The Good Mother Lizard

It is an understatement to say that parenthood must have been a challenge for the Maiasaur. To attain a length of 1 meter in 60 days, each hatchling would require about 1.2 kilograms of plant food per day. A litter of 20 would need 24 kilograms of berries, seeds, and green leaves per day. Based on these quantities, it would have been necessary for both parents to forage and feed the young. The parents would have to grind up the food and carry it to the nest within their bodies, depositing it near the hatchlings as a partially digested slurry, either by regurgitation or by elimination.