Cluster of dinosaur eggs found in southern India

CHENNAI, India (Reuters) - Geologists have found a cluster of fossilized dinosaur eggs, said to be about 65 million years old, in a village in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, according to media reports.

"We found layer upon layer of spherical eggs and body parts of dinosaur and each cluster contained eight eggs," M. Ramkumar, a geologist at Periyar University who led a survey team, said Thursday, according to The Hindu newspaper.

The eggs, about 13-20cm (5-8 inches) in diameter and lying in sandy nests about 1.2m wide (4 feet), were discovered during a study funded by Indian and German scientific institutions.

The clusters were under ash from volcanic eruptions on the Deccan plateau, which geologists said could have caused the dinosaurs to become extinct.

The nesting site was found along the banks and bottom of streams in the Cauvery river basin, containing clusters of fossilized eggs, dung and bone remains of dinosaurs.

"Occurrences of unhatched eggs in large numbers at different stratigraphic levels indicate that the dinosaurs kept returning to the same site for nesting," Anbarasu, another survey team member, said.

The researchers have requested local officials to cordon off the site since a similar discovery in northern India led to a plunder of the fossils.

(Reporting by S. Murari; Editing by Matthias Williams and Sanjeev Miglani)