‘This may mean the young were not following their parents in a small family structure,’ said Dr Ramezani. Youngsters congregated in ‘schools,’ while adults roamed and foraged for the herd. The dinosaurs worked as a community, laying their eggs in a common nesting ground, according to study co-author Dr Jahandar Ramezani. The scientists compared these results with other fossil egg sites in South Africa and China and suggested that social behaviour can be traced back to the time of dinosaur origins. It pre-dates other records of dinosaurs with evolved social behaviour by more than 40 million years. To determine the age of the juvenile fossils, scientists cut a thin slice of bone and observed the bone tissue under a microscope.Īll the findings show a well-organised herd structure and it is the first record of this kind of complex social behaviour in an early dinosaur. One-year old youngsters were found closely associated with each other, including a cluster of 11 skeletons in resting pose, suggesting that Mussaurus formed schools.Īdults and sub adults were frequently associated in pairs or alone but all within one square mile area.
Dinosaur skeletons were not randomly scattered throughout the fossil site, but instead they were grouped according to their age.ĭinosaur babies’ fossils were located near the nests.
