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A note on pterosaur nesting behavior 

Authors: Gerald Grellet-Tinner a;  Stephen Wroe bc;  Michael B. Thompson b; Qiang Ji d
Affiliations:   a South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, SD, USA
b Electron Microscope Unit (F09), Australian Key Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
c School of Biological Sciences (A08), University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
d Department of Earth Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, People's Republic of China
DOI: 10.1080/08912960701189800
Publication Frequency: 4 issues per year
Published in: journal Historical Biology, Volume 19, Issue 4 December 2007 , pages 273 - 277
Formats available: HTML (English) : PDF (English)
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Abstract

Based on examination of eggshell structure and predicted vapor conductances in eggshells in recently described material from Argentina and China we conclude that pterosaurs buried their eggs. Egg-burying imposes theoretical restrictions on the distribution of pterosaurs, both geographically and spatially, raises the possibility of thermal sex determination and supports previous suggestions that they exhibited nesting fidelity. Some features associated with egg-burying, such as weight savings, are likely to have been fortuitous pre-adaptations for these flying reptiles, but others may have disadvantaged them relative to avian competitors or increased their vulnerability to extinction in a cooling climate.
Keywords: Eggshell vapor conductance; eggshell structure; nesting behaviour; egg; pterosauria
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