A window on thermophysiology and reproductive system
Understanding the biology of extinct taxa is a fascinating but challenging goal. In fact, absence of reliable soft tissue evidence often impairs reconstruction of relevant biological aspects, like, for example, thermophysiology and reproductive system of dinosaur.
Fossil eggshells can represent a window on both these aspects for two reasons:
Fossil eggshells can represent a window on both these aspects for two reasons:
- they are produced at the very core of the body, and thus eggshell calcite is precipitated at body temperature.
- they are the direct product of the reproductive system, and thus eggshell calcite might record information about the mineralization pathways.
Dual Clumped Isotope Thermometry can extract both sets of informations.
