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Digital preparation of a probable neoceratopsian preserved within an egg, with comments on microstructural anatomy of ornithischian eggshells

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Abstract

We describe the first known embryo of a neoceratopsian dinosaur, perhaps the most ubiquitous Laurasian group of Cretaceous dinosaurs, which is preserved completely enclosed within an egg. This specimen was collected from Late Cretaceous beds of southern Mongolia, which commonly preserve fossils of the neoceratopsian, Yamaceratops dorngobiensis. The small egg was scanned using high-resolution X-ray computed tomography and digitally prepared from the matrix. The preserved and imaged elements support a diagnosis of the embryo to Neoceratopsia and allow preliminary observations of ontogenetic transformations within this group. The addition of an embryo also adds another important data point to the already impressive postnatal ontogenetic series that are available for this clade.

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Acknowledgments

GGT would like to acknowledge E. Duke at the Analytical Facilities of Engineering and Mining Experiment Station of SDSMT for the use of the SEM. MRL would like to thank E. Kernberg, UCSF, for preliminary radiological analyses of the specimen. Mick Ellison provided much help in the preparation of figures. Jessie Maisano assisted in the preparation of the web-based imagery accompanying this paper. Thanks to Gabe Bever, Peter Makovicky, and three anonymous reviewers for their useful comments. CT scanning was performed by the HRCT Facility at The University of Texas at Austin. Support for this project came from the American Museum of Natural History, Division of Paleontology and DEES, Columbia University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY, 10024, USA

    Amy M. Balanoff & Mark A. Norell

  2. Department of Geology and Geological Engineering, South Dakota School of Mines, Rapid City, SD, 57701, USA

    Gerald Grellet-Tinner

  3. Department of Emergency Medicine, University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA, 94143, USA

    Matthew R. Lewin

Authors
  1. Amy M. Balanoff
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  2. Mark A. Norell
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  3. Gerald Grellet-Tinner
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  4. Matthew R. Lewin
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amy M. Balanoff.

Additional information

Communicated by G. Mayr

Electronic supplementary material

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S1

Spinning animation of the three-dimensional reconstruction of the skeletal elements contained within the egg. The matrix and eggshell have been rendered transparent (MOV 3.1 MB).

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Balanoff, A.M., Norell, M.A., Grellet-Tinner, G. et al. Digital preparation of a probable neoceratopsian preserved within an egg, with comments on microstructural anatomy of ornithischian eggshells. Naturwissenschaften 95, 493–500 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-008-0347-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-008-0347-2

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