A 120 million - year - one-time dodo has reveal a fresh , rather endearing breakthrough about dinosaurs : They may have had baby-sitter to learn over their youngsters .
The fossil was originally distinguish in northeastern China and appeared somewhat unremarkable to the amateur paleontologists who bump it . But now , University of Pennsylvania investigator Brandon P. Hedrick and Peter Dodson are taking acloser look . " I saw a photograph of it and instantly knew I wanted to explore it in more depth , " Hedricksaid .
The 2 - human foot - all-inclusive fossil contains the remains of 24 babe dinosaurs from thePsittacosaurus lujiatunensisspecies . As grownup , these were gazelle - sized vegetable - eaters with strong beak on their upper jaws ( if you demand a better visual , the species name is Hellenic for “ parrot lizard”).P. lujiatunensisis one of the most common dinosaur species in science — hundred of its fossils have been observe across China , Mongolia , and Russia . But what do this one unique is the 25th dinosaur in the nest , which is older and much with child than the others — but not onetime enough to have been the parent . rather , researchers mean it was an adolescent — a adolescent , if you will — tasked with keeping sentry duty over the tike while the parent were out on a dino date .
This kind of baby sitting is see in modern snort . In fact , one studyshowed that 9 percent of birdie species utilize sitter to protect the crime syndicate by guard off grave predators . These birds do n’t regurgitate , but do their part to pass on the folk genes by insure the youngsters grow up healthy . The babysitting dinosaur could also have been an older sib looking after its brothers and sisters .
Unfortunately , caretaker can only protect slight ones from so much . Researchers think these 25 dinosaurs were killed by rock and water flow associated with a volcanic outbreak . Dodson and Hedrick will examine the bones further to learn more about the creatures .
