Dinosaur egg deposits in the Cretaceous Gyeongsang Supergroup, Korea: Diversity and paleobiological implications

The taphonomy and depositional environments of dinosaur-egg-bearing deposits in the Cretaceous Gyeongsang Basin, Korea, are described and their paleobiological implications are discussed in the context of global geographic occurrences, geological ages, paleoenvironments, and lithology. The general depositional environment of dinosaur egg deposits in the Gyeongsang Supergroup is interpreted as dry floodplains with a semi-arid climate and intermittent volcanic activity. The diverse floodplain paleoenvironments include fluvial plains with meandering rivers to alluvial plains with episodic sheet-flooding. Both global and Korean dinosaur-egg-bearing deposits are generally restricted to the Late Cretaceous, a phenomenon for which two possible explanations are proposed. The first possible explanation for the temporal limitation of dinosaur egg preservation involves the appearance of angiosperms in the Late Jurassic, the Late Cretaceous ecological dispersion of angiosperm trees into swamps and floodplains, and the attendant change in herbivorous dinosaurs’ diets. The second possible reason is related to nesting behavior in the Cretaceous. By contrast to the temporally limited occurrence of dinosaur eggs, paleoenvironments of nesting areas are diverse, ranging from inland areas to coastal areas. These hypotheses may provide new directions for the study and understanding of dinosaur egg distribution in the context of geologic time.

► Cretaceous dinosaur egg-bearing deposits in Korea are described in taphonomic aspect.
► The paleoenvironments are interpreted.
► Temporally limited occurrences of dinosaur egg deposits to the Cretaceous are analyzed.
► Two hypotheses for the causes to the temporally limited occurrences are suggested.