Argentine paleontologists announced Thursday, July 22 the discovery of more than 160 fossilized eggs of prehistoric birds during work on a university campus in the province of Neuquén, Patagonia (south).
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“
We found an entire field with eggs of fossil birds, birds that are characterized by eggs of more or less 5 to 7 centimeters.
We are talking about an age of 85 million years,
”paleontologist Domenica Santos told AFP.
The discovery was made during renovation work at the University of La Comahue, located in an area dating from the Mesozoic era, 1,100 km south of Buenos Aires.
Eggs that could date back to 145 million BCE
A team of scientists from the university have been working for weeks, alongside the redevelopment work, to secure any discoveries. "
We knew there were traces of eggs and when the work began, we came to monitor the site and we found more than 160 eggs,
" said the scientist. The discovery took place a few dozen meters from the University's Natural Science Museum.
“
We're very excited, to be honest, because you can't find a campus with so much fossil material in Argentina.
We are in a privileged situation because the museum is also located on the campus and it is doubly fascinating to be able to collect the fossils and transfer them to the university museum
”, said Dario Julián López, geology student.
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According to Juan Porfiri, paleontologist at the museum, on the basis of previous studies, "
we can say that (the eggs) belong to a group of birds called enantiorniths, which were very common in the Cretaceous
", a period which extends from about 145 to 66 million years before our era.
Argentina is particularly rich in fossils from the three dominant periods (Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous) of the Mesozoic era, and individuals different from those of the northern hemisphere have been discovered there. The most important dinosaur fossil sites are located in Patagonia (south), in the provinces of La Rioja and San Juan (west) and in that of Salta (north).