"The eggs are in an accumulation without a preferential orientation, clearly showing transport" caused by strong winds and storms at that time, according to the paper by Wang's team and researchers in Brazil.

"Their external surface shows cracking and crazing, and all are deformed to a certain extent, which indicate their pliable nature," the paper wrote.

"Although most eggs are complete, small fissures resulting from decomposition and compression during burial must have occurred because all eggs are filled with sandstone, which ultimately accounts for their three-dimensionality."

The large quantities of eggs, together with bones and other specimens, indicated the now extinct animals participated in colonial nesting behavior, Wang said.

More importantly, 16 of these eggs contain embryonic remains of varying intactness, representing the first time three-dimensional pterosaur embryos have been discovered.

The most complete embryo contains a partial wing and cranial bones, including a complete lower jaw, said the study.

"From our discovery, we conclude that the newborns of pterosaurs, at least Hamipterus, were likely to walk on the ground, but were not able to fly in the sky because the femur in the embryo is well developed, but the forelimbs are not well developed," Wang said.

"Hence, this pterosaur is a precocious creature, but not so precocious as previously thought, and probably needed some parental care," he said.

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