Contact: Robert Sanders
rsanders@berkeley.edu
510-643-6998
University of California - Berkeley

Egg-laying Tissue in Dinosaur Bone

Caption: Cross-sections through the fossilized tibia or shinbone of a 120 million-year-old female Tenontosaurus skeleton, showing growth rings and medullary bone laid done in the marrow cavity just prior to egg laying. This individual died at the age of eight, shortly before she would have laid her eggs.

Credit: Sarah Werning/UC Berkeley & Andrew Lee/Ohio University; fossils courtesy of the Oklahoma Museum of Natural History

Usage Restrictions: None

Related news release: Rapid growth, early maturity meant teen pregnancy for dinosaurs