A partial skeleton of a primitive bird, Rahona ostromi , gen. et sp. nov., has been discovered from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar. This specimen, although exhibiting avian features such as a reversed hallux and ulnar papillae, retains characteristics that indicate a theropod ancestry, including a pubic foot and hyposphene-hypantra vertebral articulations. Rahona has a robust, hyperextendible second digit on the hind foot that terminates in a sicklelike claw, a unique characteristic of the theropod groups Troodontidae and Dromaeosauridae. A phylogenetic analysis places Rahona with Archaeopteryx , making Rahona one of the most primitive birds yet discovered.

Definitive non-avian dinosaur embryos, those contained inside fossil eggs, are rare¹,². Here we describe the first known unequivocal embryonic remains of sauropod dinosaurs—the only known non-avian dinosaur embryos from Gondwana—from a nesting ground in the Upper Cretaceous stage of Patagonia, Argentina. At this new site, Auca Mahuevo (Fig. 1), thousands of eggs are distributed over an area greater than 1 km². The proportion of eggs containing embryonic remains is high: over a dozen in situ eggs and nearly 40 egg fragments encasing embryonic material were recovered. In addition to bone, these specimens contain large patches of fossil skin casts, the first definitive portions of integument ever reported for a non-avian dinosaur embryo. As morphology of the eggs enclosing these osseous and integumentary remains is identical, we propose that these specimens belong to the same sauropod species. This discovery allows the confident association of the megaloolithid type of dinosaur eggshell³ with sauropod dinosaurs.

An embryonic skeleton of a nonavian theropod dinosaur was found preserved in an egg from Upper Cretaceous rocks in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. Cranial features identify the embryo as a member of Oviraptoridae. Two embryo-sized skulls of dromaeosaurids, similar to that of Velociraptor , were also recovered in the nest. The eggshell microstructure is similar to that of ratite birds and is of a type common in the Djadokhta Formation at the Flaming Cliffs (Bayn Dzak). Discovery of a nest of such eggs at the Flaming Cliffs in 1923, beneath the Oviraptor philoceratops holotype, suggests that this dinosaur may have been a brooding adult.