Dinosaur parenting

A rather impressive find in China:

A fossil of one adult Psittacosaurus dinosaur surrounded by 34 juveniles has provided the most compelling evidence to date that dinosaurs raised their young after hatching. . .

But what makes this 125-million-year old fossil find from Liaoning province more convincing is that the skeletons are complete, and crowded together in life-like positions with their legs tucked under and heads raised, indicating that they were buried alive rather than swept together after death. . .

The newly unearthed juveniles are about a quarter of the length of the adult, and far bigger than hatchlings. This suggests that the adult had tended them for some time,

From New Scientist; with picture, though the image I saw in the print version of this Telegraph article was rather more detailed and dramatic (not available online, alas).

Posted by David on September 11, 2004 10:21 PM