Baurusuchidae - Paleobiology

Paleobiology

In 2011, fossilized eggs were described from the Late Cretaceous Adamantina Formation of Brazil that may have been laid by a baurusuchid, most probably Baurusuchus. A new oospecies called Bauruoolithus fragilis was named on the basis of these remains. The eggs are about twice as long as they are wide and have blunt ends. At about a quarter of a millimeter in thickness, the shells are relatively thin. Some eggs may have already hatched by the time they were buried, but none show extensive degradation. In living crocodilians (the closest living relatives of baurusuchids), eggs undergo extrinsic degradation to allow hatchlings to easily break through their shells. The fossils indicate that baurusuchid hatchlings probably broke through thin egg shells rather than shells that had been degraded over their incubation period.