Dinosaur eggshell from the Red Sandstone Group of Tanzania

Investigations over the last several decades at Gondwanan Mesozoic localities have significantly expanded our knowledge of the diversity and distribution of Southern Hemisphere dinosaurs. These records are primarily based on skeletal remains, but included among them are in- stances of preserved eggshell, notably from Argentina (e.g., Calvo et al., 1997; Chiappe et al., 1998) and India (e.g., Khosla and Sahni, 1995). In general, however, dinosaur eggshell is relatively poorly known from Gondwana, and from Africa in particular. Newly initiated (summer 2002) field research in Cretaceous-age deposits of the Red Sandstone Group in southwestern Tanzania has resulted in the discovery of a rich terrestrial/freshwater vertebrate fauna, which includes lungfishes and teleost fishes, turtles, crocodilians, sauropod and both avian and non- avian theropod dinosaurs, and mammals. Included among the dinosaur specimens are pieces of well-preserved eggshell. This is the first dinosaur eggshell from the Cretaceous of Africa to be studied and described in detail; it is here placed in the Oofamily Megaloolithidae on the basis of its structural details and surface ornament, which closely resemble those of Cretaceous megaloolithid eggshell from a number of other, non-African localities