Paleontologists discover dinosaur nests and 265 fossilised eggs in Madhya Pradesh’s Narmada Valley

In a shocking discovery, a team of palaeontologists discovered 92 closely located dinosaur nests and 256 fossilised eggs of herbivorous Titanosaurs (one of the largest known dinosaurs) in the Dhar district, which is a part of the Narmada Valley in Madhya Pradesh.

The recent discovery indicates that the Narmada Valley served as a dinosaur hatchery zone millions of years ago. This is not the first time that a discovery like this has been made as other palaeontologists have previously discovered dinosaur nests and eggs in the MP district of Jabalpur and the Gujarat town of Balasinor. Between 2017 and 2020, a group of palaeontologists from Delhi's Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohanpur-Kolkata, and Bhopal conducted fieldwork in numerous villages in the Bagh and Kukshi districts of the Dhar district.

Recently, Harsha Dhiman, Vishal Verma, G V R Prasad, and others published an article on their study in the scientific journal PLOS ONE. The three years of investigation have led us to the important conclusion that the nests and eggs discovered in the villages of the Dhar area date back 66 million years.


It's entirely likely that the Titanosaurs either arrived in this region of the Narmada Valley specifically to lay the eggs or that the eggs were also hatched there. Dhiman, who is the lead researcher, said that the eggs found by them depict evidence of hatching as well as not having been hatched. He also said that no bones have been found and a micro CT scan needs to be performed by them for further research.

The nests discovered in the Narmada valley were near one another. The eggs of these dinosaurs had ranged between 15 cm and 17 cm in diameter. As per Dhiman, each nest had one to twenty eggs.

FAQs:

1. What is discovered in the Narmada valley?
   A team of palaeontologists discovered 92 closely located dinosaur nests and 256 fossilised eggs of herbivorous Titanosaurs.
2. What is the range of eggs?
   The eggs ranged between 15 cm and 17 cm in diameter.