Teen pregnancy the norm among dinosaurs

Teen pregnancy the norm among dinosaurs
Picture: 
dinos2.jpg
Source: 
UCB News Center
Date Posted: 
Jan 14 2008
Summary: 
Until recently, paleontologists had found only one dinosaur fossil that was identifyably female: a T. rex that was 18 and pregnant when it died. UC Berkeley researchers now report two more - fossil bones from a 10-year-old female Allosaurus and an 8-year-old female Tenontosaurus - that together indicate dinosaurs grew quickly and became sexually mature before reaching their adult size. Because these dinosaurs typically lived only 30 years, female dinosaurs got pregnant and laid eggs in adolescence.