Collection of the thinnest: A unique eggshell assemblage from the Late Cretaceous vertebrate locality of Iharkút (Hungary)

As a result of several years of screen-washing activity, a remarkable assemblage of eggshell fragments has been recovered from the Late Cretaceous vertebrate locality of Iharkut, Hungary. Detailed investigation of the assemblage by multiple visualization techniques (scanning electron microscopy, polarizing light microscopy, X-ray micro-computed tomography), quantitative morphometric analyses, and micro X-ray fluorescence spectrometry revealed a diverse composition of five different eggshell morphotypes (MT I–MT V) and three subcategories within the second morphotype (MT II/a, b, c), with MT I being by far the most abundant (83%) in the assemblage. MT I, MT III, and MT V represent theropod dinosaurian eggshells, whereas MT II and MT IV show characteristics of crocodilian and squamate eggshells, respectively. Hence, despite their fragmentary nature, these eggshells represent the first clear evidence that various sauropsid taxa had nesting sites near the ancient fluvial system of Iharkut. Besides the implied...

• Publication year

  2017

• Venue

  Central European Geology

• Publication date

  2017-03-31

• Fields of study

  Biology, Geology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1556/24.60.2017.004
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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