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Palaeontology

Parental care in an ornithischian dinosaur

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A dramatic fossil may shed light on how modern archosaurs became devoted parents.

Abstract

Crocodilians and birds show extensive parental care of their young1,2, but whether this behaviour evolved independently in these two groups of living archosaurs is unknown — in part because features of parenting among related fossil groups such as dinosaurs3 are unclear. A dramatic specimen of the small ornithischian dinosaur Psittacosaurus sp. (Dalian Natural History Museum D2156) from Liaoning in China reveals a single adult clustered with 34 juveniles within an area of 0.5 square metres, providing strong evidence for post-hatching parental care in Dinosauria.

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Figure 1: Adult and juvenile Psittacosaurus in plan view.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dalian Natural History Museum, 40 Xicun Street, Heishijiao, Shahekou, Dalian, China

    Qingjin Meng, Jinyuan Liu & Chunling Gao

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, 59717, Montana, USA

    David J. Varricchio

  3. PaleoWorld Research Foundation, Asian Operation B-1 22-2, Lane 256, RuiAn Street, Taipei, 106, Taiwan, Republic of China

    Timothy Huang

Authors
  1. Qingjin Meng
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  2. Jinyuan Liu
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  3. David J. Varricchio
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  4. Timothy Huang
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  5. Chunling Gao
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Correspondence to David J. Varricchio.

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Meng, Q., Liu, J., Varricchio, D. et al. Parental care in an ornithischian dinosaur. Nature 431, 145–146 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/431145a

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