In 1978, James Kitching discovered two dinosaur embryos in a road-cut talus at Roodraai (Red Bend) in Golden Gate Highlands National Park, South Africa. Kitching assigned the fossilized embryos to the species of long necked herbivores Massospondylus carinatus (longer vertebra) from the Early Jurassic period, between 200 and 183 million years ago. The embryos were partially visible but surrounded by eggshell and rock, called matrix. Kitching said that the eggs were too delicate to remove from the matrix without damage. Twenty-seven years later in 2005, Diane Scott, a member of a team led by Robert Reisz from the University of Toronto in Toronto, Canada, uncovered the two almost complete, well-articulated embryos. Scientists have inferred information from the embryos about Massospondylus dinosaurs’ growth, development, and behaviors including parental care, gait, and locomotion. Read more>>>
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gerald Davie is the Dinoman. He is a professional geologist with a passion for palaeontology and earth history. When he isn't consulting, he spends his time travelling locally and abroad, and there is always a geological component to his trips. He is the owner of the only Tyrannosaurus skeleton in the Southern Hemisphere, to be seen at the DinoZone Museum and Geo Centre.
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