Paleontologists have announced the rare discovery of closely spaced dinosaur nests and 256 eggs of herbivorous titanosaurs in Madhya Pradesh’s Narmada Valley. Researchers from the University of Delhi and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Mohanpur-Kolkata and Bhopal have also reported the discovery of in-ovo or multi-shelled eggs in the Bagh and Kukshi areas of Dhar district in Madhya Pradesh.
The findings were published this week in the research journal PLoS One by Harsha Dhiman, Vishal Verma and Guntupalli Prasad, among others. A study of nests and eggs has revealed intimate details about the lives of long necked sauropods that roamed the area more than 66 million years ago.
Vishal Verma, who works at Bakaner High School in Dhar district said “The egg was found from an estuary formed where the Tethys Sea joined the Narmada when the Seychelles broke away from the Indian plate. Seychellois detachment led to the intrusion of the Tethys Sea 400 km into the Narmada valley”.
Verma also said the nests found in the Narmada valley were close to each other. Generally, the nests are located at some distance from each other. Under such conditions, the eggs remain in the oviduct and shell formation starts again. There could also have been cases where the dinosaur died before the eggs were laid
Verma, credited as the driving force behind a series of dinosaur fossil discoveries in the Narmada, said the reason for the multi-shelled eggs could be the mother’s inability to find favorable conditions for egg-laying. The eggs, which ranged between 15 cm and 17 cm in diameter, probably belonged to a number of titanosaur species. The number of eggs in each nest varied from one to 20.
The researchers said “During field surveys conducted between 2017 and 2020, we found extensive dinosaur hatcheries in Bagh and Kukshi areas of Dhar district, MP, particularly from Akhada, Dholiya Raipuriya, Jhaba, Jamniapura and Padlya villages, the region falls between the easternmost exposures of Lameta at Jabalpur in the upper Narmada valley in central India and Balasinor in the west in the lower Narmada valley in west central India.
Written by: Vaishali Verma
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