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The majority of the embryonic remains found within dinosaur eggs
are not preserved as complete skeletons. Some eggs clearly decomposed
before they dried out, so scrambling the arrangement of the bones.
In other eggs the bones are actually broken up and appear to
be gnawed, and in several eggs the bones are reduced to bone
chips. There are clues regarding the identity of one of the culprits.
Several eggs contain large numbers of small ovoid structures,
rounded at one end and slightly pointed at the other. |
They closely match the frass (faecal pellets of larvae) of dermestid
beetles which scavenge dried carcases. Differences in the size
of the fossil frass would indicate several different larval stages.
The frass does not dissolve in acetic acid, suggesting that it
contains a high proportion of powdered bone.
click here to view image of- therizinosaur
egg showing a layer of beetle frass surrounded by broken bone
(x 15). |
