
View All Result
Home Headlines

Bird-Like, Feathered Dinosaurs Hatched Eggs Like Chickens

June 28, 2017
in Headlines
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Feathered dinosaurs that walked on two legs and had parrot-like beaks shared another characteristic with modern birds—they brooded clutches of eggs at a temperature similar to chickens.

You Might Also Like

Ghanaian Can Travel to South Africa Visa-Free

2019 – the Biggest Year yet for Ghanaian Tourism

Three Britons On Trial In Singapore Accused of Gang-Raping Drunk Woman

Ostrich-sized oviraptors, ancestors to birds, sat on their eggs to incubate them at 35 to 40 degrees Celsius (95 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit)—a range comparable with modern hens (37.5 C), researchers reported in the journal Palaeontology.

A team from China and France measured oxygen atoms from the shells and embryo bones of seven oviraptor eggs from the Upper Cretaceous period some 100 to 66 million years ago.

The analysis revealed the temperature at which the embryo was forming during its incubation, explained study co-author Romain Amiot, a paleontologist at France’s CNRS research institute.

Amiot and a team used the eggs of oviraptors because they are known to have been egg brooders.

Several fossilised adult oviraptors have been found in a brooding posture on clutches of eggs.

In fact, this is how the creature got its Latin name—unfairly—of oviraptosaur, meaning ‘egg thief lizard’.

The first specimen was discovered in 1924 on top of a nest full of eggs, leading palaeontologists to assume the creature was eating them when it died.

But later finds revealed the eggs in fact contained baby oviraptors, meaning that the lurking lizard was not a predator but a caring parent tending its nest.

Whether dinosaurs were warm- or cold-blooded has been a longstanding scientific riddle.

In 2015, a study suggested they were neither, but something in-between.

Dinosaurs were probably able to produce internal heat and raise their body temperature, but not maintain it at a consistently high level as modern warm-blooded animals do, it said.

Raising their body temperature above the ambient range would have allowed dinosaurs to withstand cold climates at high latitudes—like penguins hatching their eggs in freezing conditions.

The latest study suggests that oviraptors ‘had a body temperature at least as high as the incubation temperature’ of the eggs analysed, said Amiot.

Active brooding would almost certainly not have been a universal dinosaur egg-hatching strategy, he added.

‘It is hard to imagine a diplodocus sitting on its clutch… without breaking its eggs or destroying the nest,’ Amiot said.

Some 30 metres (98 feet) long and weighing more than 10 tonnes, Diplodocus was one of the largest animals ever to walk the Earth.

Fossil evidence has shown that some dinosaurs warmed their eggs by burying them, while others put theirs in nests of vegetation that gave off heat as it decayed.

Join GhanaStar.com to receive daily email alerts of breaking news in Ghana. GhanaStar.com is your source for all Ghana News. Get the latest Ghana news, breaking news, sports, politics, entertainment and more about Ghana, Africa and beyond.

Tags: AvicultureBehaviorBird breedingchickenchinaCo-authorDinosaurEggEgg incubationEggsEthologyfranceOviraptorPalaeontologyPoultryReproductionRomain Amiot

Related News

Ghanaian Can Travel to South Africa Visa-Free

by
July 10, 2019
0

Citizens of Ghana no longer need a visa to travel to South Africa. This is because the South African Government...

2019 – the Biggest Year yet for Ghanaian Tourism

by
January 24, 2019
0

2018 was a good year for tourism in Ghana with more than GH₵5.8 billion spent in the country's travel and...

Three Britons On Trial In Singapore Accused of Gang-Raping Drunk Woman

by
August 1, 2017
0

Three British men have gone on trial in Singapore today accused of gang-raping a 23-year-old woman while visiting the city-state...

Pakistani Taliban Launches Women’s Magazine

by
August 1, 2017
0

The Pakistani Taliban on Tuesday released the first edition of a magazine for women, apparently aiming to convince its target...

Next Post

Stanbic Fetes Customers

Michael Moore Donates $10,000 To Trump-As-Caesar Theater

Categories

  • Africa & World
  • African Music Lyrics Directory
  • Business
  • Business Directory
  • celebrities
  • Computing
  • Diaspora
  • Entertainment
  • Events
  • Feature
  • Featured
  • Ghana Elections 2016
  • Headlines
  • Health
  • International
  • Internet
  • Jobs
  • lifestyle
  • Music
  • News
  • Offbeat
  • Opinion
  • Politics
  • Profiles
  • Religion
  • Security
  • Seth Terkper
  • Smart Home
  • Social Networks
  • Sports
  • Technology
  • Top Stories
  • World News

Tags

accra addo africa Association football Banks - NEC business Business_Finance chairman Donald Trump economy education Entertainment_Culture environment Geography of Africa ghana Ghanaian people government Government of Ghana Human Interest John Dramani Mahama john mahama Law_Crime mahama minister MPs elected in the Ghanaian parliamentary election Nana Addo Nana Addo Dankwa Nana Akufo-Addo National Democratic Congress National Democratic Congress (NDC) New Patriotic Party New Patriotic Party (NPP) nigeria politics Politics of Ghana president Social Issues Social Media Social Media & Networking sports United Kingdom United Nations United States Vice President War_Conflict

Recent Posts

  • Government of Ghana Unveils Official Portraits of President John Dramani Mahama and Vice President Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang
  • Who Is the Woman (Sheena Gakpe) in Sarkodie’s Latest Hit “No Sir” and Why Everyone Is Talking about It
List of Ghana Holidays for 2020
Ghana Geocoding
Ghana Cedis Exchange API
Ghana Maps Service
Toyota Cars Auto Auction History
  • African Music Lyrics Directory
  • Business Directory
  • Diaspora
  • Top Stories

All rights reserved © 2021 GhanaStar.com

No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Sports
  • Entertainment
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Music

All rights reserved © 2021 GhanaStar.com