Egg fossil

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Fossilized Dinosaur eggs displayed at Indroda Dinosaur and Fossil Park.

Egg fossils are the fossilized remains of eggs laid by ancient animals. As evidence of the physiological processes of an animal, egg fossils are considered a type of trace fossil. Under rare circumstances a fossil egg may preserve the remains of the once-developing embryo inside, in which case it also contains body fossils. A wide variety of different animal groups laid eggs that are now preserved in the fossil record beginning in the Paleozoic era. Examples include invertebrates like ammonoids as well as vertebrates like fishes, possible amphibians, and reptiles. The latter group includes the many dinosaur eggs that have been recovered from Mesozoic strata. Since the organism responsible for laying any given egg fossil is frequently unknown, scientists classify eggs using a parallel system of taxonomy separate from but modeled after the Linnaean system. This "parataxonomy" is called veterovata.


The first named oospecies was Oolithes bathonicae, a name given provisionally by Professor J. Buckman to a group of eggs which Buckman believed were laid by a teleosaur. However, modern scientists no longer think it is possible to determine what kind of reptile laid these eggs.[1][2] In 1859, the first scientifically documented dinosaur egg fossils were discovered in southern France by a Catholic priest and amateur naturalist named Father Jean-Jacques Poech, however he thought they were laid by giant birds.[3]

The first scientifically recognized dinosaur egg fossils were discovered serendipitously in 1923 by an American Museum of Natural History crew while looking for evidence of early humans in Mongolia. Egg discoveries continued to mount all over the world, leading to the development of multiple competing classification schemes. In 1975 Chinese paleontologist Zhao Zi-Kui started a revolution in fossil egg classification by developing a system of "parataxonomy" based on the traditional Linnaean system to classify eggs based on their physical qualities rather than their hypothesized mothers. Zhao's new method of egg classification was hindered from adoption by Western scientists due to language barriers. However, in the early 1990s Russian paleontologist Konstantin Mikhailov brought attention to Zhao's work in the English language scientific literature.[3]



Eggs laid by invertebrate animals are known from the fossil record. Among these are eggs laid by ancient cephalopods. Eggs laid by ammonoids are the best known cephalopod egg fossils. The best preserved fossil ammonite eggs were preserved in the Jurassic Kimmeridge Clay of England. Nevertheless, the fossil record of cephalopod eggs is scant since their soft, gelatinous eggs decompose quickly and have little chance to fossilize. Another major group of Mesozoic cephalopods, the belemnoids, have no documented eggs in the fossil record whatsoever, although this may be because scientists have not properly searched for them rather than an actual absence from the fossil record.[4]

Fishes and amphibians[edit]

Main article: Fish egg fossil

Fossil fish eggs have an extensive record going at least as far back as the Devonian and spanning into the Cenozoic era. Many different fish taxa's eggs have contributed to this record including lobe-finned fish, placoderms, and sharks. Occasionally eggs are preserved still within the mother's body or associated with fossil embryos. Some fossil eggs possibly laid by fish cannot be confidently distinguished from those laid by amphibians.[5]


Main article: Reptile egg fossil

The fossil record of reptile eggs goes back at least as far as the Early Permian. However, since the earliest reptile eggs probably had soft shells with little preservation potential, reptillian eggs may go back significantly farther than their fossil record. Many ancient reptile groups are known from egg fossils including crocodilians, dinosaurs, and turtles.[3] Some ancient reptiles, like ichthyosaurs[6] and plesiosaurs[7] are known to have given live birth and are therefore not anticipated to have left behind egg fossils. Dinosaur eggs are among the most well known kind of fossil reptile eggs.[3]


Fossil eggs are classified according to the parataxonomic system called veterovata. There are three broad categories in the scheme, on the pattern of organismal phylogenetic classification, called oofamilies, oogenera and oospecies (collectively known as ootaxa).[8][2] The names of oogenera and oofamilies conventionally contain the root "oolithus" meaning "stone egg", but this rule is not always followed. They are divided up into several basic types: Testudoid, Geckoid, Crocodiloid, Dinosauroid-spherulitic, Dinosauroid-prismatic, and Ornithoid. It should be noted that Veterovata does not always mirror the taxonomy of the animals which laid the eggs.[3]


The oogenus level parataxonomy of Veterovata, following Mikhailov et al. (1996) unless otherwise noted:[2]







Incertae sedis

See also[edit]


  1. ^ J. Buckman. 1860. On some fossil reptilian eggs from the Great Oolite of Cirencester. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 16:107-110
  2. ^ a b c Konstantin E. Mikhailov, Emily S. Bray & Karl E. Hirsch (1996). "Parataxonomy of fossil egg remains (Veterovata): basic principles and applications". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 16 (4): 763–769. doi:10.1080/02724634.1996.10011364. JSTOR 4523773. 
  3. ^ a b c d e Carpenter, Kenneth (1999). Eggs, Nests, and Baby Dinosaurs: A Look at Dinosaur Reproduction (Life of the Past), Indiana University Press; ISBN 0-253-33497-7.
  4. ^ Etches, S., Clarke, J. and Callomon, J. 2009. Ammonite eggs and ammonitellae from the Kimmeridge Clay Formation (Upper Jurassic) of Dorset, England. Lethaia, 42: 204–217.
  5. ^ Cloutier, R. 2010. The fossil record of fish ontogenies: insights to developmental patterns and processes. Semin Cell Dev Biology 21: 400–413.
  6. ^ Ellis, Richard, (2003) Sea Dragons - Predators of the Prehistoric Oceans. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 0-7006-1269-6.
  7. ^ O'Keefe, F.R.; Chiappe, L.M. (2011). "Viviparity and K-selected life history in a Mesozoic marine plesiosaur (Reptilia, Sauropterygia)". Science 333 (6044): 870–873. doi:10.1126/science.1205689. PMID 21836013. 
  8. ^ Olga Amo, Gloria Cuenca–Bescós & José Ignacio Canudo (1999). José Ignacio Canudo & Gloria Cuenca-Bescós, ed. "Vertebrate eggshell fragments from the Lower Cretaceous (Lower Barremian) of Camino Canales (Galve Bassin, Province of Teruel, NE Spain)" (PDF). IV European Workshop on Vertebrate Palaeontology. Albarracín, Spain: Universidad de Zaragoza.
  9. ^ a b Jackson, F. D., Jin, X., Varricchio, D. J., Azuma, Y., & Jiang, Y. (2008). The first in situ turtle clutch from the Cretaceous Tiantai Basin, Zhejiang Province, China. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 28(2), 319-325.
  10. ^ E. S. Bray. 1998. Dinosaur eggshell Boletuoolithus carlylensis, oogenus nov. from the Lower Cretaceous Cedar Mountain Formation of Utah. In S. G. Lucas, J. I. Kirkland, and J. W. Estep (eds.), Lower and Middle Cretaceous Terrestrial Ecosystems, New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 14:221-228
  11. ^ a b c Wang, Q., Zhao, Z.-K., Wang, X.-L., and Jiang, Y.-G., 2011, New ootypes of dinosaur eggs from the Late Cretaceous in Tiantai basin, Zhejiang Province, China: Vertebrata PalAsiatica, v. 49, n. 4, p. 446-449
  12. ^ a b M. Vianey-Liaud and N. López-Martínez. 1997. Late Cretaceous dinosaur eggshells from the Tremp basin, southern Pyrenees, Lleida, Spain. Journal of Paleontology 71(6):1157-1171
  13. ^ a b F. D. Jackson and D. J. Varricchio. 2010. Fossil eggs and eggshell from the lowermost Two Medicine Formation of western Montana, Sevenmile Hill locality. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 30(4):1142-1156
  14. ^ N. López-Martínez and E. Vicens. 2012. A new peculiar dinosaur egg, Sankofa pyrenaica oogen. nov. oosp. nov. from the Upper Cretaceous coastal deposits of the Aren Formation, South-Central Pyrenees, Lleida, Catalonia, Spin. Palaeontology 55(2):325-339
  15. ^ a b E. S. Bray. 1999. Eggs and eggshell from the Upper Cretaceous North Horn Formation, central Utah. In D. D. Gillette (ed.), Vertebrate Paleontology in Utah, Utah Geological Survey Miscellaneous Publication 99-1:361-375
  16. ^ D. K. Zelenitsky and W. J. Sloboda. 2005. Eggshells. In P. J. Currie and E. B. Koppelhus (eds.), Dinosaur Provincial Park: A Spectacular Ancient Ecosystem Revealed. Indiana University Press, Bloomington 398-404
  17. ^ a b c d D. K. Zelenitsky, L. V. Hills, and P. J. Currie. 1996. Parataxonomic classification of ornithoid eggshell fragments from the Oldman Formation (Judith River Group; Upper Cretaceous), southern Alberta. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 33:1655-1667
  18. ^ a b c d Q. Wang, X.-L. Wang, Z.-K. Zhao and Y.-G. Jiang. 2010. A new oogenus of Elongatoolithidae from the Upper Cretaceous Chichengshan Formation of Tiantai Basin, Zhejiang Province. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 48(2):111-118
  19. ^ X. Jin, Y. Azuma, F. D. Jackson and D. J. Varricchio. 2007. Giant dinosaur eggs from the Tiantai basin, Zhejiang province, China. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 44:81-88
  20. ^ a b D. K. Zelenitsky and F. Therrien. 2008. Unique maniraptoran egg clutch from the Upper Cretaceous Two Medicine Formation of Montana reveals theropod nesting behaviour. Palaeontology 51(6):1253-1259

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