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Comparison of water vapor conductance in a titanosaur egg from the Upper Cretaceous of Argentina and a Megaloolithus siruguei egg from Spain
- Article from:
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Paleobiology
- Article date:
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April 1, 2008
- Author:
- Jackson, Frankie D; Varricchio, David J; Jackson, Robert A; Vila, Bernat; Chiappe, Luis M
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Copyright informationCopyright Paleontological Society Spring 2008. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Abstract.-
We calculated water vapor conductance (a product of eggshell porosity) from the first definitively identified sauropod egg (Megaloolithus patagonicus) from the Auca Mahuevo locality in Argentina. We then compared the results with those from M. siruguei (an egg type long associat
ed with sauropod dinosaurs) from the Pinyes locality in Spain. The 14-cm Auca Mahuevo egg has a thinner eggshell and 47 times fewer pores than the 22-cm M. siruguei specimen. The resulting water vapor conductance (G^sub H2O^) of the titanosaur and M. siruguei eggs is 341 and 3979 mg H^sub 2^O day^sup -1^ Torr^sup -1^, respectively; these values are two and ten times greater than in avian eggs of comparable ...