An Egg-Adult Association, Gender, and Reproduction in Pterosaurs
Abstract
A sexually mature individual of Darwinopterus preserved together with an egg from the Jurassic of China provides direct evidence of gender in pterosaurs and insights into the reproductive biology of these extinct fliers. This new find and several other examples of Darwinopterus demonstrate that males of this pterosaur had a relatively small pelvis and a large cranial crest, whereas females had a relatively large pelvis and no crest. The ratio of egg mass to adult mass is relatively low, as in extant reptiles, and is comparable to values for squamates. A parchment-like eggshell points to burial and significant uptake of water after oviposition. This evidence for low parental investment contradicts the widespread assumption that reproduction in pterosaurs was like that of birds and shows that it was essentially like that of reptiles.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Science
Volume 331 | Issue 6015
21 January 2011
21 January 2011
Copyright
Copyright © 2011, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Submission history
Received: 3 September 2010
Accepted: 8 December 2010
Published in print: 21 January 2011
Acknowledgments
We thank X. M. Kang (Zhejiang Museum of Natural History, Hangzhou) for access to specimens and G. Birchard for access to his data set on reptile eggs. J.L. and Y.L. were supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (40872017 and 90914003), the 973 Project (2006CB701405), and the Basic Outlay of Scientific Research Work from the Ministry of Science and Technology (J1003 and J0703); D.M.U. by the Royal Society and the University of Leicester; and D.C.D by the University of Lincoln.
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