Over 200 fossilized eggs found in China reveal how pterosaurs breed

File photo of a fossilized dinosaur egg. [Photo: IC]

Over 200 dinosaur eggs from pterosaurs have been unearthed in China, providing new insight into the life history of the rulers of the skies in the age of dinosaurs.

Study researcher Xiaolin Wang, a paleontologist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, says the discovery was made from the Turpan-Hami Basin located in Xinjiang in northwestern China.

The findings on the pterosaur species were published in the U.S. journal Science.

Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates to evolve powered flight and they dominated the skies during the age of the dinosaurs, which spans from about 252 million years ago to about 66 million years ago.

Previously, only 11 pterosaur eggs had been found, three of which had fossilized embryos inside.

Five of the eggs were also found in the Turpan-Hami Basin, where a huge lake once existed in the Cretaceous period. 

Now, this sparse sample size was dramatically increased upon the discovery of the 215 eggs that are estimated to be 120 million years old based on the geological information.

Wang said up to 300 eggs may be present at the excavation site near the city of Hami because more appear to be buried under the exposed ones.

Wang added that the large quantities of eggs, together with bones and other specimens, indicated the now extinct animals participated in colonial nesting behavior.