Giant Dinosaurs Hatched with Adult-like Proportions (9 of 9) (IMAGE)

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Giant Dinosaurs Hatched with Adult-like Proportions (9 of 9)

Caption

A new skeleton of a baby Rapetosaurus krausei from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar indicates that this sauropod dinosaur hatched from an egg smaller than a soccer ball, grew quickly and fended for itself without significant parental care after birth. It lived in a drought-stressed ecosystem that ultimately caused its demise. This material relates to a paper that appeared in the April 22, 2016 issue of Science, published by AAAS. The paper, by K.C. Rogers at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., and colleagues was titled, "Precociality in a tiny titanosaur from the Cretaceous of Madagascar."

Credit

Sculpture by T. Keillor, Girl by Ella Glass (UK), and composite by A. Morrow

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