Science and Technology

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Nests of dinosaur eggs found
2009-10-01 14:27



New Delhi - Indian geologists have found a trove of dinosaur eggs, estimated to be about 65 million years old, in the country's southern state of Tamil Nadu, a newspaper reported on Thursday.

The fossilised eggs were found in the Sendurai village in the central district of Ariyalur, an area rich in fossils dating back 140 million years, the Times of India said.

"We found clusters and clusters of spherical eggs of dinosaurs, and each cluster contained eight eggs," MU Ramkumar, geology lecturer at Periyar University, told the newspaper.

The eggs were discovered during a study funded by Indian and German scientific institutions, the report said.

Ramkumar said each egg was about 13 to 20 centimetres in diameter and they were lying in sandy nests about 1.2m wide.

Scientists said they believe the eggs belonged to large, predatory dinosaurs called carnosaurs and docile sauropods, long-necked herbivores that grew to enormous heights and sizes.

Earlier fossil finds have indicated dinosaurs once roamed the region, but the latest discovery was the first time that hundreds of nests with clusters of dinosaur eggs have been unearthed in the district, the report said.

The clusters were under ash from volcanic eruptions on the Deccan plateau. Scientists said the Deccan eruptions might have caused the dinosaurs to become extinct.

Samples of the eggs are to be sent to Germany for further research.

"This is a very significant finding as never before have we found so many dinosaur eggs in the country," senior scientist Jyotsana Rai was quoted as saying.

- SAPA
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