''Paraelongatoolithus'' is a

late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', ...

oogenus 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 t ...

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of v ...

fossil egg, classified in the oofamily

Elongatoolithidae Elongatoolithidae is an oofamily of fossil eggs, representing the eggs of oviraptorosaurs (with the exception of the avian ''Ornitholithus''). They are known for their highly elongated shape. Elongatoolithids have been found in Europe, Asia, and b ...

, which represents the eggs of

oviraptorosaurs Oviraptorosaurs ("egg thief lizards") are a group of feathered maniraptoran dinosaurs from the Cretaceous Period of what are now Asia and North America. They are distinct for their characteristically short, beaked, parrot-like skulls, with or w ...

Distribution

''Paraelongatoolithus'' is known solely from Chengguan,

Tiantai Tiantai or T'ien-t'ai () is an East Asian Buddhist school of Mahāyāna Buddhism that developed in 6th-century China. The school emphasizes the ''Lotus Sutra's'' doctrine of the "One Vehicle" ('' Ekayāna'') as well as Mādhyamaka philosop ...

. The fossil is from the Chichengshan Formation, which is dated to 91–94 million years ago, during the

Turonian The Turonian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, the second age in the Late Cretaceous Epoch, or a stage in the Upper Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 93.9 ± 0.8 Ma and 89.8 ± 1 Ma (million years ago). The Turonian is preceded ...

.He, H., Wang, X., Wang, Q., Jiang, S., Cheng, X., Zhang, J., ... & Deng, C. (2013).
SIMS zircon U–Pb dating of the Late Cretaceous dinosaur egg-bearing red deposits in the Tiantai Basin, southeastern China.
''Journal of Asian Earth Sciences,'' 62, 654-661.

Discovery

Fossil eggs are very common in the Tiantai basin, and were first discovered there in the 1950s. Due to better infrastructure, in the 2000s numerous new types of fossil eggs have been discovered in Tiantai. ''Paraelongatoolithus'' was first discovered and named in

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

by the Chinese paleontologists Wang Qiang, Wang Xiaolin, Zhao Zikui, and Jiang Yan'gen.

Description

''Paraelongatoolithu reticulatus'' is known from a single incomplete fossil egg. The preserved part is wide and long, but when complete, it was probably about long.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 The outer surface of its shell is decorated with nodes and ridges arranged into a net-like, or reticular, pattern. The eggshell is 0.5-0.6 mm thick, excluding the ornamentation. The pores in the eggshell are elliptical and irregularly distributed. Like all elongatoolithids, ''Paraelongatoolithus'' has an eggshell clearly divided into two layers: the cone layer on the inside, and the columnar layer (also known as the continuous layer because the eggshell units form a continuum without well-defined boundaries between them) on the outside.Simon, D. J. (2014).
Giant Dinosaur (theropod) Eggs of the Oogenus Macroelongatoolithus (Elongatoolithidae) from Southeastern Idaho: Taxonomic, Paleobiogeographic, and Reproductive Implications.
(Doctoral dissertation, Montana State University, Bozeman). In ''Paraelongatoolithus'', both layers have very distinct growth lines, and the columnar layer is twice as thick as the cone layer. ''Paraelongatoolithus'' is very similar to '' Porituberoolithus'', but differs in the ornamentation.

Paleobiology

Even though the sole ''Paraelongatoolithus'' specimen was not found with a preserved embryo or incubating parent, paleontologists have found numerous other such associations of elongatoolithids with

oviraptorosaur Oviraptorosaurs ("egg thief lizards") are a group of feathered maniraptoran dinosaurs from the Cretaceous Period of what are now Asia and North America. They are distinct for their characteristically short, beaked, parrot-like skulls, with or w ...

s. Therefore, it is likely that ''Paraelongatoolithus'' was laid by an oviraptorosaur.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q16944422 Dinosaur reproduction Egg fossils Fossil parataxa described in 2010 Elongatoolithids