Fossilised eggs found in Tamil Nadu belonged to large dinosaur species

Indian geologists have found a cluster of dinosaur eggs, said to be about 65 million years old, in a village in Ariyalur in Tamil Nadu, media reports said.

“We found layer upon clusters of spherical eggs and body parts of dinosaur and each cluster contained eight eggs,” M U Ramkumar, geologist at Periyar University in Salem who led a survey team, told reporters on Thursday.

The eggs, each about 13 to 20 cm in diameter and lying in sandy nests about 1.2 metre wide, were discovered during a study funded by Indian and German scientific institutions.

The clusters were under ash from volcanic eruptions on the Deccan plateau and geologists said the eruptions might have caused the dinosaurs to become extinct.

The nesting site, about two sq km in area and located at northeast of Ariyalur, was found along the banks and channel bottom of streams in the Cauvery basin. The stream section was found having clusters of fossilised eggs, casts of eggs, dung and bone remains of dinosaurs.

“Occurrences of unhatched eggs in large numbers at different stratigraphic levels indicate that the dinosaurs kept returning to the same site for nesting,” Mr. Anbarasu, another team member pointed out.

Mr Ramkumar said: "We submitted the photographs of these eggs to a research centre at Pudiyarturiyal in India and to Dr. Kelmer of the International Dinosaur Research Centre. We have received details from all the research centres confirming these as dinosaur eggs."

“Since we lack facilities for further study, we are collaborating with the scientists in the U.S., Germany and Switzerland to study the fossils in the site. We will also be submitting a paper based on our research to the international journals such as Nature,” Mr. Ramkumar added.

The researchers have requested the Ariyalur district administration to cordon off the site since a similar discovery in Jabalpur led to a plunder of the fossilized treasure.

- Asian Tribune -