''Ageroolithus'' is an
oogenus of
dinosaur egg. It may have been laid by a
theropod.
Distribution
''Ageroolithus'' fossils are found in the early
Maastrichtian Tremp Basin
Tremp () is a municipality in Catalonia, Spain, the capital of the Comarques of Catalonia, ''comarca'' of the Pallars Jussà. It is the largest municipality in Catalonia in terms of area (),The municipality of Tortosa is historically larger than ...
of
Lleida
Lleida (, ; Spanish: Lérida ) is a city in the west of Catalonia, Spain. It is the capital city of the province of Lleida.
Geographically, it is located in the Catalan Central Depression. It is also the capital city of the Segrià comarca, as ...
,
Spain, from the
Upper Cretaceous of
France, and from the
Lower Cretaceous of
Galve, Spain.
[
]
History
''Ageroolithus'' was first discovered and described in 1997
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...
by the French paleontologist Monique Vianey-Liaud and the Spanish paleontologist Nieves López Martínez
Nieves López Martínez (Burgos, 5 February 1949 - Madrid, 15 December 2010) was a Spanish paleontologist specializing in research on the vertebrate fossil record and part of a group of paleontologists who were responsible for the modernization ...
while excavating the Tremp Basin in Spain.[ Further specimens were discovered in Galve in ]1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...
and in France in 2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...
.2012
File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...
, Albert Sellés described ''Ageroolithus''-like eggshells from the Tremp Basin in his PhD thesis at the Universitat de Barcelona.
Description
''Ageroolithus fontllongensis'' was first described on the basis of nine eggshell fragments.[ Some more recently described eggshell fragments have been referred to ''A.'' ]aff. ''Species affinis'' (commonly abbreviated to: ''sp.'', ''aff.'', or ''affin.'') is taxonomic terminology in zoology and botany. In open nomenclature it indicates that available material or evidence suggests that the proposed species is related to, h ...
''fontllongensis''[Ruiz-Omeñaca, J. I., Canudo, J. I., Aurell, M., Bádenas, B., Barco, J. L., Cuenca-Bescós, G., & Ipas, J. (2004). Estado de las investigaciones sobre los vertebrados del Jurásico Superior y Cretácico Inferior de Galve (Teruel). Estudios Geológicos, 60(3-6), 179-202.] and cf. ''Ageroolithus''.[ The inner layer, known as the mammillary layer, is composed of wedges and shows distinct growth lines, whereas the outer layer (the prismatic layer][Laura E. Wilson, Karen Chin, Frankie D. Jackson, and Emily S. Bray. (2012).]
Fossil eggshell: Fragments from the past
UCMP's online fossil egg exhibit.) is not clearly divided into units.[ It has narrow, straight pore canals measuring 15 to 25 µm in diameter.][
The specimens referred to cf. ''Ageroolithus'' by Sellés in 2012 are very similar to ''Ageroolithus'' in thickness, ornamentation, and the ratio between prismatic and mammillary layers. They differ from ''Ageroolithus'' because their shell is composed of three structural layers instead of two.]
Parataxonomy
''Ageroolithus'' has not been placed in any known oofamily, but it is classified in the ratite morphotype,Elongatoolithidae
Elongatoolithidae is an oofamily of fossil eggs, representing the eggs of oviraptorosaurs (with the exception of the avian '' Ornitholithus''). They are known for their highly elongated shape. Elongatoolithids have been found in Europe, Asia, and ...
, Laevisoolithidae
Laevisoolithidae is an oofamily of fossil eggs belonging to the Ornithoid-ratite morphotype. Their eggshells are smooth and very thin, typically less than a millimeter thick. Laevisoolithids may be the eggs of Enantiornithid birds.K. E. Mikhail ...
, Medioolithidae, and Ornitholithidae.
See also
* List of dinosaur oogenera
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q4692137
Dinosaur reproduction
Fossil parataxa described in 1997