Young dinosaurs roamed together, died together

University of Chicago Professor Paul Sereno discusses the excavation of a herd of young birdlike dinosaurs met their death on the muddy margins of a lake some 90 million years ago (c) Chicago Media Initiatives Group

Tags: bones, Chinese, dinosaur, skeleton

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— 21 March 2009 18:30 GMT | Geology and palaeontology

A herd of young birdlike dinosaurs met their death on the muddy margins of a lake some 90 million years ago, according to a team of Chinese and American palaeontologists that excavated the site in the Gobi Desert in western Inner Mongolia. The Sudden sudden death of the herd in a mud trap provides a rare snapshot of social behaviour. Composed entirely of juveniles of a single species of ornithomimid dinosaur (Sinornithomimus dongi), the herd suggests that immature individuals were left to fend for themselves when adults were preoccupied with nesting or brooding... — full story