| Ashorocetus/sandbox/Parafaveoloolithus Temporal range:
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|---|---|
Egg fossil classification 
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| Basic shell type: | †Dinosauroid-spherulitic |
| Oofamily: | †Faveoloolithidae |
| Oogenus: | †Parafaveoloolithus Zhang 2010 |
Parafaveoloolithus is an oogenus of fossil dinosaur egg.
Description
editParafaveoloolithus eggs are spherical or oval shaped, with a single- or double-layered eggshell. The shell units
History
editWhile it would not be named until 2010, the first discoveries of Parafaveoloolithus eggs occurred during the late 1960s, when the Soviet paleontologist A. Sochava discovered several types of fossil eggshells in the Gobi desert. When they first named Faveoloolithus, the Chinese paleontologists Zhao Zikui and Ding Shangren recognized the similarity of these eggs to Faveoloolithus, and recommended they be classified in the same group.[1] The Russian paleontologist Konstantin Mikhailov followed this opinion, and classified the Mongolian fossils as specimens of Faveoloolithus ningxiaensis.[2]
Meanwhile, further discoveries of Parafaveoloolithus eggs were uncovered in Tiantai County in Zhejiang, China, on separate fossil digs in the 1970s, 90s, and in 2007. These eggs, housed in the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, were analyzed in detail by the Chinese paleontologist Zhang Shukang, who erected a new oogenus, Parafaveoloolithus, to contain these specimens and the Mongolian specimens.[3]
See also
edit
References
edit- ^ Zhao, Zikui; Ding, Shangren (1976). "Discovery of the Dinosaurian Egg-shells from Alxa, Ningxia and its Stratigraphical Significance" (PDF). Vertebrata PalAsiatica. 14 (1): 42–44.
- ^ Mikhailov, Konstantin (1994). "Eggs and nests from the Cretaceous of Mongolia". In Carpenter, Kenneth; Hircsh, Karl F.; Horner, John R. (eds.). Dinosaur Eggs and Babies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 88–115.
- ^ Zhang, S. K. (2010). "A parataxonomic revision of the Cretaceous faveoloolithid eggs of China" (PDF). Vertebrata PalAsiatica. 48 (3): 203–219. Retrieved 3 October 2015.