Daddy day care: dinosaur fathers guarded the eggs

[Judi Lynn]

Daddy day care: dinosaur fathers guarded the eggs
By Will Dunham, Reuters
December 19, 2008

~snip~
There are a lot of characteristics that we once thought were unique to birds that are turning out not to be -- that they first arose in their theropod ancestors," Montana State University paleontologist Frankie Jackson, one of the researchers, said in a telephone interview.

The scientists said the findings suggest that at least in these types of dinosaurs, the males may have mated with several females that laid eggs in one large clutch. When the females left, the males incubated and protected the eggs on their own.

PATERNAL CARE

Male-only care for eggs occurs among certain large flightless birds like emus and rheas and the South American tinamous, according to fellow Montana State University paleontologist David Varricchio.

In these cases, the dinosaurs were found with an unusually large number of eggs -- each nest containing from 22 to 30 eggs. They were found in Montana in the case of Troodon, and Mongolia in the case of Oviraptor and Citipati.

More:
http://www.canada.com/technology/Dinosaur+fathers+guarded+eggs/1096416/story.html

[aquart]

1. So where did the ladies go?

[KansDem]

2. Now, is their extinction still a mystery?

edited to add: :sarcasm: lest anyone believe dads can't be good fathers.

[tanyev]

3. I just came to post a similar remark. :)

Now I know there are many wonderful, responsible fathers out there, but I definitely noticed a recurring theme when I worked for a company that graded the essay portion of standardized achievement tests. We saw essays from all grade levels. Whenever the writing prompt was something like "Tell about your most memorable day" and the essay proceeded to describe some horrible anecdote about getting lost, injured, a trip to the emergency room, etc., 80-90% of the time the first sentence would be "One day when I was out with my dad" (or stepdad or uncle or older brother--you get the picture).

I came away from that job marveling that so many children manage to survive into adulthood.

[Swede]

4. Hmmmm, not the mama.

[DavidDvorkin]

5. Daddy dino day care

Just to get another d-word in there.