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.
The shells, with embryos inside, date back 193 million years to the Mesozoic Era, about 40 million years earlier than previous estimates of the start of herd behaviour.įossilised bones of 80 juveniles and adults were also dug up, grouped by age across an area of about half a square mile on the dry margins of a lake.Įggs and hatchlings were in one area, adolescents nearby and grown ups scattered throughout - typical of a complex, social structure, the team said.ĭinosaur 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. Scans show they belong to the same species - a primitive long necked herbivore called Mussaurus patagonicus, according to the team of palaeontologists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. More than 100 eggs, complete with embryo remains still inside, have been dug up at a dinosaur graveyard in the Laguna Colorada Formation in Patagonia, Argentina, providing the world's first evidence of herd behaviour. Early dinosaurs were sociable and moved in herds 193 million years ago - 40 million years earlier than first thought, a new study has revealed.
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