This is the first nest of this kind have been found, revealing that Protoceratops children remained in the nest for an extended period, according to professor of geosciences at the University of Rhode Island, lead author David Fastovsky.
"Finding dinosaur young in a nest is a relatively rare occurrence and not remember any other dinosaur species that retains 15 offspring in their nest in this way," he said.
Training Found Djadochta Tugrikinshire area, Mongolia, the nest is bowl-shaped with a diameter of 2.3 meters and researchers estimate that is 70 million years.
It houses 15 dinosaurs, ten of which are complete specimens, with a status similar growth and development and about the same size, suggesting that all came from the same mother.
The finding also indicates that young dinosaurs remained in the nest in the early stages of postnatal development and were treated by their parents.
The Protoceratops measuring 1.83 meters high and it took ten years to reach full size, so the researchers calculated that the babies were a year old when he died.
Fastovsky believes "preserved animals were buried quickly by the accumulation of sand in motion, which must have formed the bulk of sedimentation."
"The death probably occurred during a desert sandstorm," said the professor who attributed the preservation of the fossils to the arid land that has contributed "significantly" to "excellent preservation," Protoceratops not only, but all the fossils with which they work.
The researchers point out that Mongolia lived in a wide variety of theropod dinosaurs, some of whom, including the famous Velociraptor, Protoceratops probably ate baby.
"The mortality of young Protoceratops may have been quite high, not only by predation but by a potentially stressful, and large nests may have been a way of ensuring the survival of animals in the environment," he said. ADS HERE
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