Re: ptero egg questions.

[David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

> 1. Does the fact that 3 out of 3 pterosaur eggs are nearly full term and
> a much smaller percentage out  of thousands of dinosaur eggs tell us
> anything?
>
> 2. Does the fact that 3 out of 3 pterosaur eggs are singletons while
> thousands of dinosaur eggs are not tell us anything?

Nope. Firstly, the sample size is far too small. Secondly, the currently 
only way to recognize a pterosaur egg as such is to find a recognizable 
embryo inside; this could be part of the reason why the sample size is so 
small. (The other is that soft shells just don't fossilize normally.)

> 3. Does the relatively thin shell of pterosaurs tell us anything?

That they're not dinosaurs. Ô surprise. But I've read conflicting statements 
on crocodile eggshell. It looks like lacking a hard eggshell (as in the 
Chinese eggs) is inconsistent with being an archosaur...

Functionally, soft-shelled eggs can (and do) take up lots of water from 
their surroundings. Sort of like in Jurassic Park, where *Velociraptor* eggs 
have hard shells but are treated much like lizard or turtle eggs.